Page 52

“Ariel, that’s insane. What the hell kind of school are you going to? I can’t get sick. What would Marcus think of me if I was to start puking blood? How unattractive.”

My mother. She was a piece of work, that’s for sure.

“I don’t want you going back to that place until we know for sure this nasty business has been taken care of.”

Since I did not enjoy school, I readily agreed.

“Now you’ve taken up enough of my time. I have to prepare myself for Marcus’s return. He’ll likely need me to comfort him.”

She said comfort like it was a dirty word. I didn’t want to hear it.

Before I could reply, not that I had a clue what to say to her after that, but I wasn’t given the chance. She hung up on me.

For once I didn’t mind her rudeness. That is until I slumped back on the couch and finally paid attention to the room around me.

Abel sat before me with his knees to the floor with his ass resting on his heels. His hands, which I hadn’t noticed during my phone call, were placed on the couch on either side of my legs. He watched me with those green, green eyes with a look in them I didn’t quite understand. They were warm, so very warm they were heated and the look was all for me. It was such an intimate look that it made me uncomfortable. So uncomfortable I had to look away from him. Those eyes saw too much of me and asked for more than they saw in return.

A look over my shoulder told me Addison was still there, leaning over the back of the black leather couch. His hands, much like his brothers, were placed on either side of me. He looked down at me with serious crystal blue eyes. The color burned bright, threatening to drown me in a sea of blue. I didn’t want to drown so I looked away.

The twins unnerved me. They were far too bold with their emotions and far too bold with me.

But to not look at the twins left me with Scary Uncle Quinton with his nipple piercings and who had no problem answering my cell phone after he’d dug through my personal belongings.

He didn’t look away from my hostile gaze. In fact, he was far bolder than either twin. There wasn’t heat in Quinton’s eyes, only arrogance and something a whole lot darker. He sat sprawled on the floor, propped up by his forearms resting on the carpet. His legs were spread wide and my disheveled pink and white bag lay on its side between his legs, some of my belongings spilled out of it.

Right there on top for all to see was a pair of my underwear. They were black and lacey. I didn’t want Quinton touching my underwear. Or, my anything for that matter.

I opened my mouth to probably yell at him. He must have seen some tell on my face because he spoke before I could get my first word out.

“There was no flu outbreak at your school today,” he told me. The arrogance grew from his eyes to his face as he gave us all a haughty look. It wasn’t exactly friendly.

I frowned at him. “Since you seem to know so much about what happened today, at a school you do not even attend, I might add, why don’t you tell us what happened.”

This ought to be good.

I remembered Tyson blaming the bloody incident on his Uncle and his promise to explain everything to me. Where was he now?

“Where’s Tyson?” I asked. Even to myself I sounded angry. The longer I looked at Quinton sitting there with my underwear on the floor between his legs for all to see the angrier I seemed to get.

I didn’t know what was happening to me. I used to be so mild mannered and I never ever even thought to raise my voice. It’s like a part of me had been locked away and for whatever reason it had suddenly been released. I didn’t want to be an angry person and I didn’t want to be mean to people. Bad karma and all that. I tried to stuff my anger back inside where it belonged. It was just underwear; did it really matter? It’s not like he’d never seen a pair of girl’s panties before.

“What,” Quinton smirked at me and it was a very unfriendly, predatory look, “are we not good enough for you? You gotta have Tyson? Is he better than the rest of us?”

>

He was no longer smirking and seemed rather angry. I did not enjoy having his anger directed my way.

He and Tyson had a lot more in common than I had originally thought. Like their matching tempers and the fact that they both seemed quick to anger. And those deep, dark, bottomless eyes.

Abel had eyes that penetrated you. A person could drown in Addison’s eyes. Tyson had eyes you could sink into. Like an opening in the earth, rich and brown in color and bottomless to the naked eye. Something you could sink into and never ever wish to resurface again.

I had just realized Quinton’s eyes were Tyson’s eyes only set in a different face. They looked like brothers.

“Ariel,” Abel said my name as his big hand landed on my thigh. “Are you alright?”

I shook my head. Damn. I’d been staring. And at Quinton of all people. No good.

I cleared my throat and closed my eyes. Best not to look at them, any of them. Why couldn’t I have found some girls for friends, or even some ugly people?