The suddenness of my arrival has each of them flying to their feet with their hands flinching for their guns, that is until they get a good look at who stands before them.
“Pretty girl,” Kairo cheers, racing forward with Sebastian by his side. Nic hovers in his kitchen, leaning back against the sink with a grin on his face as Eli awkwardly drops back down on the couch.
“What are you doing here?” Sebastian demands, scooping me into his arms just a split moment before Kai can. “Is something wrong? Did something happen?”
I laugh as I hold onto the turd with both hands, squeezing him tight. “What hasn’t happened?” I say with a low groan. “But no, I’m perfectly fine. I just wanted to visit my boys.”
“That’s more than alright with me,” he says, squeezing until I can’t breathe and lifting me off my feet.
“Put me down, moron,” I say, whacking his back. “You’re going to make me pass out if you squeeze any harder.”
“That’s the plan. If you pass out, you won’t be able to get back,” he laughs, giving me a wiggle as he looks up over my shoulder at Nic. “Does this place have a basement? We could keep her locked down there.”
“Sorry,” Nic grumbles. “The basement is being used as my sex dungeon, though I’m sure you’ll find plenty of handcuffs and ropes down there to keep her here. Actually, on second thought, go right ahead and put her in my dungeon. I’m sure I could find a few uses for her down there.”
I flip him the bird despite not being able to see his face, though I don't need to see it to know that there’s a mischievous sparkle lighting his dark eyes and a grin stretched wide across his face. I’ll get him back for that dig later, as for now, I have a few more boys to say hi to.
As if reading my thoughts, Kai grabs me and pulls me out of Sebastian’s hold, though thankfully allowing me to actually keep my feet firmly planted on the ground. He pulls me in hard and presses a warm, inviting kiss to my temple. “Missed you, pretty girl,” he murmurs. “Have they been treating you alright?”
I shrug my shoulders. “They’ve been treating me exactly how you’d expect arrogant billionaires to treat their staff.”
“Staff?” Nic questions from across the room. “Are you working there now?”
“Nothing in this world is free,” I remind him. “Charles lets me work afternoons and weekends as long as I’ve got my homework up to date. He keeps reminding me how important it is for me to graduate but I think it’s more about how it would look back on him if I were to fail after he made the effort to get me in.”
“With people like that, a reputation has the power to either make or break them,” Nic mutters, telling me something that I’ve already come to learn over the past few weeks of living in Bellevue Springs, but he can tell me it a million times if it means dropping the whole working there topic.
Sebastian scoffs his agreement behind me. “No wonder they have so many skeletons locked up in their closets.”
A chuckle pulls from deep within my stomach as I recall the few skeletons I’ve already discovered of Charles’ but I don’t get to think about it long before Kai is stealing my attention again. “How’d you get here? Did you take one of those rich prick’s cars? Which one? Something we can lift?” He looks up at Nic. “How much can we get for parts on an Aston Martin or Ferrari? Wait. Did you take that kid’s Lambo?”
I roll my eyes and slam my elbow into his ribs. “First of all, I took the bus right after school and it took forever,” I start, watching as his face falls with disappointment. “And secondly, even if I did take one of their cars, I’m not about to let you steal it and strip it for parts.”
“Babe, just think about the payday. I thought you had our backs? Do you know what kind of money we could make out of cars like that? Those pricks wouldn’t even miss it.”
“Not going to happen, Kai,” I tell him. “And for the record, I do have your backs, more than you know which is exactly why I could never let you do that. Their cars are more important to them than their kids. Not to mention that every single part probably has a