Page 38

Duke

K az was being a dick.

Duke shook his head and walked away to grab a yogurt from the fridge. He peeled off the lid and snagged a spoon from the drawer, his head shaking with every single step.

The golden demon really needed to work on his insecurities. Miri might be acting a little weird, but for all they knew, she was coming down with a cold. Or this was just how she was at this point in her monthly cycle. Or she was out of shampoo again.

It could be one of a dozen things, but instead of asking her, Kaz was poking through her phone.

“She’s going to be pissed,” Duke said around a mouthful of peach yogurt. “Is this really the hill you want to die on?”

He poked his spoon at the yogurt cup. Why did all the good peachy bits always sink to the bottom? Logically, he knew it was gravity, but big yogurt should have figured out a solution to that by now.

“She’s not the only one who’s pissed,” Kaz growled.

Duke looked up and frowned. “What?”

Knuckles white on Miri’s phone, Kaz turned around and stomped his way out of the kitchen. Duke watched his back disappear into the hall. Was he supposed to follow him?

“ I need everyone in the living room, right now!” his voice bellowed up the stairs.

Great. Now Kaz was going to make this everybody’s problem. He couldn’t have waited until after Duke had finished his snack?

The big demon trudged after his friend. He perched on the arm of the recliner and ignored Kaz’s dark glower.

Whatever his problem was, it was his problem.

Not Duke’s. The only problem he was interested in tonight was unravelling where some dickhead banker had hidden away the funds he had embezzled.

The files weren’t going to highlight themselves.

He took another bite of yogurt and studied Kaz.

His friends was usually at least somewhat sensible, but the shit that had gone down with their ex had tied him in knots.

Duke had gotten out of the imploding relationship mostly unscathed, but he’d been in it a lot less time than Kaz had.

Whatever had him ready to bust a blood vessel in his face probably wasn’t even that bad.

It was Miri, after all. She wasn’t a cheater or a manipulator, she baked cookies and patted his leg through all the confusing bits on Real Housewives.

It was Miri .

The sweet human came tripping down the stairs, her curls sticking to her sweaty face. Nico and Ace were right behind her, identical smirks on their faces.

Duke took a deep breath. The scent of Miri’s pleasure teased his nose.

A tiny spike of jealousy pricked at him.

He’d much rather be upstairs, peeling her panties off her and grabbing a handful of her generous hips than whatever bullshit Kaz was about to pull…

even if he had to share with Ace and Nico.

Miri took one look at Kaz’s furious expression and her smile faded. “What’s going on?”

He raised her phone in his clawed hand. Duke shook his head. Stomach tying itself in knots, a pool of dread was spreading in his belly. He had very little evidence, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Kaz was about to massively fuck up.

“You want to explain this?”

“My phone?” Miri asked, confusion twisting her red brows.

“When were you going to tell us we got you fired?”

Duke paused, his spoonful of yogurt halfway to his mouth. Of all the possibilities he had brainstormed over the last two weeks to explain Miri’s small variations in behavior, that had never once made the list.

“Whoa, what?” Nico looked at her, dark eyebrows soaring.

Ace looked back and forth between all the demons in the room. “What did we do?”

“You didn’t get me fired.” Miri sat down on the couch and crossed her legs. “I quit.”

“Yeah, because that prissy school you worked at was giving you a write up for dating four demons!” Kaz growled.

“Can they even do that?” Nico looked over at Duke. “Like, legally?”

The big demon stared back at him. Why was Nico asking him? How the hell should he know?

“I don’t know.” Duke shrugged. “I’m an accountant, not a lawyer.”

It would be easy enough to look up. Or he could call his sister. Marie didn’t specialize in employment law, but she would probably be able to refer him to someone who did. He had a little extra wiggle room in his discretionary budget if Miri needed to pay a retainer.

“Technically, they never outright said it was because of my dating situation,” Miri interrupted his mental accounting. “It was more of an obvious implication.”

Kaz crossed his arms over his chest, his furious expression never wavering.

“And you were going to tell us about this when?”

“When I got a new job.” Miri matched his glare. “By the way, I’m really not loving your tone right now.”

Neither was Duke. He shot a warning look at Kaz. Anger was fine, so was frustration and any other emotion he wanted to feel right now, but yelling at Miri was not okay and Duke wasn’t going to sit there and pretend that it was.

“Excuse me for being a little pissed off that you’re hiding things from us. I thought this was supposed to be a relationship.”

“How did you even find out?” Duke winced at her suspicious words. This was only going to get worse before it got better. If it got better. “Did you go through my phone?”

There it was. Duke looked back and forth between them, not sure which one was more pissed off. Miri rose to her feet, her cheeks burning as red as her hair.

“Yeah, I did.” Kaz glowered right back. “We all could tell something was wrong and I wanted to be sure something wasn’t going on. Right, Duke?”

Oh, hell no.

“Don’t look at me. I told you not to do it.”

Repeatedly. He had warned the idiot repeatedly.

Duke was not above selling the dumbass down the river if it kept him out of the doghouse with Miri.

Was he happy that she had hidden her recent unemployment from them?

No, but logically it made sense. They’d all known each other for less than a month.

If the sweet human needed more time to trust them fully, he understood.

Frankly, Duke still didn’t completely trust Ace or Nico. He might like them and enjoy being part of Miri’s harem of monsters with them, but he wasn’t stupid. Trust was earned.

“So, let me get this straight.” Miri took a step forward and snatched her phone back from Kaz. She stood toe-to-toe with him, glaring up at the towering demon. “Instead of asking me outright what was wrong— like Ace did, I should add— you decided invading my privacy was a better option?”

Kaz’s head whipped around to stare at his cousin. “You knew?”

“Nope.” He shrugged, casual as ever, but Duke didn’t miss the fretful way his tail was whipping around behind him. “I respected her decision not to talk about what was bothering her yet. Like an adult.”

Ace being the most mature demon in the group definitely wasn’t Duke’s first guess. It wouldn’t even be his tenth.

“Unbelievable.” Kaz shook his head. “How am I the only one who has a problem with being lied to?”

“You’re not. I also don’t appreciate being lied to.” Nico looked pointedly at Miri. “But I’m also making an effort to be better at communicating, so I’m willing to hear her out before I lose my shit.”

Duke nodded. He was actually kind of proud of the reserved demon. After his blow up the other day, he’d been sure that Nico was going to withdraw from the group entirely. Finding the demon at the dinner table the next day had been a welcome surprise.

Miri pinched the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t come home and immediately tell everyone because I thought you might blame yourselves.”

“Why would you think that?” Ace asked. “It sounds like this was more the school’s fault than ours.”

She wasn’t wrong. Duke absolutely would have blamed himself and the others for being the reason she lost a job that she loved so much. Even though she had chosen to quit, he still felt guilty.

“Jason was the one who brought the complaint to the board.”

“Jason?” Ace pressed.

“The jackass from the bar. He’s a teacher at the school and is gunning for the Deputy Headmaster job.”

All the demons winced. Oh yeah, they should definitely blame themselves.

“I was doing grocery delivery and had arranged some other small jobs to make sure my bills were paid. I also applied for a couple positions at public schools.” Looking at each of them in turn, Miri turned in a slow circle in the center of the living room.

Her soft brown eyes looked tired when she met his gaze.

“If I hadn’t heard anything back by the end of the day, I was going to tell you tomorrow.

I swear. I was just trying to avoid this. ”

If Duke were in his shoes, he wasn’t sure he would have told them either.

Between Ace and Kaz ready to throw punches at the drop of a hat, and him and Nico being lead competitors for the title of Most Dour Demon In The House, they wouldn’t have reacted well to knowing they had gotten their favorite human fired—as evidenced by Kaz crashing out right in front of them.

“You got fired two weeks ago.” Kaz was still frowning. “You were waiting two weeks to tell us?”

“Yes.” Miri said firmly. “Just because I have four super strong demon boyfriends does not mean I want you to solve all my problems for me. I needed to fix this on my own.”

“Why are we even here if you don’t want us to support you?”

“I didn’t say that?—“

“You might as well have!” Kaz threw his hands in the air, his voice growing louder in the small room. “Is this all casual to you? Are we just here to live out some monster fucking fantasy of yours?”

“Kaz,” Duke warned. He really wasn’t loving the yelling.

“Humans are all the fucking same?—“

“Enough.” Resting his yogurt cup on the side table, Duke rose to his feet.

He crossed his arms over his chest and stared his friend down.

“The only one throwing a fit right now is you. Miri explained her side and I don’t have a problem with it.

She’s allowed to not be ready to share everything with us after being together for less than a month, and insulting her is only making you into an even bigger ass. ”

Kaz stared at him. Had he really expected Duke to back him up? He had told Kaz not to fuck this up and that was exactly what the moron had done.

“This is too much.” Miri tangled her fingers in her curls and gave them a tug.

“Too much?”Ace asked.

“Four demons have taken over my house, my bed, and my every waking thought. I can barely think with any kind of privacy and now you’re going through my phone?” she shook her head. Straightening up, her sad eyes flattened into a frown. “I need you all to go.”

“Are you breaking up with us?” Duke asked quietly.

His heart clenched painfully. If this was it, the end of his time with sweet Miri, he was not okay.

“No, but right now I need a little space.” Her hand seemed to pat his arm of its own accord.

He let out a shaky breath. She didn’t sound sure, but it was better than an outright yes. His heart could handle that, for a little while at least. All bets were off if he lost her permanently.

“Space from all of us or just Kaz?” Ace questioned. His tone was light, but Duke still clocked the sharp look he threw at his cousin.

Good. There were in agreement then—Kaz was clearly the problem.

“All of you.” Miri’s small, clawless hands twisted in her shirt. “I’m feeling a bit crowded and vulnerable right now and I need you all to go away for a day or two and let me sit and think in a quiet, demonless house.”

Why did she suddenly seem so small? Duke clenched his hands into fists to keep from grabbing her around the hips and pulling her into his arms for a tight hug. If he had to watch Miri’s lip tremble for another second, Kaz was a dead demon.

The four demons gathered their things and let the small house. Duke paused on the front step to quietly place his palm on the door. He would be back. He had to tell himself that to make himself turn away and take another step.

He followed behind the others. Nico stared daggers at Kaz with every step down the driveway. Duke didn’t blame him. He wasn’t a violent man by any stretch of the word, but he was desperately fighting the urge to throttle the air out of Kaz’s lungs.

Everything would have been fine if he’d just talked to Miri like a damn adult. If he hadn’t taken out the twisted mess of insecurity their ex had left behind on Miri. The gentle redhead would never be a Dana. She didn’t have a cruel bone in her curvy body.

If she somehow let them all back into her house, the first thing they were doing was sending Kaz out to find a therapist. That would be non-negotiable. If things were going to have a chance of working out, Kaz needed to figure his shit out

One by one, their cars disappeared down the quiet street. They were all going home… well, to their own empty apartments. Home smelled like sugar and coconut and was filled with laughter.

Home was where they were currently unwelcome.