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"Marcus," I told them as I waved my hand in the direction of where I thought the house next door was. "He lives in the house next door, I used to live with him. He... was involved with the woman who had pretended to be my mother and kidnapped me."

Their bodies twitched as they did the opposite of what I had planned and became more alert. Dammit. I should have thought better of what would come out of my mouth before opening it.

"You were kidnapped?" Simon inquired incredulously.

"Rain never mentioned that," Trenton muttered as he eyed me cautiously.

I waved my hand in the air as if trying to sweep the words away, under the proverbial rug, if you will.

"Long time ago," I lied easily. It was much easier to lie to these two brothers than it was to any of my guys. Good to know.

"Anyway," I breezed out, "he was the one on the phone and he wants me to go over there."

I smiled sweetly at them, disarmingly so. Or, at least I hoped. I was better at looking sad than I was happy, so I wasn't sure how well it had worked on them.

"Okay," Trenton drawled slowly, as he shoved my car keys into the front pocket of his dark blue jeans.

I followed the movement of his hands as I fought the urge to scream bloody murder at the unfairness of him stealing my keys from me, and thinking he had the right to pocket them.

I didn't want to hate Trenton or Simon. They'd seemed like decent enough guys when we'd first met in the shop. I'd been stupid enough then to welcome them both naively into my life without thinking about the consequences that would come hand in hand with it. Now I was seeing the error of my ways. They were glaring me right in the face. Freedom be damned and freedom be gone.

I was over this.

"I'm going next door to hang out with Marcus because he wants to spend time with me," I said in a small voice. "My relationship with Marcus is complicated and only just getting back on track. I don't want either of you going over there with me and making the situation more uncomfortable than it's already going to be. I'd like for you both to stay here or whatever it was you were going to do before I tried to bail."

Trenton opened his mouth as if to protest. Or, what I assumed would be a protest. I certainly didn't think he'd be agreeing with me, he'd had yet to do that.

"You can keep my car keys," I blurted hysterically. "I can't go anywhere without those."

Trenton's face softened, making the scar that ran down through his jaw and further down his neck stand out. I turned my eyes away before he could catch me staring. I knew what that felt like, to have people looking at your scars in either perverse curiosity or disgust, and it wasn't a good feeling to be on the other end of it. I might not have wanted them to follow my every move around like shadows, but that didn't mean I would ever be unnecessarily cruel to the brothers.

"We'll wait for you here," Simon replied and finally, and most importantly, very agreeable.

Well, wasn't that a relief to hear. I didn't waste any time getting the heck out of there. I practically sprinted toward the front door.

Thankfully, no one got in my way and tried to stop me. They let me go, but that didn't mean I couldn't feel eyes on me as I crossed the driveway and grass to the front of Marcus's house. They must have watched me from one of the front windows. I seriously thought about flipping them off behind my back, but didn't want to chance Marcus seeing and being disappointed in me.

I raised my hand to knock on the front door but never made contact with it, because it swung open before I could tap my fist against it.

Marcus stood in the doorway, one side of his mouth curved up in a half smile. I smiled back before looking down and froze.

"Are you..." I gaped at him. "Are you wearingjeans?"

Marcus laughed quietly.

"I wear pants every day," he pointed out. "I don't understand why you'd find it so strange to see me in jeans. They are quite comfortable. Though... I don't think I've ever actually seenyouwear jeans either."

"I actuallydon'tthink they're all that comfortable," I told him.

"To each their own," he remarked, before stepping back and waving me inside. "Come in, come in. If you stand out here any longer, one of the guys from next door will come running and call me an asshole for making you wait on my front step."

Again, I gaped at him.

"First jeans," I said as I stepped inside, "then you're swearing at me. Sheesh, it's like I don't even know who you are right now. What's next? Are you going to offer me a drink, ask me if I want to share a beer with you?"

"Forget the beer," he stated. "We'll just go straight for the scotch."

I laughed with him as he shut the door behind us. I thought he'd been joking, but the serious look on his face told me different. I had never had scotch before, but was more than willing to give it a taste if he offered it up to me. I had a feeling it was something neither Quinton or Rain would approve of and that made me childishly want to do it all the more. I realized with a start that their bonding had kind of bothered me. They could threaten each other one second, then the next act like they were best of friends. There was something about it that was driving me crazy. If someone had threatened me, I didn't think I would be able to just get over it in the blink of an eye and go about my business. I'm a girl, we didn't quite work that way.