Chapter 1
Fox trudged up the stairs of his apartment building. It had been a long day at work. Fires had just seemed to erupt everywhere. Not actual fires, the metaphorical ones.
The three-story in Revere the team was tearing back to the studs was demanding more of his attention than it should. The house had become a broken record with one problem after another. That meant he couldn’t get to the new build in Brookline as often as he should.
With one of his regular clients chomping to begin his townhome remodel in Cambridge, Fox didn’t know how he would ever get any time off. The driving back and forth between sites alone was enough to drive him crazy. His boss kept assuring him that everyone wanted him to oversee their projects.
He knew he was good at his job, but that didn’t mean they needed to assign him to all of them. There were two other site supervisors who were perfectly capable. Not as good, but still capable.
He didn’t know if it was just his imagination, but the stairs to his apartment seemed to get longer every time he climbed them.
There should be just enough time to get in the shower before his sister came banging on his door.
His girlfriend would show up not long after that.
Then he would get to enjoy the two women sneering at each other the rest of the evening.
Fox really wished his sister would just leave well enough alone.
This relationship was hard enough without her in the middle of it.
But Dover had been watching over him for the last forty-one years.
She truly believed that being born sixteen minutes earlier meant she got to interfere in everything where he was concerned.
He left his boots by the front door, threw his clothes in the hamper and stepped into the shower. He didn’t do much of the heavy labor anymore at the job sites, but he still seemed to get just as dirty.
The water finally ran clean, and he stepped out to dry off. He pulled on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt before heading for the kitchen. He had just turned the oven on when he heard the door open. That would be Dover.
“Hey,” she said, walking into the kitchen. “I need some ice. You got any plastic bags?”
“You know where they are,” he answered. “Hand me that casserole dish on the top shelf of the fridge while you’re over there.” He slid it into the oven when she set it on the counter.
“Come into the living room with me. There are some people I want you to meet.” She stood with the bag of ice.
He shook his head when she walked out of the room just expecting him to follow.
He did just that and found two men sitting on his couch.
One was nursing a swollen knee. Dover tossed the bag of ice to him.
“This is my brother, Fox,” she said. She didn’t introduce either one of the strangers. She had always been a little rough around the edges.
“What happened?” he asked. He pulled over a chair from the table for the man to rest his leg on.
“Your sister beat him up,” the other man said.
“Mmm,” he acknowledged. “I believe that.”
“Fox, these two claim they’re related to us,” Dover said, settling in a chair across from them.
“Really?” he said. “I guess it’s possible. We don’t really know anything about our biological parents. The Addamses adopted us while we were still in the hospital.”
Now that he looked a little closer, he noticed they had the same eyes that both men did. Usually, he wouldn’t think anything about that, except they had green eyes that almost glowed. He had never seen anyone else with eyes like that—except his sister.
“Are you going to give them our bank codes and Social Security numbers too?” Dover asked. His sister’s voice rang in his mind. What had started as a parlor trick when they were young had developed into something neither of them could explain.
“Aren’t you even a little bit curious?” he asked, looking at her.
“And if they’re running some elaborate con game? What if they’re just some thugs Brooke’s ex hired to kill you?”
“Then they would have killed me by now.” Fox rolled his eyes and turned back to their guests. “What proof do you have?” he asked out loud.
“This is Knox’s DNA profile,” one of the men said, laying down a piece of paper. “This one is mine.”
Fox looked at the papers. Knox Monroe was the big guy with the bum knee, and Memphis Prescott was the other one.
“This one is yours,” he added, placing another paper on the table.
They began to discuss what they did and who the rest of their party was, but Fox had tuned out. He pulled the three pieces of paper to him and studied them. He had no idea how to read them. He could see there were areas where all three tests matched.
“So, if you’re right, we’d be number five and six,” Fox said, interrupting something Memphis was saying about more siblings. Was that right? He had heard something about a red-headed sister and a college-age brother during the explanation.
Memphis opened his mouth to say something more when the door opened.
Brooke stopped in the doorway and took a perusal of the room.
Her gaze was almost flirty with the two men on the couch.
When it fell on Fox, her gaze turned into a smile.
With Dover, her glare became glacial. Fox stood to greet her, but she ignored him.
She was still trying to win the stare-off between her and Dover.
“We should go,” Memphis said, standing. “We’ll just leave those for you to study. Come on, Knox.” He heaved the large man to his feet and returned the chair to the table. “It was nice to meet everyone. Ma’am,” he added to Brooke, half dragging Knox into the hallway.
“How was your day?” Fox asked, giving Brooke a quick kiss on the cheek. “Where’s Ethan?”
“He’s with his dad tonight,” she answered.
Fox tried not to flinch. Ethan’s dad was a notorious drug dealer who worked up in Lowell. Fox hated it when she left the little boy with his father. He worried that Ethan wouldn’t come home one day because he was in the morgue.
“Doesn’t he have school tomorrow?” Fox asked.
“Hey, where’s Ethan?” Dover asked, walking back inside from the hallway.
“None of your business,” Brooke answered.
“With his dad,” Fox said at the same time.
“You left him with that crackhead?” Dover asked. “Are you fucking stupid?”
“Don’t you come into this apartment and start telling me who I can and can’t leave my son with,” Brooke seethed.
It was the same all the time. Fox watched the back and forth until he couldn’t take it anymore. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and focused on the small amount of calm still left in the room.
Soon both women seemed to have the fight siphoned right out of them. They wouldn’t apologize and make up, but at least they weren’t screaming at each other still. The yelling wouldn’t change the circumstances. Ethan was still going to be gone.
“I’m going home,” Dover suddenly announced.
“Can I see you in the hall?” She didn’t wait to see if Fox would agree.
She grabbed him by the front of the shirt and dragged him through the door.
Pulling the door closed behind them, she started smacking Fox in the chest. “Stop fucking doing that,” she said.
“Doing what?” He wasn’t stupid. They both know what he was doing.
“Being a dick.”
“How is diffusing the situation before you come to blows being a dick? Why do you keep fighting with her? It does nothing but make this worse. You know why I can’t change anything.”
Dover took a deep breath this time before patting on his chest. “I know. How long do you think you can keep this up?”
“I don’t know. I don’t see any other option right now,” he answered.
Her hand dropped. She studied his face before shaking her head.
“I’m sorry. I know how hard this is. Please be careful. When I look at you, you’re very blue, and she all but glows red. I don’t want to get a call saying she finally killed you,” Dover said.
“I will be. I promise,” he added when she scrunched her eyebrows at him. She kissed his cheek and started down the hallway. “Hey, what about those guys? Memphis and Knox?”
“I gave them one of my cards. Said to call if they wanted to talk more,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll be surprised if we hear from them again, but if so, I’ll get to the bottom of it.”
He would be surprised if they heard from them again too. It would be interesting, however, to find they had a whole passel of brothers and sisters out there.
“Why do you let her come over here?” Brooke demanded the second he stepped back into the apartment. She had taken off her work clothes and stood in just her underwear.
“She’s my sister. I can’t just forbid her from coming over. It wouldn’t work anyway. You know how she is.”
Brooke pouted for a few minutes. “Well, I don’t like it,” she said.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Her pout morphed into a sexy smile. “Maybe Daddy should come make it up to me.” Why had he ever found that appealing? It had even been a major turn-on at one time. Now it just made his stomach turn.
But he would do whatever she wanted to guarantee she didn’t run off with Ethan again. That week had been the worst of his life. He had spent sleepless nights wondering what was happening to the little boy.
His mother had been known to leave him in motel rooms alone while she went out partying. There was even a story about Ethan being asleep in the bedroom while her ex and his buddies did lines in the living room.
She pulled him to her and tugged his T-shirt off over his head. Her hand smoothed its way down his body and pushed its way inside his sweats. Her mouth turned down in a pout again at finding him flaccid. Not to be easily discouraged, she dropped to her knees.
Fox closed his eyes when she began to stroke him. There was a time when just looking at her made him hard. That was before he realized that the sexy exterior hid a mind full of venom.
“That’s better,” she said, pushing back to her feet. “Now come make me scream.” Taking his hand, she led him into the bedroom.
Making her scream wasn’t hard. He swore from the first time that she exaggerated every orgasm like she was starring in some porn movie. Most of the time, he even had to place a hand over her mouth to keep her from waking Ethan up. She always sunk her teeth into his palm.
But if it kept her satisfied and Ethan here, he was willing to do whatever she wanted. He didn’t know how he got into this mess. He just needed to keep going until he could come up with a better plan.
Blessedly, she always fell asleep after he fucked her. It gave him time to himself to catch up on work emails or his reading. She snored next to him as he sat propped against the headboard.
He didn’t have many urgent emails, which gave him the chance to catch up on the thriller he’d picked up at the bookstore last week. It was just starting to get good when his phone vibrated on the table next to him. Checking it, he found a text from Brooke’s sister.
Bailey: Ethan threw up. I just picked him up. Thought you’d like to know he’s safe.
Brooke and Bailey were like two sides of a coin. Brooke was rail thin with a sugary sweetness to those she deemed worthy and viciousness to those she didn’t. Bailey, on the other hand, was curvier, smart, and kind to everyone—even Brooke. She was in the same boat as Fox when it came to Ethan.
Fox: Thanks. I’ll be able to sleep now. Is he okay? Do you need me to come to get him?
Bailey: He’s fine. I think it was just the junk food he had for dinner.
Fox: I have to check on a few things before I can pick him up tomorrow. Is that a problem?
Bailey: None whatsoever. We’ll be just fine. See you tomorrow.
Fox set his phone back on the nightstand.
Thank God Bailey lived just south of Lowell, close enough to swoop in and take the little boy.
He wouldn’t have to worry about Ethan for the rest of the night.
His aunt loved him without reservation. She also worked from home as some kind of computer person.
She had tried to explain once what she did, but it went right over Fox’s head.
He turned out the light and laid his head back on the pillow.
Just knowing Ethan was being taken care of made his eyes droop.
It also didn’t escape his notice that whenever he thought about Bailey, he seemed to smile a little more.
He needed to shut whatever was causing that down.
The last thing he needed was dreaming about one sister while fucking the other.