Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
KNOX
After we arrive at the hotel, we follow Bones up to the ninth floor.
We step out of the elevator and four men move with him, their hands on their weapons in their holsters as if ready for battle.
He opens the room with a key card and stands back gesturing for us to go inside first. Heather goes in first followed by myself, Killian, and lastly Carter as he glances around, his eyes clouded with apprehension.
Killian immediately finds the bar, and begins pouring drinks, while Heather moves to me. I wrap my arm around her waist, holding her close as Bones introduces us to the four armed men.
“This is Dante, Jacob, Milo, and Joshua. They will be posted outside your door. No one other than my family will be permitted entrance under any circumstances. Anywhere you go, my men will follow.”
Kill hands out glasses of whiskey to us as well as Bones. I’m assuming his men are not allowed to drink while working.
“When we go to look for Jedediah, they will be with us. These four men will be with you until I deem it safe to reassign them. Understood?”
He looks directly at Heather and waits for a response.
“Yes.”
I’m relieved when she doesn’t argue, but I also know she realizes the danger she’s in now. Maybe that’s why she’s not fighting it.
“Has the property been checked?” Carter asks which doesn’t surprise me because he normally conducts surveillance before we enter a building.
“Of course.” Bones says before adding, “We will be ready to leave at seven.”
He hands Killian a keycard.
“Call me if you need anything.”
The guards are quiet, not speaking a single word. Killian glances at me with an arched brow, and I shrug my shoulders. We’ve never had a security detail before, maybe they are supposed to be seen but not heard.
Bones stares at his men, a glare in his gaze and speaks in a sharp tone.
“You may fucking go. Outside, to your post.”
Once they leave their boss follows suit and exits our room. I have the strong feeling that if his employees don’t do exactly as he says, it’s a real problem.
“This is weird.” Heather says, not so much as a complaint but merely an observation, and I can’t say I disagree.
I call room service and order dinner for all of us. She doesn’t have much of an appetite right now, but I want to make sure she has enough energy for tonight.
Heather rubs her hands together excitedly.
“I hope we find him tonight.”
“I think we all agree, Tesoro, but so far he has hidden well, so we know it might not be quick. I just want you to be prepared.”
I walk over to the sofa and sit between Carter and Killian and motion for Heather to join us.
She comes over and I pull her onto my lap and lay her on top of us, a long sigh escapes from her lips.
Killian has her legs on top of him and he pulls her shoes off her feet, tossing them onto the floor.
She has her head on Carter's lap and looks up at him with a soft smile on her lips until it fades suddenly.
“Can we talk about the elephant in the room?” She blurts out. My brothers appear as equally confused as I am.
“Does the letter change things? Do any of you feel differently?”
I shake my head, slightly annoyed because I know she’s probably been obsessing about this since she read it.
“No, Tesoro. It changes nothing. Jedediah’s words are meaningless, and that marriage isn’t real. It never was. You were a little girl and his daughter. It’s incest. You aren’t his wife. But you will be ours.”
She quickly jumps to a sitting position and tilts her head at me, her eyes wide.
“What did you say?”
My brothers stare at me, their eyes filled with concern, but I’m not worried. We haven’t discussed marriage with her, but she knows none of us will ever let her go. It can’t be a big surprise that we’d want to make it permanent.
“You will be ours. Our wife.”
She twists her fingers nervously on her lap as she shakes her head.
“Nice words but it’s illegal. It’d be no more real than my first marriage.”
Killian’s voice rumbles through his chest, echoing how all three of us feel.
“Killer, do not call that a fucking marriage again. That was abuse. Nothing more. And what we have with you—it’s fucking different. So cut it out before I take you over my knee and spank you so hard you won’t be able to sit for a week.”
I’m not sure it has the effect he intended as she grins and her cheeks blush.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Kill.”
I shake my head at both of them as he feigns anger, narrowing his gaze at her.
“Anyway,” she says, “it’s still illegal to marry three men.”
Carter grabs her and pulls her onto his lap. Wrapping his arms around her stomach he kisses her neck.
“Yes, Little Heathen, it is. What’s not illegal is marrying one of us in a legal ceremony and then marrying the other two in a private ceremony.”
She glances over her shoulder at him, her voice strained with raw emotion.
“You’re serious? You’d want to marry me? All three of you?”
The shock on her face is nearly comical. I can’t imagine any man not wanting to marry her.
“Yes, baby.” Kill says and Carter clarifies, “This is not a proposal, so don’t answer. It has to be done right, and this isn’t the way.”
We’ve already discussed this among the three of us, and we know where and how we want to propose.
We will wait until her entire family is gone.
We all agreed because we don’t want to risk tainting her happiness with those fuckers.
It should be a good memory that she cherishes.
We won’t allow Jedediah to ruin it by being alive.
There’s a knock at the door and I answer it as Milo hands me three bags of food.
After closing the door, I set the food on the table as they all come over.
Taking a minute, I watch as she sits between Killian and Carter.
Heather is all smiles as they dote on her, making sure she has everything she needs.
This is my family. I never knew it wasn’t complete.
Until her.
Like a puzzle with one missing piece, she completes us. I never imagined myself as a married man. Now, that's all I can see. A future with her.
“Knox? Are you coming?”
I walk over to her with a smirk on my face and sit across from her.
She points her fork at me.
“No sex jokes.”
I take my container of food and open it up.
“I’m just trying to eat my dinner. Stop talking about sex.”
Killian echoes me, “Yeah, Killer. Let us eat. Get your mind out of the gutter.”
She glances at Carter and points her fork at him, too.
“Don’t start. I’ll stab you.”
He holds a bite in front of his face and shakes his head.
“Always with the violence.”
Tonight could be dangerous, but I will lay down my life before I let anything happen to any one of these people in this room.
My family.
Some by blood, one found.
But family, all the same.