“I gotta go.”
“No. Fuck. Just answer the question, Sparrow.”
“Nothing,” he growls, a bit too defensively I might add. “Nothing of importance.”
“Have you fucked her?”
“Seriously? When? At school? Fuck off, Sully.”
“Stop being a pussy and tell me what the hell’s been going on.”
“What? You want to know that I had phone sex with her? Huh? The night after you fucking kissed her?”
He’s jealous.
This is Ivy Anderson all over again.
Or, worse, Ash Elliott.
At least with Ivy, we got in a little bit of trouble. With Ash, our lives blew up in our faces. We barely survived that shit.
And Landry?
Her dad is evil and connected with the Constantines. The potential of this going nuclear is a real possibility.
Scout is acting crazy.
Sparrow is turning possessive as fuck.
And me?
I want to throttle Sparrow for carrying on a secret phone sex rendezvous behind my back and to punch Scout for hurting her or doing whatever the fuck he did.
This means I’m in just as deep as them.
“I think you need to take a step back,” I state, voice cool. “I think we all need to.”
“We can’t,” he bites back. “It’s our job. She’s our job.”
“We’ll quit. Bryant can get over it.”
Sparrow laughs, cold and cruel. “We’re Morellis now, Sull. We don’t get to just quit. You know this. It’s why you’ve been such a pissy bitch lately. We’re stuck and there’s nowhere for us to go.”
“I’m not a fucking Morelli. I’m a Mannford.”
“Just find out what he did and fix it. I’ll do damage control on Monday at school.”
Heathen snarls from her carrier, reminding me that she’s an unhappy bitch in that cage.
“Fine. I’ll text you later.”
Not bothering to wait for him to reply, I walk over to the Croft’s door. I ring the doorbell, ignoring the hideous sounds my cat is making.
Not my cat.
Scout’s cat since she likes him more.
I’m just borrowing her at this point to keep the charade up.
A few minutes later, the door opens. It’s not Sandra or one of the other staff or even Della. No, it’s her.
Landry.
The root of this growing problem between me and my brothers. I know why, too. When I’m in her presence, I sort of forget she’s a job. I grow fixated on how her bottom pink lip is slightly swollen and how it tasted when I kissed her. I’m entranced by the way golden-blonde hair dances with her movement, framing her pretty face and drawing your attention there always. Even dressed in just jeans and a T-shirt, she’s elegant and lovely and tempting.
I know how her tit feels beneath my palm. Full but not too full. Enough to grab onto and claim.
Her blue eyes are hard as she assesses me. Accusation gleams in her stare. Maybe even a little hurt, too. A glimmer of fear.
What did you do to her, Scout?
“Hey, honey.”
She visibly relaxes at my words. The fierce stance she’d been in fades and she grabs onto the doorframe as if to steady herself. Her nose turns pink and tears well in her eyes.
Fuck.
Scout did hurt her.
How do I explain this? She thinks I’m him. I have to fix what it is he did to her. Somehow. Some way.
“May I come in?” I ask, keeping my voice soft. “Please?”
“I shouldn’t let you within fifty feet of me.”
A tear grows too heavy for her eyelid and races down her cheek. Despite her words, she wants me to make it all better. I can see it in her eyes. Reaching a hand up to bridge the distance between us, I cup her cheek and swipe away the wet streak with my thumb.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur.
It’s the truth. I am. I’m sorry that my psychopath brother has somehow gotten his claws in her. He’s rough and brutal and fucking scary when he wants to be.
She steps back, but it’s not to escape me. It’s an invitation. Della peeks around the corner and sticks her tongue out at me. I stick mine out at her and then offer the cage.
“Take Heathen,” I say, making sure she sees the movements of my lips. “I’ll be in the classroom in a minute.”
Della grabs Heathen’s carrier from me and disappears. Once I close the door behind me, I grab onto Landry’s hand, tugging her into the bathroom just off the foyer.
“I can’t be alone in here with you,” she whispers, but she doesn’t fight me. “If Dad saw…”
We whipped his ass pretty good. I doubt he’ll be prowling the house right now looking for his daughter. I bet he’ll be down for a few days at least.
I lock the bathroom door behind me and pin her against the countertop with my hips. She sucks in a breath and her blue eyes search mine.
“Listen,” I start, but she cuts me off.
“Your eyes are the color of caramel.”
“And yours are blue like the sky on a hot summer day.”
She smirks. “That’s not what I meant, lover boy. I meant that when your eyes are like this, you’re different.” Her brows furl. “A lot different than this morning.”
“I’m sorry,” I say again. “There are things about me you don’t understand. Things I can’t exactly tell you.”
“You’re sick.” She taps at my head. “Here.”
You have no fucking idea, honey.
“Yeah. A little, I guess. What can I do to make it better?” I stroke my fingers through her hair, making sure to be gentle and caring. “Let me kiss you.”
“It’s not like I have a choice.”
“You do right now. With me. In this moment. Can I kiss you?”
Her brows scrunch as she studies me with intensity. “You’ve lost your mind.”
“Look at me, honey. Today…that won’t happen again. You can trust me.”
“Trust you?” She barks out a disgusted laugh. “No, Ford, I can’t trust you. You’re hiding so much from me.”
I rest my forehead against hers for a moment, closing my eyes. “I know I’m a complicated man, Landry. I really hope one day you’ll fully understand…my layers. Until then, trust that I care a lot about you and would never do anything to intentionally hurt you. I truly am sorry for what happened to you.” I reopen my eyes and pull back so she can see the sincerity in my stare. “Now, please, can I kiss you?”
She makes me wait an eternity, but eventually she nods. I tangle my fingers in her hair, tug until her mouth parts and is primed for a kiss, and then press my lips to hers. At first, she’s tense, but as my tongue teases along hers, she turns to putty in my arms.
I kiss her deeply, but I make sure to infuse my apology into it. Soft swipes. Gentle caresses. Sweetly murmured things to her whenever we pull apart enough to breathe. I could continue kissing her all afternoon. I wonder how much it would take to fix what Scout did to her.
“You hurt me,” she whispers, her fingertips finding the center of my chest and pushing. “I was scared.”
“Where did I hurt you?”
She scowls and turns her head from mine. “You know where.”