“Oh no you will not.” Jayd was all bared teeth and clawed hands, punctuating herself with a thwunk of hands into Samsyn’s chest. “What, in every speck of hell there is, has lodged itself up your stubborn ass?”
Samsyn’s nostrils billowed. “Besides the fact that he is not denying—”
“What?” she spat. “What might or might not have happened between us? How does that factor into anything right now, except if my virginity is still a bargaining chip for you all?”
“The saints wept.” The warrior yanked a handful of his long hair free from its queue and pulled hard. “Jayd Dawne, for fuck’s sake. You know that was never an important factor—”
“Until now? Because if you mean that, I fail to see what Brickham still has to prove to you. He saved my life, Syn. He did it on several occasions. He put up his whole body as collateral for mine—”
“So now he has come to collect repayment from your body?”
“Whoa.” Brick threw up his hands. “First, I don’t roll that way, buddy. Not now, not ever. Second, last time I checked, your sister was a grown woman with a damn good head on her shoulders and the ability to use it. Perhaps it’s time you gave her a little credit for that. I have, which is why number three is so easy here.” He tucked in his thumbs and pinkies, fanning out the proper count on both hands. “Your sister’s definitely onto something here. Maybe you really haven’t bothered to check for logs up your ass because you’re talking out of both sides of it.”
Shiraz stomped up with a ferocious glare. “How dare you!”
“No. How dare you,” Brick countered.
“Once again, I do not recall your opinion—”
“Being solicited. Got that part, man—but sometimes, nasty medicine is the best thing for you.” He curled in all his fingers except his pointers, just in time for Samsyn’s furious fume. “Simmer the fuck down. I see your side of things too, gentlemen. And I get it. I really do. She’s your little sister, but she’s more than that. She’s something unique and extraordinary. Losing her in any way is likely a terrifying idea for you.”
He waited a moment, letting that one sink in—but not just for the guys. He wanted Jayd to see their faces tighten, confirming his truth. He wanted her to feel the change in the air and to know without a doubt how much she truly meant to them.
His cause got a boost, surprising but satisfying, from the king himself. “Terrifying does not begin to describe it,” Evrest muttered with grim force.
“It probably doesn’t,” Brick concurred. “But trying to prevent it by boxing her back up…that’s like trying to rewrite a bad book by switching the ink color in your pen. It’s not going to help things. Not really.” He dared a glance over at Shiraz. “You said it yourself five minutes ago. Carris won’t stop until all his special boxes are checked off, even if it takes destroying this place. So consider that scenario. Even if you dress Jayd up as a bell clapper and hide her beneath the biggest bowl in the highest tower, he’ll still find her—and probably take out some innocents along the way. People like Requiemme here—”
“No!” Jayd cried.
“Or maybe he’ll hit the childcare center first. Did I hear things correctly? That Queen Camellia and Prince Leo might be sequestered there?”
“Oh, hell no,” Evrest snarled.
“But the reality of the situation, all the same.” Brick steadied his voice as if conveying they simply couldn’t get hummus with their falafel today. “In short, everyone’s hearts are in the right place here, but execution is already a mess.”
The air thickened to the texture of—voila—fresh hummus. Luckily, Brick had logged in lots of hours with worse sludge. It’d take a few minutes for all of them to click shit back together…
“He is right.”
Or less than a few, if one of them was Samsyn Cimarron.
Though Brick was certain he still hadn’t won a popularity contest with the big guy, Syn gave a terse nod while scrubbing a hand along his beard.
“About this particular point only, he is very right,” the big prince admitted. “This time, I am not squabbling with both of my ass cheeks either.” He knotted his long hair at the nape and secured it with a floral stick from the arrangement on Jayd’s writing desk. “If Carris gets this far and does breach the palais, hiding will not be an option. We must only be concerned with a viable escape plan.”
Brick didn’t give himself permission to chuckle, even inwardly, at the warrior’s mangle of the idiom. Samsyn’s intensity already overrode the temptation. Undoubtedly, the guy was flashing back by a few years, when the Pura sneaked into this place using the laundry chutes as access points. They’d slipped out with equal ease, along with their high value hostage: Syn’s new bride, Princess Brooke.
Holy shit.
The story, with which Brick was pretty familiar since it had made its rounds of the spec ops community, was nonetheless a fresh strike to his solar plexus at this point. How would it have just an hour ago, if he’d come up to this suite and found Jayd gone—only to learn she’d been taken hostage by those Pura pissants?
No wonder the memories turned the giant Arcadian into a haunted man.
“Very well, then.” Evrest’s directive, everything short of a royal mandate, effectively ended everyone’s morose musings. “We all have some priority lists now, yes?” He dipped his head toward Samsyn. “Re-org and deploy your battalions, security chief.” And then reapproached Jayd, extending firm grips to her shoulders. “And you, little dynamo, please change into some clothes that do not look like you lost a Muppets wrestling match, so the team in the commissary will take you seriously.”
During the few seconds it took for Jayd to process what her brother had said, Brick cocked his head with admiring contemplation. “Muppets. Damn. So much better than Smurfs.”
Evrest managed half a curious glance before being tackle-hugged by the pixie between them. “Of course, Your Majesty,” she damn near squealed. “I will not let you down, I vow it.”
“You mean we will not let him down.”
Jayd whipped her upper body back around, using her brother’s formal lapel for purchase like Spider-Gwen. “Huh?”
Brick smirked. “You think I’m leaving your side anytime soon, Pixie? Plan or no plan, if there’s a possibility of that bastard making it here and getting his hands on you…”
“Brickham.”
Her grateful gush took over the air he suddenly couldn’t get in, just thinking about Carris’s intent if he took possession of her again. Because that was how the thug would view it. She’d be his property and nothing more. Not fucking acceptable.
“Thank you,” she rasped, swinging her embrace to him. “This means so much.”
Just like that, he was able to breathe again. “I’m all yours for the whole fight,” he pledged with a huge grin. “Put me to work, boss babe.”
She wrapped her arms all the way around his neck, even more sweetly effusive.
Her brothers weren’t exactly doing the same. Literally or figuratively.
“Boss babe?” Shiraz gritted.