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H e was expecting more of a fight from Juno about staying with him—but she gave him none. He wasn’t sure if that made him happy or pissed him off. He liked how feisty she was, but when it came to staying with him, she had no sassy comebacks or anything that he had gotten used to from her over the past 24 hours.

Banshee had stuck around after the cops left, and he was grateful. He wasn’t ready to be alone with Juno yet, and that was ridiculous since they had just spent the entire night alone in his house.

Banshee told Juno that she should trust her friends with the truth, but could tell that she still wasn’t sure if she should. Juno had spent so much time hiding the truth from her friends that she was worried that they’d be angry with her, and he had to admit that he’d be angry if one of his friends kept a big secret from him—not that he had many friends.

Before Banshee left his place, she had a full schedule lined up of Bastards and a few Harlots to watch his place. She wanted to put someone on his front porch, but refused and told her that it would look bad if the Royal Bastard’s Sergeant at Arms had to have a security detail. He was the security team for the club, and he didn’t want anyone standing on his porch protecting Juno and him. He meant it when he said he was capable of taking care of himself and that also extended to Juno now that she was staying with him.

“I’ll need a few things from my apartment,” she said. Juno had spent most of the afternoon sitting on the sofa sulking. He thought that her little pout was pretty cute, but every time he opened his mouth to tell her that, she stopped him dead, telling him that she wasn’t ready to talk.

“So, now you want to talk to me?” asked.

“Don’t be an ass,” she grumbled. “I’ve just been through a lot over the past day. I need to get some sleep and that means I need to go over to my place and pack some necessities. Can I borrow your truck?” Juno asked.

“Yes, but you can’t go alone,” he insisted. “It’s not safe. I’m guessing that Bruno knows your home address.” He wouldn’t put it past that asshole to break into her apartment and wait for her to show back up. couldn’t let that happen. “I’ll go with you,” he said.

“Your arm is broken,” she reminded. He didn’t need to be told about his broken arm. It ached every minute of the day, even on the painkillers. He was saving them for the night, so he could stay awake during the day.

“I’m aware,” he mumbled. “Listen, if you want to go by your place and pick some stuff up, you’ll need to let me tag along.” She didn’t look very happy about the ultimatum, but he could tell that she was going to agree with his rules. Juno was a smart woman. She knew how much danger she was in and who they were probably dealing with.

“Fine,” she spat, “suit yourself, but if you’re going with me, you’ll have to help carry stuff down to your truck. When we get back, I’d like to call my insurance company and report the arson of my car. Hopefully, I’ll get enough to buy something new—well, used, but new to me.”

“How long before you’ll be ready to go?” asked. He wanted to get what she needed, come back home, and take a painkiller. He was hurting and not sure how much help he’d be on his own, but he had a plan.

“Ten minutes,” she said.

“Great, I’ll be waiting here for you,” he said.

“Do you by chance have an extra toothbrush?” Juno asked.

“Yep,” he said, “it’s in my medicine cabinet. Help yourself.” He waited for her to head upstairs before he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called Dare. He knew that his brother would help Juno and him out. He just hoped that Juno was ready to come clean because pretending to be together, in front of Dare, wasn’t something that he wanted to do. Before last night, had never lied to his little brother, and he didn’t want to start now.

* * *

He quickly called his brother, deciding that it would be better to ask forgiveness rather than permission from Juno. If she knew that he needed help, and called Dare, she’d insist on packing her stuff alone.

“Hey, how’s the arm?” Dare asked. “Sorry that I didn’t stick around the ER last night, but Juno refused to leave and said that it was no use us both sitting there all night.”

“She refused to leave?” asked.

“Yep,” Dare said, “your new girlfriend seems very protective of you. And why the hell didn’t you tell me that you two were dating?” This was where things were going to get tricky. He wouldn’t lie to his brother, but he needed to come up with a good cover story that involved the truth.

“You know how it is with new relationships. We just don’t want to jinx things.” hadn’t lied. What he had with Juno was turning into a friend's relationship, even if he wanted it to be more. And they did just meet (officially), so that would make it new.

“I’ve never known you to be superstitious, ,” Dare challenged.

“Yeah, well, Juno is,” he said. He knew that she was superstitious just by spending the day together. Juno had knocked on wood twice and had even tossed salt over her shoulder when she spilled some on the table during breakfast.

“Is Juno ready to tell Vixen the truth?” Dare asked. worried that Dare knew more than he was letting on and that he’d need to tread carefully if he didn’t want to blow Juno’s cover.

“The truth?” asked.

“Yeah, you know about the fact that you two have been dating behind all our backs,” Dare said.

“I take it you two talked last night about our secret while I was having my arm cast,” he said. His brother would have insisted that Juno tell Vixen the truth or he would. He was a stickler for the truth—usually. Of course, when Vixen needed Dare to pretend to be her boyfriend to get rid of her stalker, he had no problem doing that.

“Yep, and I told her that she needed to tell Vixen within the day, or I would. You know that I won’t lie to my wife. Hell, she’ll murder me if she finds out that I knew about this and didn’t tell her immediately. I don’t want to die, man,” Dare said.

couldn’t help his chuckle. His brother was usually over dramatic, but this time took the cake. “You are such a drama queen,” teased.

“I am not,” Dare grumbled. “So, did you just call me to give me shit, or did you need something?”

“Actually, I do need something. Can you meet me and Juno over at her apartment? It’s a long story, but she needs to pack some of her stuff and stay with me for a while.” He hoped that Dare didn’t ask too many questions because he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to keep up the whole relationship lie with his brother.

“How long will you be out of commission?” Dare asked.

“Two weeks, why?” asked.

“Because I figured that she’d insist on staying with you while you recovered. Like I said, your girlfriend seems very protective of you.” wished that his brother would stop referring to Juno as his girlfriend. Every time he said that felt even more guilty.

“Yeah,” said, “and you know how stubborn she is. I told her that I didn’t need her to play nurse, but she insisted.”

Dare groaned on the other end of the call. “Man, I don’t need to hear about you playing nurse with my best friend. We’re going to need to come up with some boundaries if this is going to work out. The first one is that I don’t need to hear about your sex life.” That worked for because he currently had no sex life, but his brother wouldn’t believe that they weren’t having sex already. He knew too well to believe that.

“Listen, would you be able to come by Juno’s place and help me get everything that she needs into my truck? Doing things one-handed won’t help her out, and I want to do this quickly so that I can get home and take some pain meds.”

“Of course, I don’t mind giving you both a hand,” he said. He started laughing and wondered what Dare found so funny.

“What’s funny?” asked.

“I said that I can give you a hand,” Dare repeated. “Pun intended,” he joked. rolled his eyes at his brother’s joke, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to see him. “You just rolled your eyes, didn’t you?” Dare asked.

“No,” mumbled.

“You do know that I can read you better than anyone else, right? I can also tell when you roll your eyes at me, even over the phone.” Dare seemed to be feeling pretty smug with himself for figuring his brother out.

“Whatever,” grumbled. “How about you meet us over at her place in twenty minutes? Oh, and Dare, leave the corny jokes at home,” he insisted, ending the call. The last thing wanted to do was give his little brother time to make a sarcastic comment back. He was sure that Dare would have plenty of them by the time they got to Juno’s place—and that thought made him smile.