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After a few seconds, she lifts her chin and steps out of his hands, sniffling as she looks at each of us. “I’m going to bed.”

She doesn’t demand we all stay away, doesn’t give the same speech.

She also doesn’t invite anyone to join her, either. Simply turns on her heel, her shoulders hunched forward as though carrying the weight of the world, and slowly shuffles toward the room that we assigned as hers.

It’s still impersonal, still only contains the things that were there when it was nothing more than a guest room. Sure, she has clothes and toiletries and shit, but we’ve been acting as though she’ll simply have to bend and mold into our lives.

Maybe it’s time for something else to change – like the three of us learning whothisEverest is, discovering what our twenty-three-year-old Everest likes and dislikes.

It’s time we stop with theyours and minebullshit.

She will be Kato’s wife in just over a week. Paper or no paper, she will also be married to me and Madd. Why the fuck are we all still pretending as though we’re not a cohesive unit?

Besides, if the three of us slept surrounding her every night, it would be yet another line of defense between our girl and anyone who might dare to fuck with the most important person in our lives.

Chapter 36

Everest

Ididn’t sleep all that great, but at least the guys did as I demanded and left me alone. I’m hungover. Again. Two days in a fucking row.

Something that kept me awake and kept waking me up was the fact it was the second night in a row that I got drunk. And both nights…I could have been pregnant.

See, that right there is yet another reason they should have told me sooner. Did they really think I would have drank so much the night of our engagement party without taking a pregnancy test? Hell, I might have even asked for a blood test instead of peeing on a stick to be absolutely sure.

I might have been drunk last night, but I still remember everything. I remember Maddox wrestling the key fob from me when I attempted to stumble my ass to the driver’s seat. Not that Flora or her guards would have allowed me to drive in that state.

I remember the big oaf carrying me in like I was some invalid and unable to walk on my own two feet. I remember Katobegging me to put the full force of my anger on him, to blame him for…well, everything.

Sitting up and tossing the blankets away, I sigh. I’m still mad. I’m not sure that will pass anytime soon, but he was right – he’d done that, done what he could to punish me, when he’d thought I had aborted our child and stabbed him in the back.

Doesn’t mean he couldn’t have told me sooner.Like before I drank enough to drown a fucking horse two nights in a fucking row.

As my stomach lurches when I push to my feet, I make a mental promise to forgo alcohol for a while. I didn’t drink much when I was on my own, always determined to stay vigilant, refusing to allow myself to be vulnerable, even when locked inside my apartment.

I’ve become a damn lightweight. Although I had drunk quite a few shots and three glasses of wine last night. Or was it four?

Doesn’t matter in the long run, unless I’m carrying a little bean in my womb. Then the poor thing is probably doing the backstroke in all that booze.

Dumbasses. That right there is the main reason they should have told me the second we started to reunite. I mean, I came clean with them about everything I could. The least they could have done was tell me they were treating me like a dog in heat while chipping me like a fucking pet.

I’ll be the first to admit the tracker…it’s not the worst idea. At least not while my sperm donor is out there plotting against me. And yeah, I can say without a doubt that’s exactly what he’s doing. After all, my reappearance more than likely put him on the Pakhan’s shit list.

Unless Roman Yegorov already did us a favor and my father is rotting in the woods or a shallow grave somewhere.

After relieving my full bladder, washing my face, and tying my hair into a crazy looking knot at the top of my head, I wrapa robe around my body and slide my feet into some slippers. I’m sure it’s no longer morning and I’ll look a little insane traipsing around the house like this, but I really don’t give a shit.

Voices carry through the halls as I wander from my bedroom in search of caffeine and food.

Eh. Food might have to wait a little longer or I’ll have to find some crackers, maybe toast to settle the churning so I don’t end up puking everything up.

I hesitate around the corner when I realize there are more voices than just my guys, and there’s a woman’s voice mixed in.

Did I have an appointment with the wedding planner today and forgot all about it?

Tying the robe with the sash, I move forward and peek around the corner. Then straighten and step fully in.

“What the fuck?”