I looked over my shoulder to Kane, who was shaking his head and smiling before I looked back to Nico and pointed my finger at him. “Am I the subject of a Man Bible lesson right now?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Nico said and lifted his chin.
Yeah, right.
“Don’t bullshit me, kid.”
Nico grinned at me but said nothing.
I put my face in my hands and groaned, “I’m not able to deal with both of you today.”
I felt hands on my hips. “So come back to bed and just deal with me.”
“My man,” Nico whooped.
I growled, and it shut his happy arse up.
“Come on, babydoll. I promise we won’t argue anymore, at least until you have the strength for it.”
I laughed even though I didn’t want to. I wanted to remain mad at him because I knew he was up to something that was bad.
What I saw Kane partake in at Darkness all those weeks ago shook me up. I wanted to believe he was a good person, but I just didn’t fully trust that he was. I knew he cared about me and the baby, but outside of our little circle he was clearly involved in things that I wanted no part in. I was connected to him so whatever he was into, I had a connection to it too, whether he liked it or not.
I hoped I was just paranoid, and it’s why I let Kane lead me back up to his room. I told myself that whatever he was into really was his own business and that he wouldn’t be involved in it if it would put me, or our baby, in danger. I just hoped trusting in that didn’t prove futile.
As I entered Kane’s room, I heard male laughter coming from downstairs and I smiled to myself. Alec and Ryder were here. I was still smiling to myself as Kane jumped onto his bed and patted the spot next to him. I stopped short of the bed and said, “I’m hungry.”
Kane deadpanned, “You couldn’t have said that when we were next to the kitchen?”
I made a motion to stick my finger up at Kane, but I moved my hand too fast and hit it on his bedpost. It sent pain shooting up my finger and caused me to scream bloody murder.
“Oh God! I broke a nail!”
“No!” Kane cried.
Multiple footsteps pounded up the stairs, down the hallway and then three bodies burst into Kane’s bedroom. “What?” all of his brothers hollered as they piled through the doorway.
Kane pointed a trembling hand at me. “Her nail! She broke her nail!”
With a perplexed look, I looked at Kane then to the brothers who all gasped and flung their hands over their mouths. They all gripped onto furniture, or onto one another to stay upright.
I was so confused. I had no fucking idea what was going on.
None.
“Your nail?” Alec screeched.
Nico placed his hands on the side of his head and shook it from side to side. “Anything but your nail!”
Ryder rushed over to me and grabbed the hand I was cradling and thoroughly examined it, and when he saw confirmation that my nail was gone, he whimpered. “It’s gone. Gone forever!”
“No!” Kane wailed, fell back to his bed, and flung his arms over his face. “Why did it have to be her nail? Why, God? Why?!”
I glared at Kane, then his brothers when I realised what was happening. The bastards were taking the piss out of my broken nail.
“I hate you all,” I said then turned, walked out of the room and headed for the kitchen because even though I was still in a lot of pain, I was also very hungry.
I had made it halfway down the stairs before I heard the eruption of belly rumbling male laughter. Even though it pleased me greatly that they were smiling together, I hated that it was at my expense.
“Bloody brothers.”
“Are you excited?”
I looked at Kane when he asked the same question for the tenth time in two hours. I shrugged my shoulders and looked out his car window. “I guess so, I’m just nervous. I mean... this woman you contacted is a legit realtor, right?”
It was Monday, and Kane and myself were on our way to view a few apartments. We had a total of five to check out. Kane contacted a friend of his on Saturday and got the number to a realtor that would help us on such short notice.
“Of course,” Kane said, offended. “You think I’d hire someone to show us crappy apartments?”
Yes.
“I would think that. It wouldn’t be above you to stoop that low in order for me to live with you.”
“I haven’t stooped to any level. This chick is the real deal. She works for Upton Realtors, and Upton is a... wealthy area, so they would only produce the best. “
I didn’t know why, but Kane’s enthusiasm didn’t give me much encouragement.
“Okay, I just want to find somewhere that’s good for me and the baby. You told her two bedroom apartments, right? Oh, and that my budget was fourteen hundred a month?”
Kane lifted a hand off the steering wheel and scratched his neck before returning it to the wheel. “I gave her a budget of twenty-five hundred a month.”
I must have heard that wrong.
“Twenty-five hundred,” I repeated.
“Well, yeah.”
“Twenty-five fuckin’ hundred?”