Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Holy shit. Sometimes when he was in real danger it felt like the world slowed down. This was one of those times. “Aidan told you?”
It wasn’t easy being the big brother. Especially in a kink-friendly world. If he’d been born to a normal family, no one would be like hey, take your sister to the sex club you founded with your friends. He didn’t live in that world. He lived in the one where if he didn’t give his sister a membership, she would go and find her own and then probably get in a shit ton of trouble. What was he supposed to do? Let those assholes use his sister?
They were mostly his friends and had been super vetted by him and Lou, but damn it, there was also Lucas and Seth to deal with. They were walking, talking red flags when it came to women.
Maybe he could have talked to Bri instead, but then he would have had to talk about sex with his sister, and it was far easier to threaten the fuck out of every Dom at the club.
“He didn’t have to,” Daisy said with a shrug. “I figured it out. You know I could have been a detective. When I confronted him he admitted you helped him and you did the same with Bri. Also, he said TJ told you his sister was a grown-ass woman who got to make her own decisions, so good on TJ. I don’t have to go to Aunt Erin. But I think Aunt Serena will be interested in this…intel.”
His mom would be pissed. His dads would likely understand, but they would be way more afraid of his mom than they would be of standing up for Tris’s right to protect his sister from a bunch of men he regularly hung out with.
When he thought about it, he was kind of an asshole. Would she see it as interfering or the act of a loving brother?
Yeah, she was going to kick his ass, though nothing like what his mom would do. His mom would write him into a book and kill him off and never, ever let him forget he was part of the patriarchy. It would be awful.
“I could also tell the twins,” Daisy mused.
The twins… He didn’t want to think about what Kala and Kenz would do if they decided a fellow woman was being infantilized. He’d faced down some of the world’s most dangerous spies, and nothing had quite scared him like Daisy O’Donnell. “I’ll get them back. I’ll do it. I’ll make sure they’re safe, and in a few weeks I’ll ensure they let me back in. I’ll take care of them, Dais.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked him over. “I don’t know if I believe you.”
“If I don’t, then you can always tell her later,” he offered. All he knew was he didn’t want his mom to find out. She would kill him. He suddenly felt like a kid again.
And all he wanted was his family.
He couldn’t have them right now. He had to get through this, had to fix it so he didn’t stand in front of his parents like a naughty boy. When he was the hero, he could have them again. He would be worthy again.
He’d thought he could give all of this up in order to protect the people he loved, but he was facing the actual truth of it now and he couldn’t…he couldn’t.
He couldn’t lose them.
“I could wait,” Daisy allowed.
“If it helps, I think I see how it might have been wrong to do it,” he replied. “Now I’m worried I might have interfered in a bad way.”
Daisy’s eyes widened. “You think?”
“Well, I thought I was protecting her.”
Daisy pointed his way. “Yeah, that’s the problem.”
“Protecting her is a problem?”
A bright smile crossed Daisy’s face. “I’m glad we understand each other now. So any way I could convince you to join your sister? She’s going over to your parents’ place for brunch.”
His mom’s Sunday brunches were legendary. She often invited all her friends over, but even when it was just the five of them, she made it special. He missed those Sunday mornings. He missed being home.
Everyone else got to go home for long stretches of time. It was part of their cover.
He’d had his head down for so long he’d forgotten how much he missed home.
But not the reason he hadn’t been able to go there. “No. I can’t go back yet. I have to handle this situation and then maybe I can go home.”
Daisy’s nose wrinkled. “Oh, well, I guess it’s going to be the hard way then. Uncle Jake, he said no. You should do that stuff you said you would do.”
What the fuck? He turned as the closet door came open, and his freaking father was standing there. His father, whose nickname in the Green Berets had been Ghost, so he knew his dad still had it. He’d ignored his instincts, and now it came back to bite him in the ass.