14. Emmett
EMMETT
Last night, after I got back from Kian’s, I called Declan with the bad news. Then I paced my penthouse for an hour, couldn’t settle, and went next door to talk it through in person.
His door was locked, but we all have keys to each other’s places. Except for Kian. There’s no way in hell we’d give him access to our homes.
I was halfway across his living room, two glasses of wine still sitting on the coffee table, when I heard Leah’s familiar squeak down the hall.
I stood there longer than I should have. Then I let myself out, quieter than I came in.
This morning, I texted them both.
Me: Dinner at my place at 7. Don’t be weird about it.
Now, they’re both in my kitchen. And they’re definitely being weird. Rather than skirt around what I know, I address it head-on.
“Quick housekeeping item.” I lean on the island. “I let myself into Declan’s last night to talk about Kian, and I’d like to formally apologize for the interruption. Not that either of you noticed. You were busy.”
Leah spits out her wine, and follows it with a grimace. I wipe it up.
“Emmett,” Declan says.
“Anyway. Good for you both. Really. I mean that.”
“Hang on.” Leah sets down her wine and raises her eyebrows. “So, you both know. And neither of you is jealous.”
“Not at all,” I say. “Should we be?”
She wrinkles her nose, and the freckles across it shift. God, she’s beautiful. I want her back in my bed tonight, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
“I don’t know. I don’t want you to be.”
“No.” Declan’s hand disappears below the edge of the island, and Leah’s breath catches. “Sharing you with Emmett doesn’t make you any less mine.”
Her shoulders come down an inch. “Okay. That’s a relief. I didn’t want to be the thing that came between the three of you.”
“Trust me,” I say, pulling a stockpot down from the cabinet. “If Kian were in this conversation, it’d be a problem. Because there’s no fucking way he deserves you. But I’d happily share with my brothers who live in this building.”
The front door opens, and Rowan walks in, still in the jeans and rolled sleeves he wore to work today. He looks from Leah to Declan to Declan’s arm disappearing under the counter.
“What are we sharing?”
Nobody answers. He reads the room in about a second and a half.
“Never mind. I don’t need that answered.” He drops onto a stool at the far end of the island. “And fuck Kian. All Kian’s ever done is take what belongs to other people.”
I know what he’s talking about. Kian fucked a lot of girls that Rowan liked. Kian was a little shit then and hasn’t improved.
Rowan’s face is hard to read. It always is. But I don’t think he’s angry that Declan and I have both been with Leah. I think he’s angry that he hasn’t. Nothing’s stopping him except the thing he sees in the mirror.
“I’m making Mom’s ragù,” I say, to change the conversation.
Declan’s head comes up. “Really?”
“Really.”
“We haven’t had that since—” He stops. “That was always my favorite.”
“I know.” I grab two onions off the counter and jab him in the ribs on the way past. “I’m not making it for you two. You can have some. But it’s for Leah. She’s prettier, and she complains less.”
Neither of my brothers is speaking, and Leah picks up on it immediately.
“Is there something I should know about this ragù?”
“Emmett’s never made it before,” Rowan says before I can. “He’s a good cook. But he’s never once cooked one of Mom’s recipes.”
It’s true. I can taste a dish once and take it apart in my head, and if I weren’t tied up in the family companies, I might have ended up in a kitchen for a living.
But I’ve never touched my mother’s recipes.
It isn’t that I don’t miss them. It’s that they come with everything else attached, and I’ve never wanted to share that with anyone.
Until now. Leah makes me want to share everything with her.
“Then I’m honored,” she says, and she means it. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.” I grab some garlic. “Somebody has to keep you fed. You’re going to need the energy.”
I glance up long enough to wink at her, and the blush goes all the way down her neck.
“Shit.” Declan’s tone kills the mood in one syllable. He’s looking at his phone.
Rowan is off his stool and behind him before I’ve put the knife down. “Fuck. Another one.”
I wipe my hands and come around the island. A text, blocked number.
Unknown: Mr. Walsh wants what he’s owed. You can’t protect that woman forever. We have other ways of collecting. Your brother’s wife, for one. Be a shame if anything happened to her or the baby.
Nobody says anything. I don’t have anything to say either.
Whoever’s been harassing Leah has just pointed at Madeline, and at a child that hasn’t been born yet.
Whatever Kian did, it’s stopped being his mess.
It’s a threat now, against both women in his life, and neither of them did anything to deserve it.
“This ends now.” Declan sets the phone down on the counter very carefully. “I’m putting a security detail on Leah tonight. Madeline is getting one, too.” He focuses his attention on Leah. “We’ll be with you most of the time, but for the hours we’re not, I want someone at your door.”
She shakes her head. “Is that really necessary?”
“Yes.” He’s already standing. “And I’m teaching you self-defense. Starting now. Emmett, how long until dinner is ready?”
“Two hours. The sauce has to simmer.”
“That’ll do.”
“Try not to break her,” I tell him. “Or yourself. Actually, if one of you has to get hurt, I vote you.”
Declan doesn’t smile. “Not the time.”
“Agree to disagree.”
He’s right, though. I know he’s right. I just don’t know how to stand in a room this tense without lightening the mood.
He holds out his hand to Leah. She takes it, and he walks her toward my home gym.
Rowan comes back around the island and leans against it, arms crossed, watching them walk away.
“How do we sell Madeline on a security detail without telling her why?” he asks. “If she finds out someone’s threatening the baby, that’s definitely going to stress her out.”
“We give her a version she can live with.” I go back to chopping the onions. “Kian’s gotten mixed up with the wrong people. It’s a precaution. She’ll take it seriously without knowing how serious it is.”
He thinks about it and nods.
“We should take Leah to the lake this weekend,” he says after a moment. “Get her out of the city. Give her a couple of days to relax. She could use it.”
I stop chopping. “That’s a good idea.”
“I have them occasionally.”
I start chopping again. “Emphasis on occasionally.”
Rowan smiles.
“I’ll bring it up with Declan once he’s done teaching her where to kick a man,” I say. The lake house is the one thing the three of us own that has nothing to do with the business. It’s exactly where she should be. “You’re coming?”
“A day late. I’ve got some work to finish up.”
That will give Declan and me some time alone with our girl.