Chapter 4
SEBASTIAN
“Which one of you shut off my alarm?” My darling’s grumpy voice broke the silence of the living room.
I looked up from my laptop, and Alexander straightened from where he was leaning against the kitchen counter.
He slipped his phone into his back pocket and opened the fridge.
I chuckled to myself as he got out the bacon and hash browns first. We were all learning that food was the way to our girl’s heart.
“Good morning, darling.” I smiled widely at her.
She looked adorable in my black T-shirt and grey PJ shorts. Seeing her in my clothes filled me with the possessive desire to throw her over my shoulder and carry her back to the bedroom.
“Good afternoon is more like it,” she grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
“You needed the sleep,” Alexander said simply, setting a cup of coffee on the counter next to me.
“I need to handle things,” she shot back with all the force of a grumpy kitten as she smothered a yawn.
Alexander wisely chose not to say anything and instead started cooking the bacon in the skillet.
Evelyn settled next to me, and I tugged her stool closer. She grumbled but snatched up the coffee mug like it was gold. I guess for her it was.
I waited until she had taken a few sips before I filled her in on what had happened while she was asleep.
“Liam is at SDS. He confirmed they didn’t access anything, and Maya successfully wiped the local drives. He couldn’t track who sent Dominic the threat as it was a burner phone, so Dominic is going to stay with us for the time being.”
“Well, we have a strong idea who sent it,” Evelyn said.
“We do,” I agreed. “We’ll look into the burner, but if it wasn’t a local purchase, it’ll be harder to track.
Maya is fine and is being babied at home by both their dad and Liam.
Grace woke up for a bit again this morning but wasn’t very coherent.
Danny says he’ll call when she wakes up more fully, but he doesn’t want to see you at the hospital till tomorrow. ”
“He’s getting awfully bossy,” Evelyn grumbled, but her eyes were warm.
I would hazard a guess that Danny had always been this bossy about her safety, but since she hadn’t finished her first cup of coffee yet, I wasn’t going to point that out.
“Adrian, Marcus, and Dominic are at the office. They’re helping Liam review some traffic footage. Dominic is following up with the SID. The official report won’t be available for a couple more days, but Dominic’s going to see what Agent Mercer is willing to share.”
“Likely not much, since Dominic defied orders,” Alexander said as he slid a plate of bacon over to us. “But he’s going to ask anyway.”
I nodded. “Adrian and Marcus are also handling some SDS operations.”
“We’ll likely need to go into the office tomorrow and sort some stuff out, but we can talk more once they get home,” Alexander said. “I’m going to delegate as much as we can to our VPs while we’re dealing with this.”
“But we have all of those extra contracts from Citadel’s former clients,” Evelyn protested.
“And they can wait,” Alexander said firmly. “This is more important.”
Evelyn chewed on her lip, frowning. I reached over and tugged her lip away from her teeth.
“It’s a unanimous decision,” I told her. “We all agreed. This takes priority. You take priority.”
Evelyn exhaled slowly and nodded. “Okay.”
“Good girl,” I murmured.
She blushed and squirmed on her chair. Oh, we were going to explore that later for sure.
She pushed my hand away and picked up another piece of bacon.
Alexander slid a plate of eggs and hash browns in front of her, set one in front of me, then joined us at the island to eat.
We ate in silence for a few minutes. Evelyn stared into her plate as she ate methodically.
“Okay, what else?” she asked after we finished.
“Izzy called as well,” Alexander said, picking up her finished plate and taking it to the sink.
“She talked to Matt. He said we’ll be able to get in and assess the damage at HQ tomorrow afternoon at the earliest, but he warned her that nothing looked salvageable.
He said to let him know what you needed. ”
Evelyn groaned and rubbed her temples. “Fuck, I figured it was a total wash but still…”
“We’ll help you rebuild,” I reminded her.
“I know,” she said, but her shoulders were slumped, and I didn’t like the defeated look on her face.
“We’re going to get him,” Alexander said. “He’s good, but he’s still human. He’ll slip up, and we’ll be waiting.”
Evelyn inclined her head but kept her eyes on the counter in front of her; her fingers tapped against her leg.
“The others will get home around dinnertime, and we can discuss our next steps then,” Alexander said.
I glanced at the clock. We still had about five or six hours until they got home.
“We can watch a movie,” I suggested.
She bit her lip and shrugged. I hated how unsure she looked right now, like her whole foundation had been rocked. Anger at the Kingfisher filled me. When we found this asshole, I was going to have some strong words with him for upsetting my darling Evie.
“Or…” Alexander leaned forward on his elbows across the counter. “We can do something else to take your mind off everything.” Oh, a bold suggestion from my big brother. But it may be exactly what she needed.
Evelyn lifted her eyes to his. They stayed locked in a stare for a few moments.
“Make me forget,” she murmured finally. “Both of you.” She looked over at me. “I don’t want to think about everything for a bit.”
“Is that what you want?” I asked, scooting closer until our thighs brushed. “For us to take you apart, to drive you wild with pleasure until you can’t remember your own name, much less anything that’s going on?
She shivered and nodded. “Yes,” she breathed. “That’s what I want. I want to get out of my head.”
I stood and threw her over my shoulder. She yelped.
“Think you can keep up, old man?” I threw over my shoulder at Alexander.
He pushed up from the counter and strode after us. “We’ll see who can’t keep up,” he shot back.
Evelyn giggled, the first lighthearted sound I’d heard out of her all morning, and the tension in my shoulders eased slightly. We were going to take care of her now, and then afterwards, we’d take care of her pesky Kingfisher problem and get onto living happily ever after.