Page 161 of The Crowned Garza

They start singing“The Cuppycake Song.”

And it’s the funniest shit I’ve ever seen and heard. I press a fist to my mouth to suppress my amusement. My girl has a twisted sense of humor.Dio,I love her.

When they’re done, Reuben waves his hand like a choir instructor. “Andagain!”

“Go fuck yourself,” Tripp growls and sits back down. “I did it. Done!”

“Tillie said three times through.”

“No, God no.” I gesture for them to end it. “Once is enough.”

“Well then, she can take it up with you.” Reuben shrugs, still laughing his face off. “I did my part.”

“Wow…” I bite back a laugh as the others sit back down. “That was…something.”

Tripp glares at me. “Let’s just fucking get on with it, shall we? You’re a—”

“We’re sorry,” True speaks over a Tripp. “That’s what my loving,apologeticbrother here means to say. Let’s be honest, you dissed us. Bitch-slapped us in the face. You knoweverythingabout us. Our personal lives, personal secrets. ’Cause we trust you. You’re like Reuben to us, a fraternal brother. You’re with us all the damn time, personally, remotely, virtually. It’s like, when we can’t count on anyone else, we can count on Guy. Guy’ll help, Guy’ll have the answers.” He jabs a thumb at his brothers. “These two bozos won’t admit it, but you’re like a mini god around here. Superordinate.”

Tripp snorts and looks at the ceiling.

True powers on, “We trust each other so implicitly that we thought the door was wide open enough that you could’ve been honest and upfront with us. You know our whereabouts at all times becausewe trust youwith that access, but now it just feels like you used it as an advantage to evade us, pull the wool over our eyes. It’s fucked-up, man. Of course we’re pissed. Of course we needed to take our anger out somehow. That said, I personally didn’t mean for it to get as bad as it did—”

“I did. I wanted you to—”

“Shut up! Just shut up and lemme do the goddamn talking, man,” True barks at his twin. “Put a fucking sock in it with your macho bullshit and don’t screw this up.” He brings his attention back to me. “Okay, where was I? We’re—”

I lift a hand to halt True. “An explanation or apology isn’t necessary. Really. I understand the hurt, the anger, the desire for blood. I knew it was going to happen and Iallowedit to happen. Unfortunately, your timing was terrible, and Tillie got hurt in the aftermath.”

“But those areyourfucking people, man,” Tripp remarks. “She got hurt ’cause ofyou, not us.”

I level my stare to his. “A few months ago, she was kidnapped because ofyou, wasn’t she?”

“That’s different,” he grits out.

I shift my gaze to Trent. “How about a year ago, when she was almost assaulted in a parking lot because ofyou?”

He clenches his jaw.

“Let’s even throw back a couple years, where she had a gun pointed at her head because of Tor and Lyra.” I take a moment, giving them enough time to smell the stench of their hypocrisy. “Tillie is in no worse danger being with me than she is being related to you. That’s fact.I’vebeen the one protecting her, and I willcontinueto protect her. Like I said, I don’t need your apology. Because yes, Ididtake advantage of your location trackers to effectively avoid run-ins. But not for the reasons you think. The honest truth is, we weren’t even in a relationship until several weeks ago.”

“Bullshit,” Tripp spits. “Even Enrique Rojas knew you two were—”

“Take a break from being angry for a second andthinkabout it,” I cut him off. “Think of her relationships over the years. When was she dating me?When? I didn’t tell you about us because there wasn’t an ‘us.’ Tillie needed to date around, try flavors, discover who she was and what she wanted. I might have known what I wanted with her, but she was still young and full of curiosity. While she was out there living her life, I waited for her. Up until a few weeks ago when we worked things out. By that time, however, there was too much going on with Soleil’s case and she suggested we hold off on coming forward. From there, things just kind of…spiraled.”

“So lemme get this straight…” Tripp drops his forearms on the table and leans forward. “You want us to believe you’ve been in love with T for years, but was A-okay with her dating other men all that time?”

“Correct.”

“Andyoudidn’t date anyone? You just ‘waited’?”

“Correct.”

“You really expect us to believe that?”

“Doesn’t matter if you do.” I shrug. “I knew what I wanted. I waited for it.”

“Actually, it ain’t that hard for me to believe,” True says thoughtfully. “Dude really didn’t have a life.”