Chapter 12 #2
‘Misty tells me you’re working through all your lunches and logged forty hours this week, Sofia,’ he rumbled, sending a sudden spike through my pulse. ‘She loves your work ethic, but tell me what you do so I get the hang of it?’
I got hit with a pang of shyness and ducked my head for a beat.
When I glanced up, his eyes were still on me, smoldering, intense, waiting.
The growing yearning to share my world with him and to have a genuine conversation overcame any reticence I still had.
‘Well, today I spent four hours drafting a declaration for a young guitarist from Guatemala. He arrived with nothing but a broken wrist and a guitar. He can’t read the English eviction warnings his landlord pasted to his door, so I navigated the municipal housing codes in Spanish to file an emergency stay. ’
‘I see.’
‘After that, I translated a pharmacy prescription for a Mexican woman who sings in a local mariachi band. She needed urgent meds, Jude, but the English terms terrified her. We get people with asylum and residency paperwork they don’t understand, so I sit with them and help them fill out forms. I also make sure the state lawyers don’t discard their files because a surname is spelled incorrectly.
I’m making certain they’re actually seen. ’
Jude processed my words, his gaze dropping to the diamond ring on my left hand before rising back to meet my eyes.
‘You’re doing quite a bit of lifting, babe,’ he muttered, his mouth tightening as he slid his eyes toward the window, then back to me, contemplative and intense. ‘The Sanctuary is lucky to have you.’
Babe.
I loved hearing him call me that.
I understood it came to him without thinking, but I held onto it with pathetic hope that maybe one day it’d mean something more to him.
When our eyes locked across the dinner table, my soul jolted with such yearning.
I had to look down at my plate to keep him from seeing the longing growing in me.
JUDE
The mid-afternoon text from Levi appeared on my lock screen while I was sitting on the piano bench in the den, with my guitars close by.
I was working from home today, after dropping Sofia off at work, needing some alone time to resolve a difficult chord progression for our new album.
Lifting the pencil from my sheet music and tucking it in my mouth, I reached for my phone and tapped through to check the message.
Misty called the studio looking for you because she couldn’t get hold of you. She wanted to say your wife’s volunteer application form needs her signature. The hell? Are you freakin’ hitched? Justify yourself, rock star. We’re all coming over for a major ‘Please Explain.’
‘Fuck,’ I sighed.
The cat was out of the bag.
I braced, my mind churning as I pulled the story together in my head.
There was no option but to state the facts as they were.
Resigned to my fate, I left the front door ajar and waited in the kitchen, popping open a beer.
Twenty minutes later, Levi, Bishop, Deacon, Angel, and Reign pushed through my front door and swaggered into my dining area, crowding me.
They all gave me baleful glances.
Deacon even sliced a finger over his throat.
‘How could you man? You left us in the dark,’ he growled.
Dropping their bags and jackets onto the table, they surrounded me like a pack of wolves.
‘You’ve got some nerve, Judah,’ Bishop grunted, leaning against the marble island. ‘We’ve been sharing our shit for years, and you get hitched without so much as a whisper? Who’s the wife?’
‘There’s a reason I kept it on the low; it’s a matter of her protection,’ I gritted, handing beers all around to cool their heat. ‘She’s a federal witness in a human trafficking case out of Vermont.’
I gave them a lowdown of how Sofia and I crashed into each other at the airport and the cartel’s threats.
‘The marriage certificate provides her with a legal shield so that my attorneys can keep her out of a detention facility. It’s pure charity; I’m helping a woman in need.’
‘Oh, pull the other leg, mate, it plays jingle bells,’ Angel scoffed, throwing his hands up in the air. ‘Charity? You bought an epic diamond ring, according to Misty, and brought her to Belle Meade for altruism? You’re so full of shit.’
‘We aren’t buying the soldier-boy routine this time, Jude,’ Levi added, cracking a grin. ‘Misty went on about how amazing this woman is and her volunteer work being ace, which means she’s exceptional. We want to meet her.’
‘Titans game is on tonight anyway,’ Reign grunted, gesturing toward the flat-screen on the den wall. ‘Call your girl. We’re ordering food. Tell her we’re staying for dinner to vet her.’
I dragged a palm down my face, cornered.
I pulled my phone out, dialing Sofia’s number.
She picked up on the second ring.
‘Hi, Jude.’
Her quiet voice hit my chest like a shot of straight bourbon.
I skipped the pleasantries. ‘The jig is up. My brothers know about you, and they want an introduction.’
Her breath hitched over the line. ‘They do? When?’
‘Now, babe.’
Levi and Angel exchanged dirty grins, making kissy faces across the room at me.
I tapped mute, pinning them with a look that could strip paint off steel.
‘Are you bastards twelve?’
I unmuted the call. ‘I’m sending a driver for you. You ready?’
‘Sure, maybe, perhaps not.’
I chuckled at the bewilderment in her voice.
‘They don’t bite, well perhaps after midnight when they turn into freakin’ vampires. Even right now they’re in my face, sucking my energy. In truth though, they’re teddy bears. See you soon, babe.’
Angel waggled his brows at the endearment as I rang off.
Shaking my head at my brothers, I arranged a private car service to collect Sofia from The Sanctuary so she wouldn’t have to navigate the evening transit.
When she walked through the front door a half-hour later, my heart jolted.
She was a vision of elegance in her simple skirt and tailored shirt, her dark hair in an elegant chignon.
My five companions sat in various chairs and stools around my kitchen dining table, and they whirled around to stare at her.
Bishop let out a wolf whistle, and Sofia’s eyes found mine as she moved to my side.
I eased an arm over her shoulder on instinct, hit with a strong sense of protectiveness.
‘Hi,’ Sofia said, her voice steady despite the crowd of inked and muscled men staring at her. ‘You must be the rest of the band.’
‘We’re the bastards who make his life a living hell every chance we get, sweetheart,’ Deacon rasped, stepping into her space and taking her hand with a rare, crooked grin. ‘I’m Deacon. That’s Angel, Levi, Bishop, and Reign.’
‘Where the hell did Jude find a girl like you?’ Levi growled, his eyes trailing down her body with zero shame.
‘Back off, Levi,’ I warned, stepping between them, my chest tightening with a blend of possessive heat and unexpected pride as my brothers took her in.
The second her footsteps faded up the staircase, the room turned into an interrogation unit.
‘Holy fuck, man,’ Levi rasped, pouring a double shot of whiskey. ‘She’s money.’