31. Trust
Trust
Wyatt
Tom clasps his hands between his knees as he watches the others head to the house. Dante and Finn will go to Sara. Maybe they’ll fuck the aggression out of their systems. I wouldn’t mind watching that, but I have other things to take care of.
“Explain to me what happened.” Tom’s still angry. It’s in the tone of his voice and the way he holds himself.
For years, we’ve had each other’s backs. If I had a beef with someone, Tom was at my side ready to fight with me. If he needed to scare someone off Sara, I was right there, helping him. I was the unloved kid of a rich family and he was the golden god that could do no wrong.
Maybe more god of mischief than golden god, but everyone wanted to be in his circle and know him. He’s open and friendly, but he chose us to be his friends. Our misfit group.
He gave us Sara.
When we were young, she was ours to help protect. To keep out of trouble. She’d been our younger sister too. Our relationship changed gradually. And now, she’s ours in every way.
The love she gives is unconditional, unlike Tom’s.
I breathe out and give him our story. How she didn’t want to come to the apartment because of me. How she was dating Drew and working her internship. How someone broke into the townhouse when she was gone. How she moved in with us.
“Things changed.” I’m reluctant to share everything with him. We all agreed to a limited-time arrangement. We took her virginity and made her ours in every way possible, but he doesn’t need to know about that.
“Things changed?” Tom stands and paces. He gestures toward the house. “Finn and Dante were kissing my sister while she practically gave them a lap dance. Things changed!”
He runs a hand through his hair, but I just sit back and watch him.
This is the angry older brother. The one I’d climb into a car with to drive to whatever fuckhead Sara thought she wanted to date and scare him until he decided she wasn’t worth it.
“You won’t scare us away, Tom.” I have to be clear about this. “She’s ours and we won’t give her up.”
“How is that supposed to work?” Tom glares at me. “You’re all going to marry her? How’s that going to look? Do you think my parents will allow it? Fuck, have you even thought this through?”
“We’re working it out. It’s not conventional—”
“Ha, right, conventional. My three best friends are fucking my sister with some guy who’s practically a man whore.
” Tom’s bitter laugh rolls over me, but it’s nothing new.
“How are you going to protect her when your father reappears? Or fuck, if anyone finds out who your father is? They’ll crucify you and her. ”
“How’s it going to get out, Tom?” I stare at him. “In reality, there’s only a handful of people that know. My mom isn’t going to tell anyone and ruin her pristine reputation. The man who raised me? He’s not going to spread that around. I’m not about to tell the world I share DNA with that asshole.”
I pause and narrow my eyes. “That leaves you.”
Tom freezes and some color leaves his face. His green eyes spark. “I would never betray you.”
“And yet, you feel like we betrayed you with your sister?” Some part of me feels that way. That our friendship is lost because we fell in love with Sara.
Tom drops to the bench and shakes his head. “This is fucking with my brain.”
“You don’t think it’s fucked with ours?” I release my breath.
“We aren’t with her to teach you a lesson or even just because we’re attracted to her.
I know you don’t want to hear this, but we love Sara.
We could never have her as individuals without hurting the other two.
It made sense that when we finally allowed ourselves to be with her, it would have to be all of us or none of us. ”
“I would have preferred none,” Tom mutters.
“And for a long time, it was.” I glance at the house, thinking of Sara. “You don’t understand how much we love her or this wouldn’t even be a question for you. We’ve protected her and cared for her as long as we’ve known her. Over time, that changed as we grew up.”
“I don’t think I can do this.” Tom rubs his temples. His weary eyes meet mine. “I know you guys. Fuck, we’ve talked about the women we’ve fucked and what we liked and didn’t. Now, all I can see is you guys doing that to my sister.”
He makes a disgusted face.
“Then don’t imagine it.” I grimace. “I don’t think of my sister or even my brother with other people. That’s just weird.”
“You know what I mean.” Tom meets my eyes. “Not literally, but…”
He gestures to the house.
I look at it and think about Sara in the attic. Her quickened breaths. The feel of her trembling against me. The way she tightens around me. Nope, I’m not ready to give it up. Not ever.
“I didn’t think you guys would ever cross that line. I thought you were all past wanting her.” Tom runs a hand through his ginger hair. “And how does Drew Young fit into this? He’s just fucking around with her? And you guys?”
I draw in a deep breath. “Sara wants him. He wants her. I’ll admit I was reluctant at first, but he’s a good guy and he genuinely cares for Sara. Fuck, I’m not sure we would have crossed any line at all if it wasn’t for him.”
“Fuck.”
“They all know about what happened that day on the docks,” I say softly.
He lifts his green eyes to mine and gives me a questioning look.
“I was ready to let her go. Even though I love her with all my soul, I would have let her go, but she wanted to know why.” My heart stutters in my chest at the thought of losing her.
“That makes sense.” Tom nods. “Sara’s stubborn.”
“She is, but when I told her, she got angry.” I tilt my head as I wait for Tom’s reaction. “At you.”
He huffs out a breath. “Of course she did. She’s protective of all of you. Wouldn’t ever listen to what I said, but if one of you said it, she’d do whatever it was or think however you thought.”
“But she was also right, Tom.” I let my gaze stray to the house that belonged to the man who gave me life.
All he ever caused me was pain and anguish.
But that house is now protecting the woman I love.
“You never should have blamed me for your father’s death.
I never should have let you blame me. I was a child, trying to find my place in the world.
You were trying to protect me. Your dad would have done anything for us. ”
“If you hadn’t gone, if I hadn’t told him…” Tom runs his hand through his hair. “It broke my mom. It broke Sara.”
“It broke all of us, Tom. He was like a father to Dante, Finn, and me.” I look at my hands.
“He was a good man. It’s neither of our faults.
We were children making childish decisions.
I wanted what you had. A father who loved me.
I thought that would be my biological father, but it turns out I already had a father who loved me. I just wasn’t related to him by blood.”
Tom’s gaze lifts to mine. There are tears in my eyes but I’m not going to let them fall.
“He felt the same way.” Tom breathes out slowly. “He would have done anything for you. For any of you.”
We sit there for a few moments. Each lost in our memory of Tom’s father. If there was ever someone in my life to look up to, it was him. He cared for each of us like we were his. I carried the guilt of his death in my heart because I always thought there was some way I could have prevented it.
But there’s more to what’s bothering us about Tom.
“Are we square with Sara and us being together?” I narrow my eyes at him.
He runs a hand through his hair. “I might need to get my own punches in for Sara.”
“You don’t deserve any punches.” I smirk. “Besides receiving them. Sara made a choice. It’s not like you left and we fell on her like hungry wolves.”
“Fuck, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“Good. Don’t.” I draw in a breath and let some of the anger and fear that he left us with slide into place. “You left Sara alone with a message to come to us for protection.”
“I left a note for you guys.” He looks away guiltily.
“You jeopardized our business and her. Explain to me why, and maybe I can get the others to listen to me before they pummel you more.” I sit back and watch him.
“That new assistant Beth brought me those clients. But fuck, they looked sketchy as hell and I couldn’t decide if it wasn’t just poorly managed books or mismanaged books.” He meets my eyes. “I didn’t want them on the client list until I could be sure they were legitimate businesses.”
“But you kept them from all of us. We were left scrambling to put together the pieces when you could have explained everything to us.” I glare at him. “You could have explained to me.”
“It all happened so fucking fast. The head of the organization, Peter Sokolov, brought me in for a meeting at the Veiled Vixen. He seemed legit and nice.”
I know Tom. “He paid for the stripper, didn’t he?”
He glances at the house but gives me a little smirk. “Yeah, a few times. But everything seemed on the up and up. I reviewed their reports and dealt with what they actually gave me. They were high-cash businesses, which set off some alarms, but maybe not enough.”
He stands and paces back and forth in front of me.
“Then the Feds showed up when I was out getting coffee. They were really interested in what Peter Sokolov was doing. They wanted to know confidential information. So I told them no, but I kept their cards. That’s when I dug a little deeper.”
“Why didn’t you tell us then?” This is what bugged me. We shared everything, but he kept this from us. From me.
“It got away from me so quickly. I met Natasha and fuck, man, I’ve never felt what I feel for her before. It’s like the whole world dimmed and she shone like a fucking star. Do you know what I mean?” His eyes search mine like he doesn’t think I know how that feels.
“Yeah, I do.” I don’t flinch away. He knows I’m talking about Sara.
He sucks in a breath. “Fuck.”
He sits on the bench and runs his hand through his hair. His gaze drifts to the house before coming back to me, more determined.
“We started to find time to spend together. Natasha and I. We had to keep it secret. We were going to the benefit together, but she hadn’t told her father yet. I set you up with her best friend in hopes that he wouldn’t question it.”
I’m not ready to dive into the Verity Baron talk. “What happened?”
Tom blows out a breath. “Natasha found out she was pregnant and her father announced he was marrying her off to one of his guys. That it was time for him to pick an heir and he wanted her to make the next generation of Sokolovs.”
“So you ran?”
“So we ran.”
“Fuck, Tom. That wasn’t just running away from the problem. That was putting a target on everyone. That was putting a target on Sara.”
“You didn’t know anything, so it’s not like you were a threat to him.” Tom meets my eyes. “I knew there could be danger, but I also knew you guys would do everything in your power to protect Sara.”
“Because we love her,” I bite out. “You could have just been honest with us and we could have thought of a solution together. But instead, you did what you always do. You ran away from your problems and hoped they wouldn’t be there when you got back.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Tom rubs the back of his neck.
I scoff. “It was exactly like that. What did you think was going to happen when you guys returned with her pregnant and married to you. Do you think Peter would have any issues taking you out and making his daughter a widow? Fuck, Tom. He had Sara in a locked room. He was willing to do anything to get his daughter back.”
Tom looks at the ground. I hope in shame.
“This is where we are because of what you did. We’re out in the middle of nowhere, hoping that the Feds take care of the problem so we can return to our lives.
What happens when he slips away from the Feds?
Guys like him rarely get real prison time.
He’ll give up a scapegoat to take his place and he’ll be back. What are you going to do then?”
“She’s my wife and carrying my kid. I love her.” Tom shakes his head. “I’ll do anything for her.”
“Sara is everything to me, and if it meant her or you, I’d turn you over to Peter in a heartbeat. I’d feel bad and Sara would protest and probably hate me for it. But I would do anything for her. Anything, Tom.”