Page 72 of Savage Reign

“How tempting,” I muttered. Silas laughed when Mila blushed and glared over at me.

I winked at her, taking the lead in the front, checking our surroundings for any possible threat. Maverick pulled up in the rear while Silas and Mila were in the middle between us.

I opened the door to a loud and busy little joint. Tables scattered about, surrounding the huge wooden bar top manned by three bartenders running around trying to get everyone’s orders in.

A haggard-looking hostess came up to us, her brown hair tied up in a high bun, tired brown eyes surrounded by crow’s feet.

“Hiya, folks. Four?”

“Yes,” I answered.

She grabbed four menus and smiled at me. “Follow me back.”

I tried to ignore the crowd. This was the place Maverick wanted to take Mila to?

“We might be a little overdressed,” I heard Mila say to Silas. I turned back and looked at her briefly, taking in her red dress. She looked fucking hot, and if any fucker had anything to say to her, I might just throw my knife at ’em.

I shook away the murderous thought just as the hostess led us to a square table in the middle of the restaurant. I shook my head, pointing to the circular booth in the very back. “We’ll take that one.”

She looked at it. “It’s not clean yet.”

“We can wait,” I answered, bypassing her and moving over to it. The hostess stood there for a beat before she hurried along to find the busboy. We stood while they quickly cleaned, with Silas whispering something to Mila and making her smile. I watched them the entire time. I knew he was mostly trying to get her to relax, and though I was fucking glad he was able to entice a smile out of her, there was an ugly emotion in my chest that felt a hell of a lot like jealousy.

Hell, it might be.

Silas had this way about him that always put the women we were with at ease. It never bothered me before, mainly because that worked in our favor, but with Mila… I wasn’t sure I could ever be the one to help put her at ease. To tease a smile out of her when she was feeling nervous or stressed.

I would lay my fucking life down for her. I would love her until my last dying breath, and I knew my brothers were the same way.

But to be like Silas…

“Your staring is making Mila nervous,” Maverick said, coming up close to me.

I blinked, and sure enough, she was looking back at me, a small frown on her face and shifting on her feet.

“I always make her nervous.”

Maverick shrugged. “True, but with how things are between us right now, why don’t you tone it down, yeah?”

I let out a sigh. The table was all cleared and clean, and I moved over to it, saving myself from having to answer him. Silas and Mila took the middle while Maverick and I took the outside, with Maverick next to Mila. The waitress arrived, and we let Maverick order for us, seeing as how he was the only one who’d been here. I barely listened.

I stopped the waitress from leaving when Maverick finished. “Bring me an unopened beer.”

“Make that two,” Silas said.

She left, and Mila leaned back against the booth. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I would say you guys rehearsed it.”

I frowned at her. “Rehearsed what?”

“The way you move in line. Where you sit. It’s all so… purposeful.”

“Baby, with what we do, every action taken when we’re out in publicneedsto be purposeful,” I said. One moment of inattention could mean our death. And with who we were and what we did, there were a lot of fuckers out there gunning for our heads. I looked at Mila. They were gunning for Mila’s head as well. And not just because she was now associated with us or because she was our weakness.

But because of what she was expected to inherit in just two short months from now. Hell.

She nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Our life is your life now,” Maverick said.

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