18. Amorette
AMORETTE
“R efrigerador .” I pointed to the fridge.
“ Bueno .” Lafe nodded while he chopped up lettuce and tomato.
“ Estufa .” I pointed at the stove.
Lafe nodded with a smile.
“ Cuchillo, ” I said with a grin, nodding to the knife in his hand.
“ Muy bueno ,” he returned.
I gave out an embarrassing but low squeal and hopped.
Damn, that was ridiculous, but I couldn’t hold in my excitement.
Every day I was committing more and more words to memory.
I still couldn’t understand the conversations that happened around me.
Everyone here spoke much too fast for that, but I might be able to pick out a few words here and there soon.
It was all progress, and I’d take it.
“What’s all the excitement in here?”
I turned to face Parker, losing a bit of my joy.
No, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t that I hated him.
I certainly didn’t trust him, but I didn’t trust very many people here, anyway.
The greater issue was that every time I saw him, I saw his face shrouded with desire and the massive erection in his pants while I fell apart beneath Grey.
Lafe gave me a weird look before answering Parker. “We’re making lunch and working on Spanish. Killer’s decided it’s a tool she needs to survive us.”
“Not survive you specifically,” I pointed out, but maybe I spoke too soon. I was thrown into this life because of them. I was trying to come to terms with who they were and who I was coming to be, so loosely, I did want to survive them.
“You want to learn Spanish?” Parker perked up.
“Little Love, languages are my thing. I can have you fluent in no time.” He stepped closer, and I took a small step back.
His brow furrowed, and one side of his mouth tipped up in a barely there smile.
“What’s this? You’re not afraid of me, are you, Little Love? Not after that one afternoon.”
I stepped forward, but was jerked back into Lafe’s chest. He wrapped an arm around me for just a second, long enough to shift me to the other side of him.
“You’re making her uncomfortable.” Lafe went back to cutting up the veggies. He’d made bacon again, which seemed like his go-to meal. I wasn’t complaining. A good BLT went a long way to temporarily elevating my happiness.
Parker released a high, amused laugh. “Oh, brother, you have no idea. You weren’t there that day bu—”
“Shut up!” I snapped, and he grinned like he was just waiting for me to blow all along.
He grabbed a shiny red apple from the counter and took a bite. The crunch of his chewing almost blocked out the sound of Lafe finishing up on the cutting board.
Lafe ignored him, arranging the tomato and lettuce on a plate beside the bacon. Parker glanced between us and grinned even wider.
“Lafe, why didn’t you send her to me when she wanted to learn Spanish?”
He grunted. “Why would I? You torment everyone.”
“But I’m efficient and brilliant.” Parker pointed at Lafe with the hand holding the apple. “I’m the best man for this particular job…Unless you—”
“Fuck you,” Lafe said as he started assembling sandwiches. “Like last time?” He glanced at me without stopping the bacon layering.
“Yeah, it was perfect last time.” A ghost of a smile coasted across his face, then he twisted back to the sandwiches.
Parker opened his phone and typed out a few words as he continued to snack on his apple.
“We’re going after the painting this week.
I have two groups of men on standby. One team is a decoy.
The other is the real deal,” he informed me, and some of the pressure surrounding my heart relaxed.
Good. He was leaving the men alone. This could all be a game to him, and he’d go after them later, but I was focusing on the small mercies for now.
I didn’t think he was heartless, and stupidly, I was waiting for him to prove it to me.
Someone hollered for Parker down the hallway. He glanced over his shoulder and sighed. “Here. Text Rod the location you gave me. I’ll be right back,” he said, sliding his phone across the counter.
It was open on Rod’s name, and a string of cryptic texts was already in the chat. I peeked at Lafe, but he was absorbed in making the sandwiches. A wave of tingles rushed over my body, just like the day I’d been left alone in Andre’s office. Would the adrenaline rush ever die down?
I’d already decided I wouldn’t run; I was going to see this through the best I could. At least as long as they kept their word and didn’t hurt women and children. Yet, every time an opportunity presented itself, my naive heart thought it was the opportunity to escape.
I typed up the information I’d given Parker and hit send, then pushed it back over to where he had been standing.
Even though I’d decided, I didn’t want to risk temptation.
In a weak moment, I might break down and call Grace.
As much as I wanted to hear her voice again, I wanted her in this world like I wanted to saw off my own foot.
“Do you think you’d miss your brothers if you couldn’t see them anymore?” I asked, rubbing a hand over my heart. When I caught myself, I forced it back down.
Lafe had finished the sandwiches, and his eyes were glued to my chest, where I’d been rubbing seconds ago. When he lifted his gaze, the skin around his eyes had softened. He watched me, or maybe he was trying to determine the answer. I wasn’t sure.
“Let’s eat.” He nodded to the table in the corner of the commons kitchen.
It was a large, wooden round table with ten chairs around it.
Perfect for large families, yet I’d never seen anyone sitting here.
He set out plates side by side while I’d already placed the water pitcher with glasses on the table earlier.
I sat down, trying to forget about Grace.
It hurt to think about her. It was a physical pain embedded in my body.
I’d never lose the feeling completely. But just like every other time she crossed my mind, a warmth so sweet it almost brought tears to my eyes burned inside me.
This, missing her, was the epitome of conflicting emotions.
I loved to remember her, just as much as I hated it.
“I don’t know,” Lafe started, picking up half of his cut sandwich. “Some days, I think I would be lost without them. Then other times, I hate them.” His jaw worked as he stared at his sandwich.
“Why do you hate them?” I whispered as I nudged my own plate. I wanted to know these answers like I wanted to talk to Grace. Well, maybe not quite that much, but it was close. If I understood them, why they stuck together even when they didn’t like each other. Maybe I would want to stay too.
He rolled his lips together and brought the sandwich closer to his face. Then he closed his eyes and just stopped. “I don’t hate them. Not all of them. I just want to.”
Lafe took a bite of the sandwich, and the crunch of the bacon and lettuce rang between us like that was the end of the conversation.
For now, I’d accept that, but this wasn’t the end. I had too many questions. Part of me also ached for them to confide in me, just a little. Not so much to know their secrets but to feel like I was part of their circle and not a prisoner. Not even a pampered one.
“What are you doing after this?” I asked before I took my own bite. The salty flavor burst over my tongue and I hummed my enjoyment.
“Nothing,” he rushed out and stuffed another bite in his mouth.
I slowed down my chewing because, one, that was weird. And two, I wasn’t sure why he was acting weird.
“I’m on season two of that show you hooked me on. Do you want to watch a couple of episodes with me?”
He set his sandwich down and looked me square in the eyes.
The light blue more electric than I’d ever seen before.
Clearing his throat, he adjusted his seat.
“No, I can’t today. I’m happy to help you continue learning Spanish.
I wasn’t lying, Parker’s a bastard who likes to torment everyone.
But I don’t think we should watch any more shows together. ”
Instantly, the sharp sting of embarrassment and rejection slid over me. I knew why he was turning me down. It was because of the cuddling we’d done. But that wasn’t what I was offering.
“You can sit on one couch, and I can sit on the other.” I raised a brow as if he was being ridiculous. More guilt heaped onto me for that too.
“I think it’s better if we don’t.” He finished off his sandwich in short order while I sat there staring at him. When he was done, he picked up his dishes and carried them to the sink. “We’ll work on weapons next,” he said as he exited the room.
With much less enthusiasm, I continued eating my sandwich. It wasn’t long before Parker popped back in. He looked at me, then searched the kitchen for his phone. After collecting it from the counter, he pulled a chair across from me and crossed his arms.
“You could have used my phone to call for help.” He wasn’t smiling. There wasn’t even a hint of one anywhere on his face.
“I could. I also could have called for help when I was alone in Andre’s office. I didn’t.” I pushed my plate away.
Was this it? Was this the moment I became the actual accomplice, in heart if not in action? We both knew I’d already crossed that bridge a while ago.
The weight of his stare peeled back the layers of my intentions, or so it seemed. There was an intelligence about Parker that I wouldn’t say was missing in the other brothers, but something about his eyes made him seem…. Sharper. Perhaps it was what made him cruel.
“What’s changed, Little Love?” Seriousness dripped from his tone.
I blew out a breath. What had changed? I wasn’t even sure myself. “I don’t know.”
“That’s not a soothing answer.”
“That’s the only one I have.” I shrugged, like he could take it or leave it.
This time, he did crack. Mirth returned to his eyes, and they sparkled as the corners of his lips slowly turned up into a Joker-esque smile. This was the smile that made him look the part of the villain. And he was undoubtedly someone’s villain. I was sure of it.
He just wasn’t mine.
“Fair enough.” He tilted his head as he regarded me. There was so much working behind his eyes, and I couldn’t help but ask what I should have questioned Lafe about.
“Am I trusted now? Not the enemy anymore?”
He stretched his arm out on the table as he leaned back, a flirty grin twisting his lips. “You were never the enemy. We don’t allow our enemies in our compound, and we certainly don’t sleep with them.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Don’t you?” I wanted to kick myself. That sounded suggestive, teasing. When I had only wanted to point out that the brothers seemed like the kind of men to sleep with who they wanted to, alliances and any other pesky issues be damned.
“Are you insinuating that I myself sleep with the enemy, or that Grey does?” His face lit up like he was enjoying this conversation far too much.
I coughed and dropped my gaze. “Neither. I just meant… I’ve seen you with women.” My face was on fire, and I could feel Parker’s gaze eating me up. “It’s not like you’re interviewing them before you bend them over.”
He laughed a high, hyena-type laugh and slapped the table. “Little Love. Is that your kink? You like to watch? Tell me… how many women have you seen me with? There couldn’t have been that many opportunities.”
Like a siren’s call, I lifted my gaze to his. Exactly as I thought, delight was stamped over his entire body, and he was pressing against the table like he regretted sitting on the far side.
“A few,” I whispered, hating the way it came out strangled.
Before he had time to respond, Lafe walked back in. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and stopped by the table, his blue gaze bouncing between Parker and me.
“Why does Amorette look like you’re embarrassing her?”
Parker straightened up and grinned at Lafe. “Little Love was just telling me about the women she’s seen me with.”
Lafe chuckled as a devious glint entered his eye. He snaked a quick glance at me before turning back to Parker. “You mean the women who are eerily similar to Killer?” He untwisted the cap and took a swig of water as his comment settled between us.
I sucked in a short breath as Parker glared.
“Nothing to say?” Lafe screwed the cap back on and faced him with an expression that said he was over Parker’s games.
“Why would I need poor imitations when I can watch the real thing? Amorette’s so pretty when she comes. Did you know that?” Parker’s gaze was cold on Lafe.
My heart dropped into my stomach as Lafe squeezed the bottle, the crinkling plastic cutting through the sudden oppressive silence.
“I didn’t know you were there!” I pushed myself away from the table and stood up.
“Grey did. Does that bother you, Little Love?” The playful tone was absent in his voice now as he slowly rose to his feet.
“Maybe my brother isn’t as possessive about you as you think he is.
Do you want that? Do you want to be in the middle of us?
Do you thrive on us fighting over you? Or maybe you just want us to share you?
” He directed his attention to Lafe on the last question, who had completely bristled.
I walked around the table, my hands trembling and my head buzzing with too many out-of-control emotions. Parker’s gaze softened when I stopped directly in front of him. He had just raised his hands to touch my hips when I smacked his cheek as hard as I could.
“You’re an asshole, Parker,” I said through clenched teeth.
Without giving either of them another opportunity to anger me anymore, I stormed out.
Yet, I couldn’t forget Parker’s words. Grey had known Parker was there. Was this what he wanted, or was Parker just trying to fuck with my head?