“We can’t leave her while she’s in danger.” He couldn’t leave her again under any circumstances, but he didn’t tell them that. “I’ll stay with her.”
“What? Why you?” Aleki asked.
“Wolfe doesn’t care about her one way or the other and you don’t want to care. I’m the only one who isn’t conflicted over her.”
“I’m not conflicted,” Wolfe muttered. “I don’t feel anything towards her.”
“Right, that’s why you were about to pull the doctor’s arm off for touching her,” Caleb said sardonically.
Wolfe glared at him.
Caleb pointed at Aleki. “Aleki still has feelings for her but wishes he didn’t because she walked away and broke his heart. And it’s never healed.”
Aleki scoffed.
“You want to hate her, Wolfe. And sometimes you do. But the rest of the time, you want to protect her. You want to hurt her, but don’t want anyone else to hurt her.”
“Jesus, when did you turn into a relationship therapist?” Aleki muttered. “And a fucking crap one at that.”
Caleb ran his hand over his face. “All I’m saying is that she needs help and I’m not walking away from her.”
“We don’t split up,” Wolfe said with a frown. “That’s not the way we do things.”
“I know,” Caleb said. “But this is different. If it’s too hard for the two of you, then maybe it’s better you go. She’s fragile. We cannot add to her stress.”
“We get it. We’ll go easy on her, right Wolfe?”
Wolfe grunted.
“But we’re not leaving you here,” Aleki said. “I don’t think I can leave her, either. Not until I know she’s okay.”
Wolfe sighed. “You both have feelings for her, don’t you?”
Caleb and Aleki stared at each other.
“Truth is, I always have,” Caleb muttered.
Aleki shrugged. “I want to stay angry with her. Distant. I told myself she couldn’t be trusted. But she’s in trouble and we don’t know why.”
“We can’t stay here forever,” Wolfe countered.
Caleb frowned. “Maybe we should take her home with us.”
“Fuck,” Wolfe muttered. “How’d I know you were gonna say that?”
Caleb sighed. “I can’t walk away from her, Wolfe. She’s still my friend.”
But this wasn’t just about friendship. Nope, it was about something far, far more potent. And with the power to destroy them all.
9
Vivi watched as Aleki slept on the sofa across the room. He was twisted up on the tiny two-seater, his legs hanging over the edge, his arm over his eyes.
He looked uncomfortable as fuck.
Reaching over, she pinched her arm. Not a dream. She was waiting for the other shoe to drop. For them to tell her that they had some other reason for being here. That had nothing to do with her.
The door opened and Wolfe walked in, carrying a tray of food. He seemed to have designated himself as the person-who-must-fatten-Vivi-up.
It was kind of weird.
She’d never realized he was this interested in food.
She held a finger to her mouth as he went to talk then she pointed at Aleki. He nodded as he saw the other man was sleeping. He slid silently over to the table and set down the tray. Damn, he moved like a ghost. It was impressive and a bit scary.
Turning, he crept over to Aleki then leaned in and shouted, “Wake up!”
She let out a startled cry as Aleki quickly jumped up.
Aleki was instantly on alert, staring around as though searching for an enemy as Wolfe calmly grabbed a chair and pulled it over to her bedside, before sitting and grabbing the bowl of oatmeal. He stirred it, blowing on it occasionally.
“Wolfe, what the fuck!” Aleki roared.
“Wolfe, that wasn’t very nice,” she scolded.
Wolfe raised his eyebrows at her. “Since when did I claim to be nice?”
Well, she guessed that was true.
“Why would you do that? You gave me a fucking heart attack!” Aleki snapped.
“You were sleeping on the job.” Wolfe kept stirring the oatmeal.
Yuck. She didn’t want oatmeal. She didn’t really want anything. But if she had to eat, she’d rather have cake.
“I wasn’t sleeping on the job.” Aleki glared at Wolfe.
“What’s going on? Everything okay?” Caleb walked in, his hair up on end, yawning. He stretched and she got a glimpse of his abs when his T-shirt rose up.
Yum.
She probably shouldn’t be checking another man out when her husband had just died. But then he hadn’t been a proper husband to her, had he?
What about the funeral? Were people wondering where she was? Was her father looking for her? What about the person who shot her?
Worry filled her. She couldn’t stay here any longer. Bad enough she’d been with them for two nights. They were at risk just being around her.
“Stop checking Caleb out and eat your oatmeal,” Wolfe scolded.
She gave him a shocked look. “Wolfe!”
“You were checking me out, huh?” Caleb drawled.
“I was not.”
“No lying,” Wolfe warned.
She stared at him in shock. She wasn’t lying. Well, she was. But it was a little white lie so she didn’t die of embarrassment.
“You can check me out anytime you feel like it, Vivi,” Caleb drawled, doing some more stretches.
Okay, now he had to be doing it on purpose.
“You were checking him out?” Aleki asked.
“She totally was. She liked what she saw,” Caleb boasted.
“Caleb!”
He grinned and winked at her. Okay, that was unexpected. She turned to look at Aleki, worried about his reaction. He had his arms crossed over his chest, glaring down at her.
Oh no. He was upset. She never wanted to do that.
“How come you’re not checking me out?” Aleki asked.
Umm. Okay. That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say.
“W-what?”
“If you’re gonna check Caleb out, you should check me out too. Fair’s fair.”
“Fair’s fair?” she repeated.
“Uh-huh.”
“Maybe she just thinks my abs are better, man,” Caleb said wickedly.
What the hell? What was going on here? She reached over to pinch herself again.
“What are you doing?” Wolfe grabbed hold of her wrist and she froze.
“Umm, pinching myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“What? Don’t do that.” Wolfe frowned at her. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
Aleki sat on the bed facing her, sending Wolfe a glare. “I could have hurt myself when you yelled at me while I was sleeping.”
“You sleep like the dead. What if I’d been someone intent on hurting her?” Wolfe spooned up some oatmeal, tested the temperature against his lips then held it towards her.
She shook her head.
“Eat your oatmeal.”
“Nobody can get in here,” Aleki grumbled. He scratched at his side, pulling up his T-shirt.
Holy shit balls. What was it with all the abs this morning? She couldn’t cope. Then she saw Aleki’s cheeky grin.