Page 13 of Lucky Boys
He swallowed and tried to look away, but I was still holding his chin.
“Repeat after me. We got this. Diego will be fine.”
Brooks’s face scrunched and I almost cracked up. He looked adorable. “Are you serious?”
“Completely.”
Brooks sighed heavily. “You could let go of my face, you know.”
“Not until you repeat after me.”
Brooks’s glare was fucking impressive. I could learn a thing or two from him.
“I didn’t think you were a Dom, but you’re definitely trying to Dom me right now.”
This time I did grin. “Is it working?”
Brooks rolled his eyes, but his shoulders visibly relaxed and he was a little stiller. “If I say yes, will you let go?”
I took pity on the kid and finally backed away. He didn’t repeat the words—this was why I left the more formal, outside of the bedroom shit to Luca and Mav—but Brooks did reward me with a half-smile, and after another minute, he knocked his shoulder into mine.
“Thanks.”
I knocked back into him. “No problem, kid.”
A few minutes passed in silence before Mav got a message. “That was Wes. The house is secure and he has Diego.”
Brooks slumped into the seat, all his fight gone. “Thank fuck. D’s okay?”
“Seems like it. Wes said he won’t leave the house but he’s uninjured.”
“He’s really okay?” Brooks asked again, like he couldn’t believe it.
“Well, we’re here,” Luca added, the same strain in his tone that had been there every time he’d spoken to Brooks. “So you can see for yourself.”
I watched Brooks’s reaction to Luca, curious. Every time he interacted with him, it was this conflicting mixture of hatred and animosity combined with need and hurt and maybe longing. Fuck, not for the first time, I wished I knew exactly what had happened between them three years ago.
I didn’t think anyone did except Luca and Brooks. I’d tried pestering Mav about it, but the man wouldn’t budge, so I’d decided he didn’t really have a clue but would never admit to not knowing something. So instead, he just acted like he was this steel vault who wouldn’t spill one of his lovers’ secrets. Whatever, I knew the truth.
The ride up their long driveway was honestly torture. Any progress I’d made in calming Brooks disappeared immediately and he was vibrating again by the time Maverick pulled in behind a black sedan that I assumed was Wes’s. Mav didn’t even have the car in park before Brooks was out and bolting toward the house.
“Brooks!” Luca snapped. “Hold the fuck on.” But Brooks either didn’t hear him or chose to ignore him, which left the three of us cursing under our breath and scrambling after him.
“Gonna get himself killed,” Luca grumbled, and Maverick grunted in agreement.
Thankfully, when the door opened, all that stood there was an armed Wes, with his usual unruffled expression fixed in place.
Wes and Luca had been friends long before I’d met Luca. Hell, I’d still been in elementary school when they’d started hooking up. And I didn’t care how much both of them denied it. They for sure had fucked before, at least when they’d both been in the SEALS. Twenty years later, there was still all this tension and these looks that drove me fucking wild. If I thought locking them alone in a room together would get their heads out of their asses, I woulda done it by now.
Wes’s gaze immediately fell to Luca, and there was this moment where they just stared at each other. It was so long and heady that Brooks bulldozed his way past Wes in the doorway, which wasn’t an easy feat since the guy was fucking jacked.
“D! Holy fuck, thank God you’re okay!” Brooks screamed so loudly, we could hear him from outside. That, at least, got the two men out of the stare down and back to business.
“We have 3 bodies,” Wes told us. “I haven’t done a full perimeter check because I didn’t want to leave Diego alone. There was no identification on the men, but they were professionals and have military grade rifles.”
Well, fuck. Luca processed the information with calculating eyes before turning to Mav and me. “Skye, check the perimeter so we don’t have any surprises. Mav, can you call up your buddy and tell him we have 3 fresh ones for the clean up crew?”
“Already on it,” Mav replied, walking into the house on his phone. He’d make sure those disappeared and could never be traced back to the Foster brothers or us.
