Page 4 of Sinful Restraint

“Can you keep your mouth shut while I get back to the tour?” Storm asked.

“My lips are sealed,” Cruz said, doing the motion like he was zipping it closed.

Cruz actually did keep his mouth shut and lips tight right until the end of the tour when he looked like he was ready to burst at the seams. He waited until Storm was a few feet away, before he leaned to me and said, “I know the difference. He forgets I spent some time overseas. But saying we konnichiwa’d our house instead of our house got fend shui’d sounds a lot more bad ass, don’t ya’ think?”

I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips because yeah, it did kinda sound more bad ass even if it didn’t make a lick of sense.

“Careful,” Cruz stated, gripping my shoulders when I almost ran into a wall that I didn’t recall being there before. I didn’t know what it was about Cruz, but I was always clumsy around him when he made me laugh. I tried to shake it off like I always did whenever he saved me from a catastrophe, but having Titan and Storm turn around to see why Cruz had told me to be careful had me getting much more attention than I was prepared for.

God, why are they all so beautiful to look at?It was hard not to study them just as hard as they were watching me. They each had an imposing presence about them. The kind that turnedheads when they walked into a room, prompting you to decide if you wanted tobethem or bewiththem. And if I hadn’t been here to discuss business, maybe I’d let myself enjoy the view a little longer.

chapter two

When we reachedRev’s room during the tour, I gasped at the fact that everything looked to be exactly how I thought he would have left it. His bed was made the way he used to make it when we were kids. His clothes were neatly hanging in his closet, and nothing was out of place.

“We thought you may want to look in there before we pack anything up,” Cruz stated. “We told ourselves if you didn’t stop by before the beginning of next year, we’d pack it up ourselves.

The tour ended with us in the secondary living room that was more private and had an entertainment section with a bar and a wall of dark liquors. I opted for a glass of water and passed on any whiskey, rum, or bourbon since I’d previously had tequilaand didn’t want the guys to see what happened to me when I mixed light and dark liquor.

While Storm and Cruz took a seat, motioning for me to do the same, Cruz leaned adjacent to the liquor wall, a picture of infuriating ease with one hand wrapped around his own drink, and the other resting on his thigh.

Titan snagged the remote control to the fireplace and turned it on. And while it looked like Cruz was watching what his friend was doing and wasn’t looking at me directly, I knew he was by the slow curve of his mouth, and the way his fingers tapped against the glass as if he needed to be moving.

If I keep observing him, he’ll make me lose focus on the reason I’m here.You couldn’t grow up with Cruz and not recognize how distracting he could be at times. I could feel my anxiety creeping back into my bones, the feeling a reminder that it was always there. That uncontrollable grief that curdled into rage every time I looked at him, or Titan, or Storm.

My brother was gone. Dead and taken away from me way too soon. And no one had given me a straight answer as to why. I knew the kind of man Cruz was. He moved through the shadows and often spoke in half-truths and unreadable silences, giving off an aloof demeanor that put others at ease by thinking there was no way this goofball was a threat once they got over how brawny he was. Yet, he was far from being a clueless bystander. There was so much more to him than others gave him credit for.

Done with stalling, I slammed my empty water glass onto the table, the sound cracking through the quiet room. Cruz masked his smirk, his face going stoic. Storm’s eyes softened in a way that showed sympathy, but nothing else. While Titan’s unreadable gaze only pissed me off since I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

Even before I’d seen Rev’s room, my insides had felt like a storm gathering on the horizon, ready to destroy anything in itspath. My chest tightened from the ache in the pit of my stomach that made me want to yell at all three of them and demand the answers I’d been waiting on for the past five months.

“Are one of you gonna tell me the truth,” I asked, my voice raw as I stood from the couch and began pacing, “or are you gonna keep feeding me lies?”

Cruz’s expression didn’t change, but something flickered in his eyes. Yet, it was gone too fast for me to catch it.

“Be careful what you ask for.” His voice was low and smooth. “You may think you know what we do, but you ain’t ready to hear the entire gritty truth of it. You’re grieving and out for vengeance. Trust us. We get it.” He took a step toward me, with Storm and Titan standing to move closer as well. Being surrounded by all three of them was intoxicating as hell for reasons I would rationalize later.

“We’re on your side,” Titan added, his voice soothing me in a way I didn’t expect. “We won’t rest until we find out who did this.”

“It’s been five months,” I reminded them.

“And it consumes our mind daily,” Storm chimed in. “We’re already living an unhealthy lifestyle when it comes to cracking this case.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not fast enough for me.” Opening my oversized Micheal Kors bag, I pulled out three file folders and handed one to each of them. “In this file, you’ll find that no detail has been left unturned.”

“What the fuck is this?” Cruz asked, flipping through pages.

After clearing my throat, I disclosed, “It’s your agreement that you understand that Rev left me his majority share over every part of his IT business and home ownership as advisor of this property. My goal is to sell The Omega House as quickly as possible, but do you three the favor of splitting the equity evenly.”

“You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Titan huffed, slamming the file closed without reading more of it.

“Can she do this?” Cruz asked, looking between Titan and Storm.

“I can,” I answered for them. “According to the records I was given by our family lawyer, you all signed the paperwork that placed The Omega House under Rev’s LLC and made him primary owner, manager, and advisor of the business, and each of you employees of the house. While you may have made The Omega House your home, it now belongs to me and I ca—” My voice cracked and my throat started closing in. Yet, I pushed through my emotions to finish what I came here to do.

“I can’t move on with my life until my brother gets justice.” Clearing my throat, I stood tall, smoothed out my dark blue jeans, straightened out my peach blouse that matched my peach stilettos, and looked each of the guys dead in the eye before slapping them with the final news.

“The only way that I will consider selling The Omega House to each of you is if you keep me abreast on everything you learn about my brother’s killer. I don’t buy that car robbery bullshit, but I need to know who really shot him. After his killer is put behind bars, then we’ll talk business.”

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