Chapter Twenty Three
Leighton
Rich was testing the limits of my loyalty, and I didn't like it one bit. Worse, I didn't understand why him telling ma petit that she was just a job had me itching to beat him bloody. It wasn't any of my business if he liked her or not. Still, I found myself storming from the cabin, jumping over the steps instead of walking down them as my eyes scanned the tree line in search of him. Whatever these sensations roiling in my chest were, they were nothing like the obsessions I'd had in the past.
A feral grin split my face as I caught sight of his white t-shirt amongst the vivid colors of fall leaves. Breaking into a jog, I raced after him, weaving through the trees and jumping over the underbrush. As soon as I caught up to him, I grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and jerked him to face me, my free hand balling into a fist and slamming into his gut, causing him to double over.
"Oh, shit." I said, remembering he was still injured as his mouth gaped open and shut struggling to pull in air. "I forgot you're not healed yet. You need to hurry the fuck up an heal already so I can thoroughly kick your ass. Me and you," I said, jabbing my finger towards each of us to punctuate my words, "we're in a fight."
"Leighton!" Az called out somewhere behind me as Rich stared up at me with rage filled eyes where he was still doubled over holding his stomach.
"I said I wasn't going to fucking kill him, Az-hole!" I hollered back, looking over my shoulder to watch Az pick his way toward us. "You didn't have to follow me out here like a fucking nanny to make sure I behaved myself."
Az scowled as he reached where I stood, muttering something under his breath before he moved around me to help Rich right himself.
"You can't tell me he didn't deserve to be hit." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Why the fuck did you even hit me?" Rich demanded, finally catching his breath.
"You know why, fucker." I snarled. "And the second you're all healed up, I'm finishing what I just started and wiping the mat with your sorry ass."
"I see," Rich said evenly. "This is about the Princess. Christ, she has all of you so pussy-whipped you can't see the forest for the fucking trees."
Az's fist shot out and connected with Rich's jaw, causing Rich's head to jerk sideways. I couldn't help the cackle that escaped me. Fucker deserved it. Az glared at Rich as he shook out his hand, almost like he was daring him to say another word.
"Maybe you needed the murder nanny," I snorted.
"This is the shit I'm fucking talking about!" Rich snarled as he rubbed his jaw. "Since when have we come to blows over a piece of ass, huh? When the fuck did you boys start taking sides that weren't ours ?! She's a fucking distraction! And it's going to wind up getting someone killed!"
"You shut your whore mouth!" I shouted, possessiveness clawing at my chest. "She's mine ," Az shifting his weight drew my gaze to him, "Fine, ours . And that makes her side our side. She killed for us, that makes her ours."
"He's not wrong, Rich. If she was one of our people, she'd already have gotten her mark because she saved my ass. And you'd do well to start treating her with at least that same kind of respect. Right now, you're worse than I was when all this started. You're just being cruel for the sake of it, and we're better than that." Az growled, sounding like he was trying to find an even tone but not quite getting there.
" I'm being cruel?" Rich scoffed. "I'm not the one who's forgotten why this started and why we're still here. It's the rest of you that can't seem to remember there's someone gunning for all six of us. Too busy sticking your dicks in her every chance you get. Reminding her that she is, and always was, just a job isn't being cruel. It's being honest."
"Did you get brain damaged when the manor blew up?" I asked before busting out laughing at how absolutely hilarious his words were.
"Are… You have got to be fucking kidding me." Az snapped. "Who the fuck even are you right now, Rich?"
"I'm the head of this family and you'd do well to remember that." Rich replied tersely.
I laughed even harder, doubling over as I tried to catch my breath and get control of myself. "This guy. He's a fucking riot."
"That can change…" Az said, a dangerous seriousness in his tone. "You're making yourself fucking useless at this point. Acting like plans can't change. Newsflash, you fucking idiot. They did. They've been changed a long goddamn time, and you need to figure out how to roll with it. She is ours . She earned her right to be here. It wasn't even that long ago that even you were killing for her while she was killing for us. Every single one of us was in the shit trying to get out and it's not her fucking fault it went sideways. Just because you don't know how to handle your feelings, refuse to admit them to even yourself, doesn't change any of those facts."
I flung my arm around Rich's shoulders. "We're still in a fight, but I know a few things about not understanding feelings. I'm thinking of taking Phil up on his offer for his therapist's number, you should come with me."
Rich shrugged my arm off of him and stepped a space away from me. "All of you seem to keep forgetting the Princess isn't made for this world. When the dust settles and she's safe to go back to her ivory tower, she'll leave us all in the dust and never look back. The only question is how much fucking damage she's going to leave in her wake."
"How fucking childish…" Az sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Do you think that we're the first people to run the risk of someone leaving us? When it's over, if she wants to leave, then she will because we'll respect her choices enough to let her go."
"I-" I started.
" Yes , you would. Because we aren't going to keep someone with us against their will."
"I licked her, she's mine till death do us part." I huffed, scuffing the toe of my shoe in the dirt.
"That… is not how marriage works, Leighton." Az rolled his eyes before turning back to Rich. "So, what if she leaves? Sure, that shit would hurt like hell. But how well-versed are we in heartbreak? All of us. Hell, most of us are more prepared to deal with that than we were to realize that there was something there. Life will go on, and so will we. But there is absolutely no fucking reason for you to act the way you did because you're creating situations in your head that you have no way of knowing. She wasn't made for this world, but so far, she seems to be finding her way with more grace than any of us did."
"Speak for yourself," I mumbled again.
"Do you not hear her fighting in her sleep? Replaying the bullshit, she's been through over and over in her mind when it's at its most vulnerable." Rich said, but his voice was losing its heat, coming out almost sad.
"You think we don't hear it? One of us is always there, soothing the nightmares away when they happen. And which of us hasn't dealt with some kind of nightmare that follows us around? That comes with the fucking territory! I've gotten up from my own nightmares to find you already at the coffee pot because yours didn't let you sleep either. I've never seen you so absolutely stuck in that you refuse to admit when someone has done well in our ranks. You haven't even gotten your own head out of your ass enough to talk to her, to figure out where her mind is at. Everything about the shit between you two, hell, all of us, it's all what you've created in your own fucking head because you are too stubborn to acknowledge that you have feelings for her that run just as deep as ours." Az stared Rich down, his arms crossed over his chest.
Rich raked a hand through his hair and tugged at his curls so hard I thought he was going to rip out a bald patch. With a low growl, he stalked toward Az until they were standing toe to toe. I struggled against the urge to clap my hands together in excitement for the fight that was coming.
"It's my fucking fault!" Rich bellowed. "Is that what you want to hear? That it's my goddamned fault she's here, that she was ever in a position to kill someone, that she had to watch us beat and kill a man for information, that she's having fucking nightmares? If I'd just had a little goddamned more patience and dug just a little deeper, we'd have known Rinaldo was behind the gala set up. We would have been fucking prepared to take the fight to them and end this, all without ever crashing into her fucking life."
"She's not all sunshine and light like you think." I frowned. "Like knows like, and deep down, she's got the same darkness in her we all do. Only something vicious could take me to task the way she does." I couldn't help the smile that curved my lips at the thought of how she came at me every time I made her mad.
I spotted the curl to Az's lip, and he nodded in agreement. "You've got this idea in your head that she's something she's not. Rich, she's not some wilting wallflower who is going to faint when things get hard. Hell, eventually, she probably won't even need rescuing."
"She did hit Az in the head with a rock, that was pretty impressive." I shrugged.
"How did you know that? You weren't even there?" Az asked.
"I may have been spying out her window. Or not, who knows?" I snickered, causing Az to roll his eyes again.
"Of course you were. But… to be fair, she didn't know I was there because she was just throwing things."
"Still counts."
"Can the two of you stay on fucking topic here? Or are we done with the ‘bitch at Rich' hour?" Rich huffed. "My point still fucking stands, she wasn't made for this world. She shouldn't have to change who she is to make herself fit. It's fucking selfish of any of us to expect her to."
Az stared at the ground for a moment; Rich's words seemed to make him play something out in his head that had his lips curling up in a tender smile that wasn't usual for our hot-headed Az-hole.
"I don't care what the rest of you guys do, but it's like you don't even know me, Rich. Selfless is not in my wheelhouse." I said dryly.
"I… said the same thing to her not long ago, actually. We were fighting, because of course we were, and I told her that she deserved better than what we could offer. If I was a better man, I'd let her go. Shit, if she was smarter, she'd run for the hills the first chance she got. She shouldn't have been put in this position to watch us do what we do, or be dragged down into it herself…" He trailed off a bit, that tender smile finally reaching his eyes. I'd have to give him shit later about going soft on us.
"What Loverboy here is trying to say," I interjected. "Is she's a big girl, and it's her choice what she does. I heard her tell him that herself."
Az shot me a look like he was wondering what else I heard, so I grinned at him and winked. I'd overheard their entire argument and make-up session against the cabin, but I wasn't telling him that yet.
"The little eavesdropper here is right. She is adamant that she's here by choice, and it's not ours to decide for her who has space in her life or in her bed. You're just holding onto shit that wasn't your fault, or hers. At this point, Rich, you're making a fucking fool of the both of you, and you're being a bigger idiot than I've ever known you to be. I don't know what you need to do, but eventually, you need to realize that if you wanna come out of this without having done more damage than we came here to do… realize that you're the one stomping all over what could have been, and you'll have to take the result up with the mirror."
"Shit, even if you don't wanna tell her, because sometimes that woman even scares me, " I said, forcing a shudder. "At least be honest with yourself about it. I have, and let me tell ya, it's a whole lot better than thinking you're having a heart attack."
Rich rubbed his hand over his face with a groan. "What you two chucklefucks don't seem to understand is that what I feel, hell what I want with her doesn't fucking matter. You say it's her choice to be here, well that's a dumb fucking choice. We. Will. Ruin. Her. The kindest thing we can do for her is walk away from her if she won't walk away from us once all this is over."
"If you think that any of us, even you , are gonna be able to–"
The shrill sound of my phone ringing in my pants pocket interrupted Az. Scowling, I tugged it out of my pocket, and my frown deepened as my sister's name flashed on the screen.
"What Lacey?" I demanded when I answered the call. "I'm in the middle of important shit right now about feelings."
"You're- Never mind, I don't have time to deal with whatever weird shit you're into right now. The Jackals know where you are. One of my inside men just reached out to me. They are on their way to you now. If you don't want to get killed over that bitch, you need to leave now."
"Fuck! Ok, I've gotta go. Call her a bitch again, I'll stab you in the throat next time I see you. Byeee!" I said, hanging up the phone and looking at Rich and Az's confused faces. "Jackals en route, boys, we gotta roll."