Page 69 of Tag

He started running through names. “It’s not Cloe, she’s allergic to dick. Roxxi’s not fucking raw and probably has like 10 different methods going to stop that from happening, and thanks to us, most guys are starting to steer clear of her. Which reminds me, Graves is gonna get his ass beat and not even know why, and then one of us is gonna have to take one for the team when she realizes her taps are running dry and it’s our fault.” His head turned sharply. “It’s not my Ari, is it?”

That last part came with the barest hint of dread. I let out a short laugh. “I would’ve told you if it was. You know I wouldn’t have been this calm even if it wasn’t Sanj, but one of them instead.” I slid him a look. “And your Ari, huh?”

“Not like that,” he refuted. “I know she can handle herself if it came down to it, but she’s beautiful, quiet, and sweet.”

“Uh-huh.”

“She’s the one guys think they can get to the easiest because they don’t know her like we do,” he continued.

I didn’t need an explanation. I already knew all of that. I’d grown up watching Arianna be overlooked by people. She didn’t wear her sharp edges like Roxxi or mask her depth like Cloe. She was soft-spoken and observant, and people tended to mistake that for vulnerability. Cade didn’t like seeing anyone misjudge her. None of us did, but with him, it ran deeper.

“It’s not any of our girls,” I reassured him.

He considered that, then groaned. “Ferret-face Layla,” he muttered, like the name physically pained him to say. “Of course.”

“She goes by Fey now. I’ll fill you in on that later,” I said dryly. “But yeah.”

He slumped back in his seat. “That’s the last fucking thing we need right now.”

“Tell me about it.”

There was a long stretch of silence before he spoke again. “Pregnancy scare aside, what was it Sanj did?”

“It’s what she said.” I hesitated. “She gave me the Brooke pitch again.”

Cade made a face.

“She said she’s beautiful. Kind. Said she makes sense. That she looks good beside me, and I’d have a safer life with her.”

“You’re not aiming to be a goddamn politician.”

“Definitely am not,” I agreed with a bitter laugh. “It comes back to me, perfecting the act I have to put on day after day.”

He turned to look at me again. “You mean the golden boy thing?”

I nodded once. “That’s the version of me the world can tolerate. Brooke fits into that image. Polished. Palatable. Someone you can bring home to your parents.”

“Our parents love Sanj. I’m pretty sure they’d off Brooke themselves if you changed your mind and made it official-official with her. You know Mom’s crazy ass would. Fuck, I would help.”

I laughed under my breath.

We were almost at the quarry, a checkpoint on a twisted game board. The road ahead stretched quiet and dark. My brother leaned his head back and stared out the windshield with a sigh. “I wish she believed she was worth it more. What you two have isn’t going anywhere. She’s perfect for you.” He paused, then more certain. “Actually, I think she does know. She’s just scared.”

“Like you keep telling me, everything will be worked out soon.”

He grinned. “I can already see you being ten times worse than you are now when she finally stops running from it.” His smile faded, and he shot me a look, dry and half-dreading. “The day you finally get her in your bed, I’m booking a hotel for a week. Maybe a month.”

“After I’ve had to listen to you and Nick for the past two years? You’ll live.”

“We haven’t exactly been celibate soldiers yearning on the battlefield, Romeo.”

He hadn’t been starving for one person his whole existence either. I hoped they all found what I had one day. I wanted that for them. He’d had a Melody once. For a short time, we all thought she’d be what Sanjana was to me, but by the end, she’d messed him up so badly, she was fucking loathed by our entire circle.

After our conversation slipped into silence, he popped open the center console and grabbed my pack of car wipes.

He set Angela across his lap like a sacred relic and started wiping her down, murmuring something about her needing sanitized and shined.

The quarry stretched out beneath us, jagged stone walls swallowing the moonlight. From up here, the world felt hollowed out. Quiet in an eerie. I parked near the old watermill that resembled a rotting relic from another century. Its wood was warped and eaten by time, the wheel frozen mid-turn, forgotten by everyone but the wind. Ivy choked its sides, and thegrass around it had long given up, dead in patches where early frost had already started creeping in.

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