Page 39 of Shared By Her Brother's Best Friends

“I just wish there was a way for this nightmare to be over,” she says biting her nails anxiously. “I feel so mad at Adam for leaving Max and me in this situation. What kind of man puts his family at risk like that?”

“A weak, selfish one,” I reply, jaw clenched.

I didn’t think you could hate a dead man, but I sure as shit hate Emma’s ex-husband.

“Perhaps that’s why I like you, Ty, and Jax. You’re the opposite of weak and selfish,” she says with a smile.

“I wasn’t always strong. I was a scrawny little kid. The bigger kids used to pick on me for it. Bess used to have to protect me,” I reply, thinking back to how she’d square up to even the biggest boys.

“Really?” Emma says with surprise, “What changed?”

“Puberty hit,” I reply with a chuckle, “And I started lifting weights. Bess taught me not to take any shit. In our world the weak don’t survive, it’s kill or be killed.”

Emma looks at me sadly. “I’m sorry that was your childhood.”

“It was a long time ago, I came out of it alright. I survived,” I say with a shrug.

“How did you end up in care, if you don’t mind me asking?” she says gently.

Usually, I don’t like to share my past with people, but with Emma, I feel comfortable. I know she won’t think less of me or pity me because of it.

“My mom killed herself when I was around Max’s age. I was the one who found her. Turns out my dad was having an affair. She’d always been fragile and suffered with her mental health, but hearing that the man she loved so fiercely was fucking his nineteen-year-old student broke her.”

“Oh, Mason, I’m so sorry,” Emma says, placing a comforting hand on my knee.

“It was less than six months after her death that my dad moved his mistress in and shipped me out. Supposedly there wasn’t room for me in the new family they wanted to build together,” I say bitterly, still stung by the rejection to this day. “No one wants to adopt a troubled six-year-old who has nightmares and wets the bed because of what he saw. They want babies or cute toddlers who they can easily mold into their own. So I was stuck bouncing around foster homes until I turned eighteen, each one more shitty than the last as I became labeled a problem child.”

“What your father did to you was terrible. People like that don’t deserve to have kids. Max is the most important thing in my life, I wouldn’t give him up for anything or anyone,” she says fiercely.

“I know, it’s the thing I respect and admire most about you.”

“Thank you. I know I’ve no right to ask… but if something were to happen to me, could I ask something of you?” she says, her sapphire eyes searching mine.

“Anything,” I reply earnestly.

“Will you help Jacob take care of Max? He’s a great uncle and he practically raised me when we were kids, but it’s tough and he’d need all the help he can get.”

“Of course I will. But nothing’s going to happen to you. Not on my watch. So there’s no need to worry about it,” I assure her.

“Thank you,” she replies with a small smile. “And thanks for telling me about your childhood.”

I nod, not feeling the need to respond.

“Do you think Jax and Ty will be mad again if we have fun without them?” she asks mischievously, immediately taking my mind off the past and pulling me back to the present.

“If they are, I’m sure a blowjob will quickly put an end to it and cheer them up,” I reply with a grin.

“From me or you?” she cheekily teases.

I laugh. “They sure as shit won’t want one from me.”

I pull her close, kissing her, reveling in the softness of her lips and the warmth of her body. J-Bird will kill us if he ever finds out about us and Emma, but for now, I don’t care.

Our make-out session is interrupted by the ringing of Emma’s phone.

“Ignore it,” I say between kisses, pulling her top up over her head.

But as soon as the phone stops ringing it starts again. Whoever is calling is determined to get ahold of Emma.

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