amusement shines in his eyes. “You did come storming in here like a jealous girlfriend ready to tear her ass in two.”
“I know, I was feeling a little theatrical this morning.”
He rolls his eyes and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I’ve been trying to get that girl out of here for two days,” he explains. “I asked Sebastian to help me out and the fucker just sat back and laughed.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you call me two days ago? I would have come sooner.”
His face twists as he pulls back. “Come on, O,” he says, moving around his room and grabbing a shirt. “You and I both know that I wasn’t about to call you while you were dealing with another death. That’s not fair.”
“Trust me, I would have preferred the distraction. I’m getting kind of sick of always having death on my mind.”
“Sorry, O,” he says, stepping into a pair of sweatpants. “We were all trying to give you space.”
“I know,” I tell him. “It’s fine. I actually really needed a few days just to sit and be sad but I’m feeling alright now. You know, when I’m not thinking about it.”
“How’s your mom handling it? She was friends with the woman, right?”
“Yeah,” I say, briefly looking away not wanting him to see the pain on my face, knowing damn well that if he did, he’d start treating me with kiddie gloves, which would then have the rest of the guys doing the same and I seriously couldn’t handle that right now. “We all were. Maryne was the best. She was one of the good ones.”
“I’m sorry,” Kai says with a deep sigh, walking back across his room and pulling me into his arms. “I didn’t realize how fond you were of her.”
I shrug my shoulders. “Yeah. There’s nothing we can do about it now. She’s gone.”
Kai scoffs. “Bullshit, O. There’s a shitload we can do about it. You know who did this right? They put your life in danger and terrorized your mom and friends. Those other fuckers in Bellevue Springs might be out of our league, but home invasions, trashing homes, and shootings—this is our territory. We fight fire with fire, babe. We’ll handle this. I don’t want you getting yourself involved.”
I shake my head. “I don’t want to be involved. For once this actually has nothing to do with me. This is Colton’s business shit that his father left behind for him to handle. He says he’s going to deal with it and we need to let him. I don’t want you guys going down for something that has nothing to do with us.”
“Babe,” he says, his voice low and warning.
I shake my head and start walking out of his bedroom. “I said no, Kai. So don’t even think about it. This is Colton’s mess to clean up, not yours.”
He huffs and scoffs under his breath. “Try telling Nic that.”
I groan as I make my way into the kitchen and scan through his near-empty fridge. I’m not stupid. There’s no amount of pleading or warnings that I could give these boys that are going to make them let this go. It just means that it’ll be taken care of without my knowledge and I don’t know if I should love them or hate them for it.
I grab his orange juice and uncap it before taking a drink and waiting for his slow ass to get ready for the day.
He appears by my side five minutes later and we walk out the door together. “Where are we going?” I question, not having been invited along but going with the flow just as he knew I would.
He scoffs again. “Where do you think? If you’re down for spending the day at home, then we’re chilling with the boys and for just one day, we can pretend that you never left.”
I give him a wide beaming smile and he rolls his eyes before gently nudging me into the wall, silently telling me to knock it off. But what can I say? Kairo is never really one to talk. He’s more of a grunt and glare kinda guy but when he’s willing to say something sweet, I’m like a sponge ready to soak it all up.
“How’s your new boyfriend?”
My face scrunches up. “He’s not my …”
Wait. Is he my boyfriend? We’ve been inseparable for the past few days and he hasn’t tried to hide me away when in the public eye, so I guess that means something. I