Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Will didn’t turn, but his shoulders did relax fractionally.
Haggard, otherwise known as Thief to us, stepped aside and out of the circle that he’d formed with my brothers to face Will.
“Did you honestly think that when I could see that you had a man that you liked, that I would be able to stop myself from checking him out, Gypsy?” Thief asked.
I glared at Thief.
“I think that I trusted you, and you shit on that trust, and now I’ll go out of my way to make sure I don’t tell you anything more,” I snarled.
Haggard’s face went remorseful.
But it was Shine, my youngest brother, that said, “I can’t believe, after everything that’s happened, after that dumbass Toot… that you’d ever think that something like this—you finding someone you want to spend the rest of your life with—that we’d just stay out of it.”
“I can believe it when I haven’t even gone on a date with him yet,” I snapped.
A hand brushed mine, and then Will said, “Easy, baby. I can handle them giving me a once-over.”
My head whipped around, and I glared at him, too.
“I realize that you think it’s okay, but I wasn’t able to control my life for an entire year, Will. I was told when to go poop. I was told what to eat. I was told where to sleep, when to sleep, how long I was allowed to sleep. I was told how to do my hair, how to cut my hair, what kinds of products I was allowed to put in my hair.” I drew in a breath. “There was one time, after a party, that I got caught sneaking a bite of someone’s leftover chocolate cake…” I paused. “I just wanted to experience that happiness of eating dessert again, and I got my arm broken for it.” I stared hard into his eyes. “I need control over my life, and I trusted my own brothers to be able to give that to me. Something in which they failed to do.”
Haggard inhaled deeply.
I hadn’t told them, or anyone really, how life had affected me when I’d been forced to live with O’Ryan for an entire year.
I had asked them to respect my wishes, and to always be sure to give me what I wanted if it was within their power.
That meant me asking Haggard to stay out of it for a while and let me get my toes wet when it came to Wilhelm Schultz, should’ve been something easy for them to do.
“If it makes you feel better,” Will said carefully, hooking his finger with mine, again not touching me too much, but letting me know he was there. “I don’t think they knew I was going to go out on a date with you. They thought they were confronting me at work.”
“Yes,” I growled. “Because it very clearly looks like you’re dressed to work.”
In fact, he was dressed to make my heart melt.
That I was sure of.
He grinned. “I actually wore this to run a few errands for work and talk to a few suspects. Sometimes, when I’m going into the south side, I try to blend in a little more. It’s a trick that an old trainer taught me. You stick out too much, and the people will go out of their way not to talk to you.”
It was as if my brothers weren’t there, how he was talking to me and only to me.
As if he didn’t care that five grown men were all but surrounding him, ready to kick his ass if he hurt their baby sister.
I squeezed his finger with mine, then turned back to find my brothers all staring at me.
“Did you at least introduce yourselves?” I asked. “Or do I have to tell our mama that you were rude?”
Shine, the closest one to me, winced.
I sighed and introduced them.
“Will, I’d like you to meet my brothers. Shine is the closest one to me, as well as the youngest of the five brothers. Then you have Thief, whom you know as Haggard, the oldest. There’s Trinket, the second youngest. Rook—the middle one.” I jerked my head in Rook’s direction. “Then there’s Bram.”
Will took in each of them before saying, “I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but…”
Rook burst out laughing.
The rest gave Will various versions of small smiles.
I found myself leaning into Will as I said, “Dear brothers, this is Will. The man that I haven’t even gotten to go out on one date with, so for the love of God, give me that small amount of time to get to know him before you run him away.”
Trinket groaned.
“I actually have met y’all before,” Will admitted. “Years ago, my brother-in-law, Ben, was a part of y’all’s club. Or prospecting for it. He died about three months after he began to prospect.”