Page 24 of Oathbreaker

She grabs Willow’s hand and the ladies, with the exception of Briar, make a hasty exit, leaving the rest of us standing in the kitchen, the air thick with tension.

“Motherfucker, you have a lot of explaining to do!” Dash growls, glaring at me.

“This isn’t an episode of ‘I Love Lucy,’” I joke, trying to lighten the mood the only way I know how. “You don’t need to channel Desi and demand I do some ’splaining.”

“You seriously think this is funny?” West grits out, scowling.

“You need to leave,” I say dryly. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” West folds his arms across his chest, eyes narrowing, letting me know he’s not going anywhere.

Fuck.

This isn’t how I envisioned coming home. Seeing my friends.

I didn’t want things to be so complicated. But for some reason, it never occurred to me the guys would be married, involved, having kids. I definitely never imagined that I had a kid. That Briar and I made a baby.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

“Well?” Dash makes a hurry up motion with his hands. “You going to stand there like a sad dipshit or are you going to fucking explain?”

“It’s complicated,” I respond slowly. “I was on a mission. Then I got captured.” I glance at West. “Now I’m back.”

“You came straight to L.A.?” Atlas asks.

“After being debriefed and spending a week in the hospital.”

“Except you didn’t,” he says. “Because you were in Nashville, weren’t you?”

Shit. I forgot about that.

“Yeah, but…” This is so difficult to explain. “I didn’t realize what was going on until I got there. Once I figured out who Lily was, and it was the funeral for some big shot, I decided that wasn’t the right place for us to talk. I thought I should wait until we were all together.”

Atlas closes his eyes, his jaw working angrily, one fist clenched at his side. “You were in Nashville and didn’t…” Voice tense, body coiled like he’s ready to strike. “You know what? I’m out. Lily! Let’s go!” He turns and storms out the door without looking back.

Dammit.

“Atlas…” I want to follow but I don’t have the strength, and frankly, I don’t know what I’d say. Sorry about all this? It’s complicated…

“I didn’t know you guys thought I was dead,” I say, trying to regain some semblance of control. “I thought you’d be told that I was MIA or something, not dead. I wasn’t allowed contact while I was in training and then?—”

“Training.” Dash meets my eyes, jutting out his jaw slowly. “You took that job with the black ops center. The one they told us about in that security meeting, where if we were interested to let our COs know.” His face hardens. “We talked about it, you asshole. We decided, together, that neither of us was interested.”

“I know.” God, I hate this part. “But then they came to me separately, told me I had a specific skill set and that…” I drop my gaze, because this part is hard. “...I didn’t have anyone waiting for me. No family to speak of. I was a perfect fit and?—”

“No family?” Briar’s voice is a hushed whisper filled with disbelief.

“You’re serious.” Dash opens his mouth and closes it again. “We—you know what? I can’t do this right now.” Dash holds up a hand stopping me from saying anything as he calls to his fiancée. “Babe? Willow, we’re leaving.”

And like Atlas, he doesn’t wait for her, merely turns and walks out the door.

Good job, Colt. Alienating your brothers.

Exactly the homecoming you were counting on.

“He’ll be back,” Royal says after a moment. “He just needs a little time to digest it all. This probably hit him harder than the rest of us.”

“Why?” I ask in confusion, even though I already know the answer.