Page 14 of Inside the Maelstrom: Part Two
We sat and ate, the guys laughing at random shit, and Aviva eating up their words like the food laid out in front of us. It was interesting, because all the memories they were talking about, I remembered differently.
The time Hendrick had crashed his BMW on the way to a nightclub in LA, mowing down an entire lawn of pink flamingos? They all laughed, but I’d had to threaten a kid who’d filmed the whole thing on his phone. I’d watched him delete the video, then smashed his phone on the road for good measure.
The time they’d snuck out of Econ class at college to get drunk in a bar? Sampson had vomited all through an Uber, and I’d had to carry him inside and pay off the driver.
We’d had a decade together, but our experiences of that decade were wildly different. Maybe even too different to be a part of whatever Chaos was trying to create here.
Eventually, Aviva yawned, and Hendrick held her closer. “I’ll take you to bed.” He paused, and looked around at us. “I meant what I said earlier. I don’t intend to stand in the way of whatever makes Viva happy. I won’t try and keep her to myself, despite the fact she has my last name. If I could, I would marry Otto as well, in a heartbeat. You too, Sam.” He looked at me appraisingly. “Don’t know about you yet, Evan—you haven’t had time to woo me and I’m pretty sure you’re packing more heat than I could handle. Not saying I’m not up to a challenge, but perhaps we should take our time first.”
I rolled my eyes at him like I was a teenage girl. Fucking kid was too goddamn likable. That had always been his problem. Even when he was a fucking asshole, he had a way of getting under your skin.
Hendrick’s grin faded. “But this one night, can I have her to myself?”
I shrugged. “Whatever Aviva wants.”
Otto gave them a soft look. “Of course, Drix.”
Sampson grunted his agreement, and Hendrick grinned. “Let’s go, Mrs. Kenley. I swear, that’s never going to get old.” He got to his feet, then hefted her into his arms.
She laughed, looking up at him like this wasn’t some crazy shotgun wedding and she actually loved him. “You’re an idiot, Hendrick Kenley.”
He whispered something in her ear as he strode out of the room. “Hope you bastards bought earplugs,” he yelled over his shoulder, and Sampson groaned.
“Then there were three,” Otto said softly. “If I go to bed, will you both be in one piece tomorrow? You two should really talk, and figure your shit out.”
Sampson rolled his eyes. “Not everything is solved with heart-to-heart conversations, Otto.”
Otto climbed to his feet, bending down to slap Sampson’s back hard. “Maybe not, but this will be. Night, Evan.”
I nodded in his direction. Reaching into a paper bag, I pulled out another beer. “Want one?”
Sampson nodded, and I passed him one of the artisanal beers they all loved so much. I didn’t think it tasted much different to anything you could buy from the liquor store, but whatever, they had money to burn.
“This is fucking weird, right?”
He huffed out a laugh. “Yep.” He stared at me, long and hard. “You can’t be as okay with this as you pretend to be.”
I shrugged. “Why?”
“Sharing her with the three of us. You’re a decade older; you’ll always be different. You’re in a different stage of life. What if you want kids or some shit?”
I swallowed my beer wrong, and coughed hard. “Yeah, kids won’t be a problem.” Well, hopefully not. “Look, Sampson. I know this is… weird. It was always going to be weird. And it kind of fucks with the dynamic we’ve had for years. But you stopped being a job for me not long after I started being your bodyguard. If you can’t tell that I fucking care about you, and those other little fuckers as well, then you aren’t as clever as you think you are.” I took a deep breath. Honestly, I hated these conversations. “I’m not pretending that we automatically jump to group orgies and a bromance. Actually, if I could get away with never seeing you guys fucking Chaos, I’d probably be happy.”
“Chaos?”
“Sorry—Aviva. I call her Chaos.”
He let out a burst of laughter. “It fits.”
I smirked. Hell yeah it did. “I know I’ll never be as close as you and Hendrick and Otto. Just the same way you know you’ll never be as close as Otto and Hendrick. But I think the one thing we can all agree on is that Aviva’s special—she deserves the world. She was so fucking sad when you three left, and it broke my damn heart. As much as I liked getting to know her one-on-one, I’d sacrifice a bit of that solo time to make her happy.” I paused, sucking down a long gulp of beer. “I have a dangerous job, Sampson. You run an empire. Hendrick’s bipolar is never going away, and Otto…” I paused again, because I had nothing. “Actually, Otto is perfect for her, but so are we. In a different way. And if she has you three when I have a long security detail job, or has Hendrick when you’re working late, or Otto when Hendrick is having an episode, isn’t that better?”
He dragged his lip through his teeth, but didn’t say anything. We sat sipping our beers in silence for a while longer.
“That’s the longest speech you’ve ever given me.”
I huffed a laugh. “It’s an important topic.”
He nodded, finishing his beer in one more pull on the bottle. “You don’t worry that we won’t measure up in the end? That we won’t be enough for her?”
