Ensnared (Brutes of Bristlebrook, #1)(61)

For the four years we’ve been at Bristlebrook—and years before that, even—the two of them have circled around each other with gravitational force. Now, within just a few days, they’re on a collision course.

Maybe Dom is right. Not about all of it, of course, but there’s no pretending that Eden isn’t stirring up a whole pot of emotions here.

“Did I or did I not see you writhing on the ground yourself just moments ago?” Jasper snipes.

Lucky tilts his head as if puzzled. “Which time? I’ve been rolling around all night.”

Dom and I exchange a loaded married-couple look.

I raise my brows, and glance at them without moving my head. Should we do something?

Dom lowers his chin, then tilts it in a negative. Not our business.

“Don’t test me, Lucien.” Jasper takes a sharp step forward, and I ease up onto the balls of my feet anyway in case I need to intervene. “You forget, I’ve been watching the cameras. What were you and Eden doing out in the woods? I saw the two of you leave together.”

Lucky smiles, maliciously innocent. “I didn’t forget.” He pauses, sliding a sidelong look at Dom that’s about three shades too casual. “Hey, did you spend much time in your room this morning?”

That catches the boss’s attention, and Dom narrows his eyes. “No.” When Lucky’s lips roll in like he’s trying to hide a grin, Dom demands, “Why? ”

Lucky’s eyes widen, and he shrugs. “No reason.”

I groan.

The man can be reckless to the point of stupid for a good adventure. One time he begged me to race him on a climb up the cliffside—only to realize it’s a lot fucking harder to climb down fifty feet without gear than it is to go up. We waited on a tiny little ledge, arms aching, for two hours before Dom and Jasper came searching for us, and another hour on top of that while they worked out how to get belay equipment up to us. And the idiot laughed the whole time. Of course, he wasn’t smiling overmuch after a livid Jasper got him back to Bristlebrook.

Point is, Lucky is not to be trusted.

“Lucky,” I warn, narrowing my eyes on him too. “Why were you in the woods?”

Mischief dances over his lean features. “Sorry, Doc, that’s need to know.”

I jump to my feet. “Where is Eden?” I demand anxiously . . . and immediately cringe. I sound like my ma after she learned a burlesque club was moving into town.

Dom snorts, and the derisive sound pricks at me like a thousand needles. It’s not enough to crap all over my chance at happiness, he has to mock me for it too?

“Eden’s inside. She came in through the caves ’cause she was afraid of—” Lucky stops, eyes sparkling with fiendish innocence. “You know what, never mind. She’s freshening up.”

Thank God she’s safe at least.

My eyes drift back to Dom, who seems to have lost interest in the conversation.

“Have you talked to her at all since we got back?” I ask him abruptly, apparently just as unable as Lucky and Jasper to keep my mess contained today.

He tenses but slings his towel around his neck like he’s unbothered. “I’ve been busy.”

“So make time.”

There’s too much testiness in my tone, but my temper is growing shorter and shorter with him. He’s not even trying—he barely spoke to her at dinner, and he’s still interrupting every potential moment for me to be alone with her. I’m starting to wonder if I’m wishing on a star here. Maybe it was a pipe dream, this idea of us staying close and making a family together with the right girl. Something born of teenage hormones and a friendship that hadn’t really been tested yet.

Dom doesn’t respond, leaning down to pick up his shirt. He sniffs it, then grimaces and sighs.

“Why don’t I have any clean clothes?” he asks the group instead, changing the subject.

I narrow my eyes. “Because Eden took over the washing and Jayk still hasn’t fixed the machine. And because there are six of us in the house now and somebody keeps chasing her off, making it so she wants to hide in her room instead of being around us.”

“I’ll tell Jayk to make the washing machine a priority,” he says, ignoring the rest.

“I hope you plan to apologize first, for your assumptions the other day,” Jasper cuts in sharply.

Cocking a brow, Dom asks, “Have you?”

“I have.” Jasper grimaces. “It didn’t go well.”

“Were you nice, though?” Lucky mutters.

I run a hand over my hair, frustrated by them, by Dom, by Jayk and all of it, when I see the curtains in Eden’s room twitch.

A small, pale face peeks between them.

And just like that, sweet heat slides like syrup through my veins.

“We should do one more set,” I blurt.

Beside me, Lucky frowns, then follows my glance. He sneaks me a grin where the others can’t see, then wipes the smile and turns. “I agree. One more to finish.”

Dom and Jasper stare at us.

“I’m going to shower,” Dom finally says, forehead crinkling. “But knock yourselves out.”

Jasper shakes his head, then follows him as he heads inside.

“Bet I can embarrass you in front of our girl,” Lucky teases.