“Is it ‘cause Alec’s in your coven?” He’d been trying to explain his family to me, and if I remembered correctly, Alec was married to his sister and was a… werewolf, I thought.
“No, it’s because we bring in the most criminals, and when we’re involved, we help keep the other agents safe with our shields and stuff.” He shrugged. “We bring results, so he tends to look the other way when we do something shady. As long as no one’s getting hurt, he ignores it. Except when I have a hunter taking out all my perps and bringing my success rate down more than half.”
I smirked at that. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
I chuckled. “No, I’m not.”
He punched my shoulder, but laughed a little, so I shot him a small grin back as I parked the car in front of a good sandwich place I’d found a few months ago.
As Basil reached for his door handle, I stopped him with a hand on his forearm. When he lifted a brow at me, I smirked and grabbed his chin to place a lingering kiss there. As always, he melted into me, so I deepened the kiss, but only for a few seconds since there were people walking around on the sidewalk in front of us. No need to put a show on for the nosy fuckers.
I pulled back, but pecked his lips one last time before slipping my gloves on and getting out of the car. Basil seemed to be in a trance and was slower to get out, making me smirk at him. He finally got out and followed me inside the small restaurant. To my surprise, someone said, “Basil?” as soon as we were through the door.
I sighed when I saw that tiny witch, the blue-haired fae, and that were-cyclops guy. Apparently, we couldn’t go anywhere without running into his family.
Basil grinned over at their table, saying, “Hey, guys. On your lunch break?”
The small witch—Delaro—nodded and said, “We have Hazel watching the shop so we could come out on a little date. We’ve been too busy lately.”
Basil smiled. “I know the feeling.” He turned to me, and I could tell that he didn’t know if he should pull me over to their table or if it would be rude not to sit with his brother. I didn’t have a fuckin’ clue. Besides Rasha, I didn’t have any family, and I hadn’t in a long-ass time.
Luckily, the fae laughed and said, “No worries, Bas, we were just about to leave, anyway.”
The three of them stood up, and I watched as the big guy pulled the tiny witch into his side and kissed the top of his head while the fae threw some money on the table. The big guy took the fae’s hand, then led the two toward us.
They stopped in front of us and Delaro asked, “Will you be home for dinner tonight? Tio’s making veggie chili and trying to get everyone to eat at the same time.”
“I’m not sure. I’ll text you if I can’t. Alec’s not going to make it, I can tell you that much. He already asked me to come in tonight.”
Delaro frowned, then sighed. “Yeah, okay. I’m gonna tell Dad to pick a day for a family meal next week so everyone can plan around it.”
“That’s a good idea.”
The little witch grinned. “I have them sometimes. See you later.”
Before they walked away, the fae added, “You and your brothers need to talk to Talon and me tomorrow. We need to decide when we’re going back. It’s been nearly a month already.”
Basil opened his mouth to respond, but the big guy said, “Let him enjoy his date, Nikolai. We have plenty of time for all of that later.”
The fae sighed, but nodded, then gave us a finger wave followed by blowing Basil a kiss. A growl came out of me, making the fae laugh, but Basil grabbed my hand and pulled me to him, saying, “Ignore him. He does it just to annoy me.”
I crowded into his space, leaning over him so he had to tilt his head back to see my eyes. Grabbing onto his hips, I growled again. “No one else is allowed to kiss you, or touch you.”
To my surprise, he smiled. “As long as you agree to the same policy, Hiro.”
I grunted. “I’m not kissin’ or touchin’ anyone else, either. Haven’t in a long time, anyway.”
His smile was soft as he placed a chaste kiss to my lips. “Come on. You’re making a scene. In a restaurant. Again.” His words were more amusement than anger, so I shrugged and let him pull me to a booth.
When we sat down, he said, “You do realize that Nik, Del, and Gray are all viramores, right? They’ve been together for like… over two years.”
I nodded. “Doesn’t mean it’s okay for him to flirt with you.”
He snorted. “Trust me, that was not flirting, that was How-To-Annoy-Bas-101.”
I lifted a brow at that.
He smiled. “Nik’s my family”—I growled, like that was a normal thing for a damn human to keep doing—“and we’ve been through a lot together. He’s more like a brother than anything else. You don’t have to worry about him, or anyone, for that matter.”
His words only made me feel marginally better, but I still nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
He smirked. “You’re kinda cute when you’re jealous.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Cute and jealous are not words used to describe me.”
“If you say so.”
I shook my head, but since he was smiling with a fondness in his eyes, I found myself smiling back.
After we ordered food and it arrived, we ate a few bites in silence before Basil asked, “How’s Rasha doing?”
I froze with my fork halfway to my mouth. “Basil…”
His jaw clenched, he dropped his fork, and sat back with his arms crossed over his chest. “Seriously?”
“Basil…”
“You can’t even let me ask how she’s doing? I’m not even asking for details, Hiro.”
“Basil…”
His entire body was taut as he turned his head away from me and started blinking rapidly. Was he… was he crying? His head jerked toward me with anger burning in his gaze. “I get that you don’t want me around her, even though I’d love to officially meet her. I get it. You don’t trust me yet, and I guess I can’t really blame you, even though…” He shook his head and took a shaky breath. “You really can’t even let me ask how she’s doing? You trust me so little that we can’t even talk about her? How… how are you ever going to let me in when we can’t even talk about the one thing that’s most important to you?”
“Basil…”
He stared at me for a few seconds, then scoffed. “That’s all you have to say?” He threw his napkin on his plate and stood up, pulling his wallet out and throwing cash on the table as he leaned his face close to mine. “You know what? I’ve been respectful of your wishes and your feelings, but you haven’t shown me one ounce of the same respect.” He straightened and started walking away.
I sat there stunned for a few seconds, but when Basil reached the door to leave, I scrambled out of my seat and went after him, knowing he’d thrown enough money on the table to cover us both.
I didn’t catch up to him until he was on the sidewalk. Stepping in front of him to cut off his escape, I said, “Wait.”
He stopped before he could run into me, then glared up at my face and crossed his arms over his chest again, sneering at me.