Page 39

Eden

In a game of tug of war,

don’t be the rope.

I’m suddenly wrenched out of Beau’s arms. My glasses fall around my neck, and the world spins around me in a dizzying storm.

Seconds later, a hard, hot mouth is splitting mine, and I’m locked against the wall.

I arch against the man, gasping, but he’s buried between my thighs, rocking his cock against me.

He’s only in his boxers. Gripping his bare, scratched-up shoulders, I tear my mouth away on a shocked moan.

“Jayk!” I snap, breathless.

“What the fuck?” Beau jumps to his feet. “Give her back .”

Jayk sucks on my throat, hard enough to leave a hickey, and lawless heat throbs deep in my pussy.

“They were just saying good morning,” I hiss, as his hand grips my ass.

Jayk rubs me against him until I shudder. “They can say it without putting their hands all over you.”

“They can put their hands wherever I want them to put them.” I rake my nails down his chest, but I can’t help the way my hips shift over him when he finds the most brutal, perfect spot. I’m already too worked up.

“She’s not your fucking toy!” Beau snaps.

My head falls back, and I crack my eyes open just in time to see Beau wrench Jayk off me. Jayk whirls around, pushing Beau back, and I drop, staggering, onto uncertain legs.

Lucky swoops in to hold me up with a private, reassuring dimple.

Beau’s face is filthy with anger, but Dom shoves between them, shoving a hand against his chest before he can take a swing at Jayk. Dom gives him a harsh, quelling look, then frowns at Jayk.

“Enough. You know the score with her. She wants to share.” A grimy irritation snaps at his words, and he glances back at Beau, sharing his disapproval. “This shit isn’t helping anyone. Pack it away.”

Beau scoffs hard.

Jayk folds his arms over his chest, all sleepy, smirking annoyance as he switches his attention to Dom. “You know, it’s like you already forgot—you’re not in charge anymore, Cap . And Eden ain’t yours to worry about.”

Lips flattening, Dom holds Jayk’s gaze, and I wait, almost dizzy.

Tell him he’s wrong , I silently urge, tense and watching. Tell him I’m yours, too.

But the reminder seems to cool his temper, rather than inflaming it. Carefully neutral, Dom lifts one heavy shoulder. “Yeah. You are in charge, Jayk. Hope you’re ready for it.”

Disappointment crushes the fragile spindle of hope in my chest.

As if sensing it, Dom glances at me, and he hesitates, his jaw tightening like he’s frustrated.

“No.” Beau’s face flashes wicked dark. “ No . You don’t get to just build yourself a throne and call yourself boss, you ungrateful asshole.”

“The fuck do you care if I step up? Not like any of you do any work,” Jayk sneers, his chest pressing into Dom’s staying palm.

“Told you talking to him was overrated,” Lucky mutters to a tense Jasper.

Beau matches Jayk’s expression, all the anger from last night bubbling up like it had been sitting just beneath the surface, waiting for some heat. “You don’t win friends, or any fucking respect, by shitting all over everyone, Jayk. You just have to play the villain every god-damned time.”

Jasper straightens off the post, his expression turning back to marble, and the switch up crushes me. “Beaumont, de-escalate. Step back. You’re not in the right frame of mind to have this discussion. We can handle this like gentlemen .”

I eye Jayk, tattooed and all but naked, scowling at everyone. Beau glaring over Dom’s shoulder.

I think we’re past gentlemen.

They’re all brutes.

“Should have just scaled the building,” Lucky breathes, and Jasper throws a scowl in his direction.

“I have respect,” Jayk snaps at Beau. His shoulders draw back and some of his sneer drops. “I have it from everyone who matters.”

There’s a thorn under that one, and it pricks me hard.

“Oh, Jayk,” I murmur, hurting for him, and Lucky studies me, then looks at Jayk with a thoughtful frown.

But Beau’s handsome face only grows more scathing as Jayk’s anger cools. He moves forward, but Dom catches him again, dragging him back with a frustrated growl.

“ Stop , Beau. Not like this. He’s not the one you’re mad at.”

“The hell I’m not. This isn’t right .” Beau looks over Dom’s shoulder, his gaze all hot, sulfuric anger.

“You think we’re going to follow you anywhere?

You can’t just take everything , you bastard.

You don’t fucking deserve any of it, and you’re hurting people.

You don’t deserve my room. You don’t deserve to replace Dom, who has never been anything but a fucking great captain to you.

You sure as fuck don’t deserve Eden. You ruin everything .

We were all having a good time until you showed up. ”

“Beau,” I breathe, horror filling me as something bitter and dark breaks over Jayk’s expression.

“Holy shit, man, chill,” Lucky says, shocked.

Jayk just nods like this is nothing new. He looks at me.

“Him?” He searches my face, his eyes deep, depthless seas. “Really?”

Aching, I sigh. There’s so much hurt here, between all of them. So many unkindnesses that they’re so quick to pile onto one another.

Dom starts talking to Beau, hushed and firm.

“He’s wrong, Jayk. You deserve everything,” I tell him steadily, and his shoulders loosen. But before he can relax too far, I add, “But you could have joined us. This doesn’t have to be a fight.”

“Sure, sugar. We could all join a boy band and start a secret handshake.” Jayk’s mouth turns down, bitterly. “Wake up. This isn’t a family, Eden.”

“Enough. Do not put your insecurities onto her, Jaykob.” Jasper steps forward, his eyes flicking over Jaykob with quiet, eviscerating contempt.

“You’re not the only one who cares for Eden.

This is her home, and we are her family now.

I don’t appreciate you implying otherwise.

And I certainly don’t appreciate you impeding her ability to be with who she chooses. ”

Jayk eyes Jasper head to toe, his thick muscles flexing as he stands at full height. “You plan on stopping me?”

“If I must.”

“You couldn’t last night.”

Jasper stiffens, his chilly mask cracking.

“ Last night , you behaved like an immature, musclebound meathead. I’m not sure in what world you thought kidnapping a recently kidnapped woman was a brilliant idea, but as usual, you display the emotional capacity of an enraged hippopotamus.

Do you have any idea the effect that could have had on Eden? That it had on all of us?”

As Jasper glances at Lucky, his cracks split wide open.

There’s so much livid concern, so much worry in him, that I squeeze Lucky’s arm, hearing the echoes of Lucky battering at my door. Hearing his broken whisper, “I need you, too. Please don’t make me wait.”

Lucky grimaces, avoiding my eyes.

God. What is happening to us?

They’re all splintering.

“You’re wrong, Jasper.” Dom turns from Beau to look back at him, heavy and serious.

“You saw how Jayk was there for Eden after we got her back. More than me, more than you, more than anyone. He helped her get through it. He’s not crossing her lines with these stunts, he’s helping her to find them.

He knows what he’s doing.” Dom nods his chin at me. “She trusts him.”

Jayk sends an uncertain frown at him, but the others aren’t having it.

“Be that as it may, Eden’s lines aren’t the only ones that matter here. Jaykob’s actions affect everyone,” Jasper bites out.

Beau huffs incredulously. “Jayk wasn’t with her more than anyone.

” Mosquitos whizz around us as the day heats, and his skin glistens, damp with sweat as he scowls at Dom.

“ I was there. I was living with her—every day, I was there, helping her through her nightmares, through her triggers, helping her figure out all of you and your damn problems. Being there isn’t enough.

It doesn’t mean she’ll share anything at all about what she did or how she felt.

She might love you—but it doesn’t mean she trusts you. ”

Hurt throbs through his every word.

Understanding pierces me, jagged and hot, and a sharp whistling starts up in my ears.

That’s why he’s mad.

He and Dom are a matched pair, after all. They might handle it differently but it all comes back to the same thing.

Trust .

All five of my men are clustered together like explosive material about to be set off, and Jaykob widens his stance, every line of him set in pure defense.

Jasper is glaring at Dom. Beau’s heart is breaking over me. Dom is set off against them, and Jayk with everyone. Where did the morning go? How on earth am I supposed to fix all of them, when half their problems have nothing to do with me? And the ones that do . . .

Beau can’t even look at me right now, and I finally understand why.

I just have no idea what to do about it.

Lucky looks between Jasper, Jayk, then Beau, Dom . . . and me. The sunrise is in full storm, drenching Bristlebrook’s battlements in brilliant light, and his hair glows around his conflicted face.

“What?” Jayk snaps at him, noticing. “Stop looking like an injured puppy. It’s pathetic. You want to take a swing too, then just do it.”

Fire flashes into Lucky’s eyes, and he lets me go. He doesn’t jump into attack, not like Beau, but his cloaking humor falls away.

The anger is bare, deep, and very, very serious.

“You know, I want to take your side, Jayk. You just make it really hard.”

Jayk scoffs, and Lucky’s face hardens.

“I’m not your enemy, asshole. I’ve been trying to be your friend for years.”

“Don’t scoff at him, Jaykob. He’s right.

” Jasper steps in sharply, and Jaykob matches the step.

Jasper’s lip curls in distaste. “Beaumont may have been out of line in his expression, but he’s not wrong in his sentiment.

If you intend to lead, Jaykob, you will need to reevaluate your approach.

” He tilts his head at me, though he doesn’t look my way again. “With all of us.”

Beau dives in again, then Dom.

I take a step away, hugging myself as I watch them.

The whistling increases until their arguments fall away, but it takes me a moment to realize it’s not in my head.

It’s Ethel, her emergency whistle screeching between her lips. It takes another blast before I see Ida racing down from her platform. She begins urgently trying to pull back the heavy wooden bridge that spans our dry moat, and I scan the trees, not seeing anything that would spark her panic.

But Ethel keeps blowing her whistle in harsh, urgent shrieks.

“Um, everyone?” I interject, but they’re not paying attention.

Ida struggles with the bridge, trying to pull it away—but it was made thick and large, long enough to span the moat. Even if it is only wide enough to fit people walking across in single file, it’s incredibly heavy. I’m not sure if one person can so much as shift it.

No matter how Ida pulls, that bridge doesn’t budge.

I step forward, squinting... but the trees remain a distant blur of still, peaceful green.

The small hairs on the back of my neck prickle to life.

“Don’t act like you’re some hero, Doc. Ever think maybe she didn’t talk to you because she knows you sulk like a fucking toddler and leave every time someone hurts your feelings?” Jayk sneers.

Ethel’s whistle screams in the distance.

The trees begin to move.

“There’s something happening!” I snap, but the men are too absorbed in one another.

Windows slam open above us, and civilians begin pouring through the front doors, rifles in hands. Finally, the alarm starts going off, blaring through the speakers.

My temper fries, and I whirl on the others. “I said?—”

“ What ?” Beau snaps, and I don’t even have it in me to flinch at the harshness of his voice.

Instead, I push my glasses back up my nose. I no longer have to squint to see the civilians leaning out of windows or manning every looming defensive platform, or to see every rifle gleaming in the morning sun.

I don’t have to squint to see the threat that has appeared from the forest.

There, lining the inner rim of trees all the way around Bristlebrook, stands over fifty Reapers. They’re armed and dirty, loaded down with heavy bags and pack mules.

Sawyer and Cole stand at their head, right in front of our defensive dry moat, all their camping gear in tow.

I guess we just figured out where they want to stay.

I take a deep, steadying breath, and point in their direction.

“We have company.”