How to Hack a Hacker - A.J. Sherwood Page 0,57

on other people to help you protect him.”

Ari tacked on smoothly, “But you will lose him if you don’t start delegating. Your relationship will not only break down, but you’ll get so tired and stressed you’ll make a mistake, and it might end up with him taking the brunt of the fallout. Taking everything on is a sure-fire way to ruin.”

Wincing, Kyou muttered, “That was brutal.”

“Truth hurts. Suck it up, buttercup. There’s always going to be people after him, and you. Using that as an excuse is just giving in to your fears. You’re better than that, Kyou.”

Kyou hunched even farther. Really, at this rate, he’d need a turtle shell soon. “Maybe I’m not.”

“You are. I had this fear with Aiden, da? I was wrong then. You’re wrong to think it now. We’ll help you,” Ivan promised him, his smile warm and sincere. “You deserve that good man, and he deserves the chance with you. The chance you promised him. Do not let fears get the better of you.”

Kyou swallowed hard. “You’re saying even though I’m afraid, do it anyway?”

“Fear of the thing is often worse than what it is.” Ivan shrugged, hands splayed. “Trust me, I know. We’ll set this up with you so that you’re comfortable with it. We’ll help you figure out answer to this, too. You’re not alone in this, Kyou.”

Sometimes, Kyou honestly forgot that. He looked at all of his brothers, who were worried but determined to help him, and felt a little stupid for not reaching out to them before this point. Why did he always have to learn things the hard way? “I think I know who I want to start with. But I need to talk to Bran first.”

“Good decision. We’ll watch the place and put out our own feelers while you do that.” Carter gave him a nudge, urging him silently out of the chair. “I promise, no one will get past us.”

Reassured, Kyou let out a breath and finally moved. He was to the garage door before he thought to warn, “Ivan, you’re not allowed to touch my baby!”

Carter shooed him along. “I’m calling Remi over here, she’ll fill in for you. Go to your man.”

He’d take that compromise. Kyou nodded and walked out.

Although god knew, he wasn’t looking forward to the upcoming conversation. Not one iota. He went through the connecting garage like a man marching for his own execution.

Brannigan looked up as Kyou entered the living room. He had a guarded look on his face, but a little hope peeked through the mask.

Kyou ignored him for a moment and bent to address Remi first, as she was already skipping past him and toward the door. “Rems, everyone over there will give you instructions. But the search parameters are up and running; you should be able to figure out what I’ve been doing the past two days. I’ve logged all the search variations under K-B, the file’s on the desktop.”

Nodding, she said, “Okay.”

“And I’m not getting anywhere, so reach out to Tricksy, ask what she knows. Or if she can get her ear to the ground for me.”

Since Remi would take any excuse to talk to Tricksy, she lit up with a smile. “I’m on it.”

“Thanks, princess.” Kyou let her go then, and she was running by the time she hit the garage door. Trusting that things were in hand for now, he turned to face his lover. Brannigan was standing now, waiting on him. Kyou forced himself to breath slowly, steadily. Swallowing around the lump in his throat was hard.

“I’m not angry with you, Kyou.”

“Thank Christ,” Kyou blurted out. No, wait, Brannigan had every right to be upset, didn’t he? Previous boyfriends always had. “Uh, why not?”

“Because the only reason why we were arguing in the first place is that I’m your priority. And I can’t be mad about that.” Brannigan approached him on a soft tread, like he would a startled animal that he didn’t want to frighten. “But I think we’ve got our wires crossed, and I don’t want to repeat that scene again.”

“No. I really don’t either.” So Brannigan was (yay!) no t mad at him and willing to talk things through. This situation was really looking up. “So, um, the guys kind of talked sense into me. It’s funny, I think we’ve all hit this panic moment before with our guys—not sure why that’s the case, it just seems to happen. Anyway, they said I was taking too much on. That I should be