Page 3 of Tone Deaf
“I know,” he says, cutting me off. He breathes out a sigh. “I’d be doing the same thing. Just that… Tell me that you are going to give him the time he needs.”
“I already did. We just want him to say it out loud,” I proclaim, my eyes never leaving Pen. He gives me a subtle nod in agreement.
“We? Who’s we—and where are you?”
“Pen and I are at a bar,” I lie. Sort of. Wewereat a bar—specifically, in one of the executive lounges at LAX, killing time before our flight. But that was hours ago. Now we’re standing inside at Denver International, waiting for the bus to take us to the parking lot where we pick up our rental car.
“Rossetti,” he growls.
“Gotto go. Call you later.” I hang up before Tobias presses for more answers.
After we talk sense into Callum and explain to the bassist that Pen and my feelings are genuine, we three will unwind and recharge for a week before we leave his mountain home.
Pen frowns. “Tobias was no help.”
“No, but he does know where Callum is. And so do I.”
The moment the bus pulls up, we step outside and the chilly air hits my face.
“But what if…” Pen starts and pauses. He has a faraway look, a layer of doubt furrowing between his brows. “I don’t want to push Callum into something he doesn’t want, Dom.”
For as fierce and confident as Pen is while working a security detail, when it comes to personal relationships, he has a habit ofthinking too much—then doubt filters in and his insecurities—most of which are caused by his family, get in the way.
I turn to Pen, his anxious eyes meeting mine. “Iknowhe wants us. And the other night proved it.”
“I agree,” he says, although doubt laces his voice.
Does he?Because I'm as sure of that as I am of wanting Pen from the day I laid my eyes on the man.
When it became clear that Danny had a stalker, Ron contacted Harper Security, and Dean Harper assigned Tobias and John to Warrior Black. As the threats escalated, Dean assembled the rest of our team—Fig, Jordan, Pen and me. The day before we left for San Francisco to begin the job, I knew that Pen would be in my life. Pen says the same about me.
Neither of us had been in a relationship before, and it took a while for us to connect. We were professionals, and working together made it more complicated. But we agreed to be careful and discreet. However, by the comments the band and the rest of our team make, our attempts at discretion have not been wildly successful—especially when we “allowed” ourselves to be talked into sharing a bedroom when Ron deemed the band to be safer if everyone moved into the mansion together.
We never planned to add a third—that kind of snuck up on us. Despite our strong feelings for each other, we both found we also want Callum. However, we don’t want to fuck it all up by pushing Callum into a throuple if he doesn’t want to be with us. But that’s the wild hair. Callum does.
I see it in his eyes when he looks at us. The desire. The need.
The way we three connected when we loved each other for the first time the other night, there’s now no doubt in my mind that we fit like three perfect puzzle pieces.
Then Pen used the wordrelationship, and Callum freaked out. It didn’t help that his asshole father had called him earlier. It spurred Callum to run from us. Every time that son of a bitchcalls, Pen and I have to pull Callum out of his head and the blackness that swims in his thoughts. We try to intercept those calls, but we can’t catch all of them. Brian Fitz is a plague to his son, and I’d love to wipe him clean from this earth.
We can be his solace—his safe space. But there’s something there… His old man has a hold on him that prevents Callum from reaching out to us. I just need to figure out what it is.
“I’m not going to sit still and wait for the bass player to make a decision on if he wants us or not. We agreed to this, Pen.”
“What if Callum rejects us? All he has to say are those simple words, and then we have no choice but to comply with his wishes.”
“He won’t,” I reaffirm.
“I don’t know if I can keep working for Warrior Black knowing my heart…” His voice chokes up.
I get close, gripping the back of Pen’s neck. “Look at me,” I command, and he swings his eyes from the ground up to mine. “From the moment we realized that we both felt something for Callum, we wanted him with us. Am I right?”
He nods slowly. “Yeah.”
“Then don’t let doubt fill your head. Focus on how good we are when we three are together. Okay?” I squeeze his neck when the silence between us grows. “Pen.”
“You’re right.” He takes a breath, and then steps away from me. “You know it’s going to take us close to an hour to get there from here.”