Page 36 of Last One Standing (Saint Brothers #5)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

ANGEL

Carmichael didn’t exactly say he would get us cleared of any wrongdoing at Saintly Sweets, but it was implied.

He’d promised to see what he could do to push for the authorities to get Brick to back off, but I didn’t give a fuck.

Even if he came here today and got on his knees and begged for forgiveness, I’d cut his head clean off and piss down his neck.

As soon as Carmichael had gone, Noel and Nick went straight to the tech room to research everything they could on Colette Barbier.

If she was going to be a problem for us, we’d need to know.

As it stood, she was a piece of shit for all her trafficking, and maybe if we got lucky she’d be at the same place as Brick once it was time to rid the world of him.

“So, what do we do?” Lizzy’s voice shook. The poor girl wasn’t handling any of this well.

“We have the twins looking into this woman, finding out who she is. From there, we will know what our path to the Dead Kings looks like.” I didn’t have it in me to hold her hand through this. I understood why she was fracturing, but I had to figure all this out.

“If Brick is so important to this Colette lady, why didn’t she step in when we were taking out his guys, or destroying what I now guess were her drugs and guns?” JJ asked.

“We have no idea what she’s been told. Brick may not have told her that it’s all turned to ashes.” Gabe shrugged. “Honestly, right now we need to see if she’s a problem for us.”

“Oh, she’s a problem.” Mason sniffed as he held up his phone. “I went online and found her. She’s been seen with members of the Columbian cartel, Solntsevskaya Bratva, and few other heavy hitters in the underworld.”

“Huh.” Shep grinned. “Maybe she doesn’t know about the guns and drugs because Brick’s afraid of her…that would mean she’d be pretty pissed that he wasn’t gonna deliver.”

“Except, if she goes to him and he points her in our direction, we now have two enemies.” Four sat beside Lizzy, who was resting her head on his shoulder.

“The way I see it is, Brick doesn’t know we have any idea about Colette. Which gives us time to spin something to make her not even bother to believe a word he says.” Kona brushed up next to me. “That’s a big advantage.”

“True.” JJ hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “I’m gonna go clean up in the kitchen. It’ll take the twins some time to come up with something.”

“Can I watch a movie in the theater room?” Pika stood from his seat.

“Oh, Lizzy and I could join you.” Hazel took her friend’s hand, and she separated from Four to follow.

“She gonna be okay?”

Four looked at me, his jaw tight. “I don’t know.”

“She needs time.” Kona winced. “I’m sure she’s angry with me, so seeing me isn’t helpful.”

Four’s brow dipped. “I told her being angry with you is misplaced. She knows that, but I think she’s having a lot of trouble reconciling with life.” He waved his hand to indicate everything around us.

“And what does that mean for you?” I had to wonder—if Lizzy left this town, state, hell country, what would it mean for Four.

“I’m talking with her, and I asked Aziza if she would talk with her, and she said yes. If you want me to answer you about the future, all I can say is I won’t leave her.”

That was answer enough.

“Phoenix, did you want to maybe go work on your routine? We can find a song?” Phoenix jumped at the chance, and Kona followed him out of the living room.

I hadn’t had a moment alone with Kona since we’d woken up this morning. During dinner, he and Phoenix were telling us about some of the music choices for the charity talent show, and he ended up sitting away from me. It was fine and all—he was his own person.

“Why are you frowning?” JJ whispered in my ear. He was sitting next to me.

“I’m not frowning.”

“I mean, it is your home setting, I suppose.”

I whipped my head and squinted. “What?”

“What? I’m not sure what’s confusing you.”

“You just said my home setting was frowning?”

JJ sipped his soda and answered. “Pretty much. You’re very, ‘I hate people, I hate smiling, blah blah, fuck off and die.’”

“That’s a horrible impression of me, first of all. Second, what the hell?”

JJ chuckled. “All I meant was you’re frownier than usual.”

I blew a raspberry…which was a mistake.

“Did you just…” JJ looked around the table, but everyone was doing their own thing. “That was very unlike you, Angel Saint. Now I know something is going on.”

“Keep your voice down,” I hissed.

“Why?” He inched closer to me. “Who are we hiding your feelings from?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m leaving this room.”

“Wait!” He grabbed my arm, stopping me. “Is it Kona?”

“What about Kona?”

JJ cocked his head to the side. “For real? Like none of us know you’re sort of involved. The towel debacle, and I suspect you had a sleepover in your room, from what Four was telling me this afternoon.”

I glared over at Four, but he was too busy talking with Lizzy. “That little shit.”

“Oh, stop. You know I’d have found out all the things eventually. But here’s what I don’t get. If you’re slipping and sliding with Kona, why are you upset? I mean, orgasms don’t tend to make me angry.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’m not discussing this with you.”

“Seriously, Angel.” He nudged me. “What’s going on?” He glanced at Kona, then at me. And like a lightbulb went off, his eyes widened. “Are you upset because he’s not sitting next to you?” He started cackling.

“I hate you.” I took my plate and hurried off into the kitchen.

I was in there for a total of three seconds before I heard footsteps. I placed my dish on the counter and spun, ready to tell JJ to drop it. But it wasn’t him; it was Kona.

“Whoa.” He held up his hands. “You okay? I was watching you have a conversation with JJ. It appeared to be heated and once I saw you storm out, I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“You were watching me?” My anger began to dissipate.

“Uh…yeah.” He said it as if I were crazy. “You’re hot; I like looking at you.”

“Oh.”

He sauntered closer and when he was an inch from my body, he wrapped his arms around my waist. “So, are you all right?”

“Suddenly, I feel great.”

He smiled, and I couldn’t resist not tasting it. He hummed when I kissed him, and when I pulled away he licked his bottom lip.

“Slumber party in my room later?”

I chuckled. “I’ll be there.”