by K. M. Scott
Looking at each of us, he said, “I know those names. Did you tell me in the car?”
Hoping to lie well enough to confuse him, I spoke up. “Yeah, we did, but we have to go. Stef, let’s go. Now.”
He held his hand up to stop me. “Wait a minute. I want to talk more to Sebastian here. So did you get anywhere with that Tawny girl?”
I rolled my eyes. Of all the questions he could ask the guy, that was the one that came to his mind first? Maybe old Stefan wasn’t entirely gone after all.
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, I did. It was sort of like shooting fish in a barrel, though, I have to admit. She’s wanted me for a while, so I figured why not, right? You’re only young once, and I’m not tied down to anyone.”
Stefan looked over at me and smiled. “I like this guy. He’s a shitty drunk, but I like his attitude. He reminds me of me a few years ago.”
“Yeah. That’s a reason to not like someone, Stef. Let’s go.”
Ignoring me, Stefan asked Sebastian, “So what else do you do other than work at a restaurant, get drunk, and pick up women?”
“Is there anything else to do around here?” Sebastian answered way too cocky. More and more, I started to believe he was another son of Cassian March.
“Well, no, probably not, but if you could do other things, what would you do?”
He ran his hands through his black hair and thought about the question for a few seconds. “I always dreamed of going west. You know, getting out of this state and seeing the rest of the country. I’ve never seen mountains, so I’d like to see them.”
Time was up. “Stefan, come here.”
Both of them looked at me, but thankfully Stefan didn’t argue with me and came over to where I was standing. Shaking my head, I tried to find the words to make him understand I had no more interest in whatever he was trying to do with Sebastian.
“I’m not sure what this whole high school guidance counselor thing you have going on with this guy is, but your five minutes is up. Time to go.”
I saw in his dark eyes he really wanted to know more about the guy. He had that curious look in them. “Come on, Kane. I think he could be our brother. Don’t you want a chance to get to know him a little?”
“No. He reminds me too much of what you were like in the early days at the club.”
Stefan sneered. “Don’t be an asshole. He’s just a kid having a good time. Just because you’ve been this serious guy all your life doesn’t mean everyone else has to be. Give him a chance. Just a few minutes more.”
Leaning down so my face was no more than an inch away from his, I fixed my gaze on him. “I’m not interested in finding out any more about this guy.”
He looked over at Sebastian lying back on the couch, his face still bloody. “At least let’s clean him up a little. He’s a mess. Give me a minute and then we can leave.”
I watched as Stefan got a wet paper towel from the kitchen and handed him it. “You’re bleeding, man. You know, from when you fell on the stairs. Use this on your face.”
Confused, Sebastian asked, “I fell on the stairs? When?”
“Just take it and clean your nose. You might have broken it. At least it’s stopped bleeding, though,” Stefan said in his most helpful voice.
A knock at the door tore me away from the odd scene playing out in front of me, but before I opened it, I asked, “Any idea who this could be?”
I wasn’t in the mood for any more bullshit tonight.
“It could be Dani or maybe Tawny. I guess it could be anybody,” Sebastian said like he’d given up thinking about the correct answer after two names.
If this guy was our brother, the three of us had a responsibility as his big brothers to get rid of that idiotic way he had about him. And straighten his ass out with the drinking.
As long as it wasn’t some guy on the other side of the door who wanted to finish what the stairs had started, I’d be happy. Whoever it was could come in and deal with him and Stefan and I could leave.
I liked that plan.
Turning the knob, I opened the door and stared out into the night to see not Dani or Tawny or anyone else I should see on Sebastian’s porch.
Before I had the chance to say a word, the person who’d knocked glared up at me. I’d seen that look before, but I certainly hadn’t expected to see it at that moment.
What the hell was Abbi doing at Sebastian’s apartment?
Chapter Seven
Abbi
My heart sunk as I stared up at Kane standing there in the doorway to that house. Who lived there? Did the woman I’d suspected he’d been cheating on me with live there and he was spending time with her instead of at the restaurant fixing that electrical problem like he’d claimed hours earlier?
“Abbi, what are you doing here? Who’s watching the kids?” he asked in a voice that teetered between angry and confused.
I tried to look around him, but he blocked my view. “Who’s in there, Kane? Who is she? I can’t believe you’d do this to us!”
He closed the door and began to guide me down the front steps toward the car. “Angel, you have this all wrong. Go home and I’ll be back in less than an hour.”
“I will not go home!” I angrily answered, pushing against him to get away so I could see who this woman was who he felt he should throw his life away for. The life we’d made together.
I flung the door open just as Kane caught my arm and saw Stefan sitting on the couch with another man. Looking around for the woman, I saw no one but them. Unsure what was going on, I pointed at Stefan and demanded, “Tell me where she is right now. I know she’s here.”
He said something about me being mistaken, but as he spoke I noticed the man sitting next to him was Sebastian, the man I’d had coffee with a few weeks ago after Alexandria had told me about her husband fathering another son the three brothers hadn’t met yet.
“Sebastian? What are you doing here with them? And what happened to your face?”
I turned to look at Kane as he glared at him. “Did you hit him?”
“Abbi, right?” Sebastian said with a chuckle. “The girl from the coffee shop. I have no idea why all you people are in my apartment, but you’re a nice addition.”
Stefan looked back and forth between Kane and me and Sebastian with a thoroughly confused expression before finally saying, “How do you two know each other?”
From behind me, Kane said in a low, angry voice, “Exactly what I was about to ask.”
I spun around and stared up at my husband, my arms folded across my chest to hold me back from lashing out. “So you think you’re in a position to ask anything since you’ve been lying to my face for at least a week about where you’ve been going?”
Kane said nothing, but he didn’t look away. Instead, he met my angry gaze with one of his own. Behind me, I heard Stefan say to Sebastian, “Oh, you’re going to love these two! He routinely lies about things because he thinks she needs to be protected, and when she finds out about one, she goes toe-to-toe with him about it. It makes for some great family get-togethers, I can tell you.”
Sebastian, still clearly confused, asked, “So are you his sister or something?”
I turned around to explain who I was, but Kane pushed me behind him and said flatly, “She’s my wife, and you’re about to tell me why you were having coffee with her.”
Stefan jumped up from the couch. “Whoa, I know that look. I don’t think this is what you think it is, Kane. Let the guy explain before you go pounding him into the ground.”
Backing up to the far end of the couch, Sebastian put up his hands in surrender. “Dude, no need to go pounding anything on me. We weren’t having coffee together. Well, we were, but it wasn’t like it was a date or anything. She was just there at the coffee shop and asked me if she could sit down at the table I was at since it was so crowded. Nothing else. We had a nice talk for a few minutes. I swear that was it. Honest.”
Kane took a step toward him, but I grabbed his arm to stop him. “He’s telling the
truth. Don’t do anything.”
For a moment, I wasn’t sure he believed either of us. I knew my husband better than anyone else in the world, and hearing I was spending time with some man, even if I wanted to find out if he was his brother, wasn’t something he ever wanted to hear.
To say he was possessive was an understatement.
He looked down at me with a mixture of hurt and anger in those dark blue eyes, and I knew he was struggling to not act on his nature. Hoping to convince him, I brought his left hand to my lips and pressed a soft kiss onto the wedding band that matched mine.
“I would never be with anyone else. You know that, Kane. My time with Sebastian at that coffee shop was mere coincidence. I was there to meet Gemma.”
That my being at that coffee shop that day wasn’t a coincidence at all wasn’t anything he needed to know. At least not at that moment as Stefan and Sebastian sat there watching us.
Cradling my face, Kane said in a soft voice I knew was forced, “Abbi, I’ll be home in a little while after I get finished here. We’ll talk when I get home.”
I didn’t need to argue anything after he said that. There was no point. I knew my husband. I could either understand that he didn’t want to talk about this there and cause a scene, which would result in him taking me to the car, or I could accept that he was trying to be what he’d always promised he’d be to me.
The kind of man I wanted.
True, he was jealous and possessive and he lied to me to protect me from things I didn’t need protecting from, but beyond all that, he loved me like I was the queen of his world. I accepted the bad with him because of that good.
Without another word, I turned to leave, but Kane gently touched me on the shoulder to stop me. I looked back at him and saw a tiny smile that went all the way up to his eyes. Everything would be okay.
It was more than an hour later, but he finally returned home just after I got the kids tucked into their beds and read Annalea her nighttime story. Kane sat down on his side of the bed and silently slid out of his shirt before turning to look at me.
“It wasn’t a coincidence that you were at that coffee shop, was it?” he asked in a low voice.
Caught off guard by how direct his question was, I took a deep breath. There was no point in lying. I wasn’t ashamed of anything I’d done.
“No.”
He studied my face for a moment before he spoke again. “You went there to meet him because you think he’s my brother?”
“Yes. Alexandria told me the story a few weeks ago, and I wanted to see for myself. So I found out where he works and followed him to that coffee shop.”
Kane sighed and hung his head. “Why? You could have been hurt. What if he was some guy who kidnaps and rapes women?”
I reached over to touch his shoulder. “I’m not some virginal girl who doesn’t know a thing or two about bad men. I haven’t always been with you. I was smart about it. I caught up with him in a public place in broad daylight. I was never in any danger, baby.”
Kane turned his head to face me, and I saw the worry in his eyes. “I remember, Abbi. I’ve spent every minute of my life with you making sure you don’t have to, though.”
“I know you want to protect me. I get that. It’s who you are, and I love you for it. No woman has a more wonderful or more protective husband than I do. It’s just that I’m not some naïve child who needs to be shielded from things, Kane. I’m a grown woman and your wife, but sometimes it feels like you treat me like one of the kids.”
He closed his eyes and leaned back on the bed so his head was in my lap. When he opened them, he nodded. “I just want to be the kind of man for you that my mother never had. She worried about everything, and it made her bitter and hateful to my father. I don’t want you to ever have to worry.”
“I love that you want to be that for me, baby,” I said as I ran my fingers through his soft, black hair, longer now than when we first met. “I just wish you could see that I can be more than someone you have to protect. You can share things with me. Even bad things, Kane, because when you don’t and you keep them from me, I end up worrying anyway.”
He thought about what I said for a minute and smiled before sitting up to face me. “Did you tell him you thought he was our brother?”
Shaking my head, I thought about my brief encounter with Sebastian at the coffee shop near his house and chuckled. “No. I never planned to do that. I just wanted to see for myself if he could be another son of Cassian March. He looks the part, but other than that, all I found out was he’s a little like I imagine Stefan would be if he was single. Definitely a player.”
A serious look came over Kane’s face. “Did he hit on you?”
“No, not so much hit on me. I got the feeling he doesn’t see anyone out of his reach, though.”
Relieved to hear Sebastian hadn’t tried to get into my pants, Kane nodded in agreement with my description of the guy’s attitude toward women. “He’s definitely cocky.”
“So do you think he’s your brother?”
“I don’t know. He looks a lot like me and Cash, but so far my guy hasn’t found out anything that proves he’s another son.”
“Now that you’ve met him, do you want him to be?”
Kane’s eyebrows rose. “The jury’s still out on that.”
I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Do you know why I wanted to see if he was another son of your father’s?”
“No. Did Alexandria make it seem like it was important to find him?” Kane asked, clearly in the dark about why I would bother to search out this person.
“No, I did it because he’d be like you. From what she said, he never really knew his father either. I just thought if you knew someone was out there who was like you in that way that you’d want to know about him.”
Kane kissed me softly on the lips in that way he did when he wanted me to know how much he loved me without saying it. “If you know me so well, how could you think I’d ever cheat on you, Abbi?”
I hated that I’d been so stupid to think that this man who gave me everything he was without hesitation would go with anyone else. Deep in my heart I knew he wouldn’t, but my insecurities had gotten the better of me.
“I knew you weren’t telling me the truth. When you lie to protect me, I can’t help it. I think it’s because you’re doing things with someone else.”
He looked at me in that pained way that showed how much he hated hurting me and kissed me again. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make you doubt me. I just didn’t want to bring him into our lives until I found out if he was really our brother and I knew he was the kind of person I want around the woman I love and my children.”
I laid my head on his shoulder, loving the strength he offered just by being there to protect me. “For nearly seven years, I’ve tried to show you that I can handle being with you. You deserve a wife who you can tell things to, not some delicate soul you always feel like you have to watch over and protect. I’m not that girl I was when you met me anymore. I love that you want to keep me and the kids safe, but I’d love it even more if you included me in things like this.”
I knew I was asking him to be different than he naturally was. I also knew he’d never truly be like Cash was with Olivia. It simply wasn’t who he was.
Kane swallowed hard and looked down at the bed. “I hide things so you don’t get hurt, but even more, so you aren’t in danger. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you, angel.”
“You aren’t going to lose me. I found the best man in the world, Kane. I’m not going to let this life we have go for anything.”
He smiled at me and nodded. “From now on, when my brothers and I get together to talk about this, I’d like you to be there. I should mention that it might mean Shay will be around because Stefan told her everything.”
A tiny lick of jealousy flared inside me every time Kane even said her name. I knew it was stupid and irrational because they’d both sworn nothing ever happened between them, but tha
t had never been the problem. She’d been the one to convince him to be there for me and Annalea, not me.
I wasn’t jealous that he cared for her. I was jealous still all these years later that my words hadn’t been enough but hers had.
Forcing a smile, I kissed him. “That’s fine. What about Olivia and Cash?”
Kane shrugged. “So far they don’t want any part of this new brother thing. I guess I don’t blame them. If Cash had seen him tonight, I don’t think that would have helped either. He seems to be nothing more than a fall down drunken kid of twenty-six.”
“Well, whatever he is, if he’s your brother, you’re going to have to decide how much you want to do with him.”
Bringing my hand to his mouth, Kane kissed my wedding band and smiled. “We’re going to have to decide.”
It wasn’t a huge step, but it was a step, nonetheless. Knowing Kane, that word we’re meant the world to me.
Chapter Eight
Cassian
My phone buzzed as I pulled my car into my parking spot behind CK. Looking down at where it sat in the console, I saw it was Stefan. To get a call from that brother before noon was like seeing snow for the Fourth of July, so I quickly answered it, curious as to what had gotten him out of bed so early.
“Hey, Stef. What’s up?”
“Have you talked to Kane yet today?” he asked hurriedly, like he hoped I hadn’t so he could tell me what he had to say.
Turning the engine off, I slid out of the driver’s seat and slammed the door. “No, why?”
“You missed a good time last night. Well, not the first few hours, but the last one was much better.”
Struck by how unlikely those words were coming from Stef about a night out with Kane, I stopped dead at the back door to the building. “You two went out last night? Really?”
Stefan’s laughter at even the suggestion came through loud and clear. “Uh, no. We might not hate each other, but Kane and I have completely different ideas of what constitutes a good time. No, we went on a stakeout. Well, sort of a stakeout.”
