a second later.
“What?” Cass demands behind me. “What is it?”
I love you. But I won’t ever...
I turn wide eyes to Cass, then to Rube, who’s facing me now.
I creep away from the door like Zach and Trinity are the ones listening to us, and beckon Rube over when I reach the hot tub.
He frowns, but walks over anyway.
Cass glances up at him and then shields his eyes with a flat hand. “Dude, can you put on some shorts or something?”
Rube is still wearing the towel he came out of the bathroom with. “How about you stop looking?”
Cass rolls his eyes, and then trains them on me. “What did you hear?”
“He said he loves her.” I step back, clapping my hands together in front of me as I wait for their response.
Cass rolls his eyes again and mutters, “Christ, finally.”
Rube looks like he turned to marble. “He said that? You’re sure?”
I nod feverishly. “I know what I heard.”
Rube shakes his head. “You must have—”
“Jesus, Rube, don’t put on that act. We all fucking knew it.”
Rube’s one eyebrow cocks up. “We did?” he says dryly.
“Fucking obvious from day one. She pushes his buttons just right, and he loves that shit.”
And Rube doesn’t argue, because I guess he did know. We all did, just like Cass said.
Zach’s mental, but under all that repressed rage, and hate…he’s just a guy. It’s been brutal for us, even after we got out of that basement, and it fucked us up in different ways. Zach went on the offensive. He’d push people away the moment he saw them as a threat. To himself, to us—it didn’t matter, because to him, we’re one and the same.
I’m so fucking glad he was the one who said it first. Because holy crap, I’ve been wanting to tell her that for a while now.
Zach’s not our leader anymore. We don’t need that kind of structure. But maybe it was some kind of respect.
Unspoken, but unanimous.
I love that about us.
We have an unbreakable bond, the four of us. With Trinity…
I don’t know if she’ll ever be on the same level as us—mentally, emotionally—but we have the rest of our lives to figure it out. And I’m not going anywhere.
Now that Zach’s told her how he feels…I’m pretty sure he’s not going anywhere either.
“So you think she’ll let him upstairs?” I ask them.
Cass rolls onto his back and sticks his toes out of the water, not bothering to humor me with a reply.
“Don’t know,” Rube says. He comes closer, grabs my shoulder, squeezes. “But that’s her decision, not—”
“Guys!”
All three of us spin around to face the door. And I’m sure my heart isn’t the only one that goes thump at the sound of Trinity’s voice.
“I need a hand.”
Cass lets out such a delighted chuckle, the hair on my arms stands up. He jumps out of the hot tub, streaming water over the deck as he races for the door. We shove and push at each other, jostling for pole position, but all it takes is a disapproving rumble from Reuben to make us stop.
We look back at him. Cass shrugs, mouthing, “What?”
Rube holds up a finger.
And then Trinity lets out a sulky, “Please.”
Rube nods his head.
All it takes is elbowing Cass in the stomach, then I’m the first through the door.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cass
“You called,” I say, walking up behind Trinity and sliding my hand onto her shoulder. The black robe she’s wearing does all sorts of delicious things to my fingertips, especially when I trace her collarbones through the silky fabric.
Zach is sitting on the edge of her bed, looking mighty out of place against the pale pink bedspread.
Rube comes up behind me, but doesn’t pass. I guess he’s waiting to find out what she wants, just like me. Just like Apollo.
And, judging from the frustrated look in Zach’s eyes, he doesn’t have a fucking clue what this is about either.
“This is going to get a little tricky,” Trinity says, but without taking her eyes off Zach. But she puts her hand over mine, molding my palm over her shoulder. “Where do you think he’s going to sleep?”
Apollo’s about to say something stupid, I can see it, so I cut in with a quick, “It’s a king. There’s enough room.”
“Is there though?” Trinity muses. She glances up at me, pouting like she’s legit having to think about it.
Fuck, I could eat her whole right now. But rather than wolf my way through a delicacy like her, I’d rather take my time and slowly nibble