Page 67 of The Secret's Out

Caden threw his head back and laughed. “It wouldn’t be the same without you, Eli. You fuckin’ know that.”

I sent him a chin lift. “’Cause I’m that awesome.” I smirked. “Make the call, see you up there.”

Looking to Caden after Josie stormed off, he stared back and then with a nod, he started for her bedroom door. He was gonna tell her it all. I needed to be in there for them.

“Thanks for your help, brothers, but...”

Dodge chuckled as he stood from the couch. “Yeah, yeah we get it. Make-up sex and truth work wonders.”

A snort, then a shrug. “True that,” I said.

Dallas walked to the door from the kitchen. “She’s strong now. She can handle it.” He glared and then left. Dodge sent a wink before he closed the door after him.

Dallas was a strange fucker and the woman who brought him to his knees was gonna have to be the sane one for the both of them.

Lockin’ the door, knowing Simone wasn’t gonna be home for another two hours, I walked to the bedroom to see how things were going. See if they’d got to the sex part of the fun yet.

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Pick

Opening the bedroom door, I stepped in to find Josie standing across the room with her hands on her hips glaring at me. Fuck, it was cute and I would have told her if I wasn’t worried she’d throw something at me. At least she wasn’t crying. I’d feel like a real arsehole if I saw her in tears.

“Baby, it’s not what you think,” I said calmly.

“Then what is it?” she asked with a tremble in her voice.

“How about you sit down?”

“No.” She glared.

“Okay, all right.” I sighed and ran a hand over my buzz cut. “Precious, you mean everything to Eli and me. Fuck, you know we love you and have for a fuckin’ long time.” Tears pooled in her eyes. Jesus, I knew I never said the words, but she had to have felt it. Striding forward, I cradled her in my arms. Her forehead went to my chest. “I love you, Josie, and there is no way in hell I would jeopardise it for anything.”

“Then why lie?” She sniffled.

The bedroom door opened and we both knew it would be Eli. Still, we didn’t turn. He came up beside us and ran his hand down her back.

“We wanted to protect you,” I offered.

She groaned and pulled away, glaring once again. Fuckin’ cute.

With her hands on her hips, she snapped, “Don’t you both get it? If it has anything to do with either of you, I want to know. I don’t want to be put inside a bubble and go along thinking the worst. I want to protect you both as well and I can’t do that not knowing what’s going on.” She wiped at her eyes. “I love you both. You have my heart, my soul, and you’ve both made me stronger. You both know everything about me. But you both need to let me all the way in and tell me everything about you. Please.”

While I got my head together, preparing to tell her everything, so nothing was between us again, Eli said, “Sweetheart, you already know everything about me. My parents sucked. So I took up a life with a new family. What I didn’t expect to find was an even better family within the brotherhood. You and Caden...hell, you both mean a fuckin’ heap to me and I’d do anything for you both. We can tell you everything about us. But please, baby, you gotta know we can’t tell you everything that goes on with the club.”

“I know that,” she uttered with a nod. “And I understand it. I just want to be there for you both when you need me. I want to help ease any troubles you both may have. And I need you to know that I’m not the person I used to be. I can handle things, the good, the bad and the very ugly, if I know it helps you both.”

Eli smiled at her and held out his hand. She took it and he led her to the bed. I joined them, sitting down on the other side of our woman.

“We’re gettin’ the picture, sweetheart. We’ve witnessed you growin’ into a beautiful, young, brave woman,” Eli said.

“Good.” She nodded to the floor and then raised her eyes and looked at me. “Can you tell me what’s going on, if it doesn’t have anything to do with the club?”

“Yeah, precious. I can tell you, but fuck, baby, it ain’t good.”

She reached her hand up and ran it down my cheek, then took my hand in hers. “I know.”

Closing my eyes, I braced myself. Christ, I didn’t want to tell her. I wanted to protect her from the fuckin’ wrong things in life, but she was right. We couldn’t keep her in a bubble. To know us, she had to know everything that was goin’ on.

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