Gone - Anna Brooks
Prologue
Izzy
Damien informs me he’s walking up, and the anxious energy I’ve felt zapping my nerves all day recharges and returns quicker than it left, more powerful and with so much electricity the little hairs on my arms stand up. The text is short and blunt and nothing like the normally sweet messages he sends me. A lot of things about Damien have shocked me, and that was definitely one of them; I would never have taken him for a man who uses emojis in text messages.
As I round the corner and spot him sauntering my way, I take in his impressive figure. He’s wearing a dark gray T-shirt over jeans that I know sit so low that they tease the top of his white Calvin Klein boxer briefs when he lifts his arms to wrap them around me.
His steps come to a halt, and he drops his chin when he sees me. I’m hesitant in the short journey to reach him, afraid he’s going to be angry with me. “Hi,” I squeak.
A faint bit of humor twinkles in his eyes when he raises a brow expectantly, and I rush to him, throwing myself into his arms. “How’s my Izzy baby?” His deep voice reassures me he’s not that mad, or at least if he is, he’s happier to see me than he is to reprimand me. I missed him fiercely, and being wrapped up in his embrace is exactly where I want to be because it feels so good… so right.
His lips hit the corner of my own before they head south and gently suck on my neck, and then he nips my skin, knowing it drives me insane. He cups my ass, and just as I start to push up onto my toes to press deeper against him, I hear a throat clear. My brother. Oh, no.
To my surprise, Damien doesn’t step away or remove his fingers from digging into me; instead, his grip tightens. “Wanna get your hands off my sister’s ass.” Gio poses the question, but there’s clearly only one correct answer.
“Shit.” Damien curses and lifts his head, exposing his familiar face to my brother.
“You’re joking, right?” Gio growls at the sight of his friend and me together. “Please tell me you’re fucking joking.”
I turn to the side and hope that my guilt is palpable to both of them. “Oops, did I forget to mention that you two knew each other…” I bite my lip, and Damien lifts his hand. I fight the desire to suck his thumb into my mouth like I know he loves as he tugs my lip away from my teeth.
“Stop touching her!”
No way, Gio is not going to be mean to him. “Don’t yell at him.”
“Don’t act like a slu—”
“You do not want to finish that sentence, G.” Damien puts a protective hand at my hip and steps closer to Gio. “Izzy and I are gonna have a conversation about some things. But as her man, you finish that sentence, and we’ll be the one having words, and I won’t be doing any talking.”
Gio steps closer now, clearly not intimidated. But I am. My heartbeat gallops in my chest and my throat dries up. “I know you didn’t just walk into my yard, put your mouth all over my sister, your hand on my sister’s ass, and threaten me.”
“Like I said, she and I will have words about why she hid it from me that you were her brother until she gave me the address to here about twenty minutes ago. I’m just as surprised as you are. We can talk about that later.” He extends his arm so there’s distance between him and me. “And yeah, I came here, kissed my woman, put my hand on my woman’s ass, and threatened a man who was about to call her a slut for greeting me the way I like. If you have issues with that, then we’re gonna have a really big fuckin’ problem because I know what I got with her, and nobody, including you, is gonna do shit to threaten that.”
Gio glances over Damien’s shoulder at me, and I plead with him not to mess this up for me. I beg him without words to let me have this without a fight. If I lost Damien right now, I don’t know what I’d do. He glares at my man and then leans in. “If you hurt her, I’ll bust your kneecaps.”
“I hurt her, I’ll let you.”
Chapter 1
Izzy, four weeks earlier
It’s not