Page 139 of Till The Sun Dies (Checkmate 2)

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Angelo

Busted

As soon as she slides out of bed and dashes into the bathroom, I turn over and give up on my fake sleep. Our phones have been vibrating like crazy for the last hour. Constant buzzing that woke me before it woke her, but when her eyes cracked open and she made the noises typical of a hungover woman after a night she regrets, I slammed my eyes shut and pretended I was still out.

I wasn’t ready to get up yet. I wasn’t ready to answer why I slept in her bed when we both know she’d been drinking and I should have made myself scarce.

For the last hour, my phone has been vibrating with texts. One after the other after the other, but between each, it would fall silent.

Laine grabbed her phone and buried herself under the covers, giggling and gasping, making me wish it was a call instead of text so I could listen in.

Giggles are good, I suppose.

But now mine rings. Not buzzing texts, but a phone call that just won’t fucking stop. The shower starts in the bathroom, so I snatch it up and accept the call, but I block the camera.

No fucking way am I video chatting with these assholes.

“What?”

“Angelo. Where the fuck are you?”

“Good morning, Marcus. What’s up?”

“Don’twhat’s upme, motherfucker. Luc! Speak!”

I pull the cell away from my ear and groan. Not just Marc, but all of them. Luc and Scotch take up their own quarter of my screen, and yet, my quarter remains black.

“What’s the problem?”

“You’re vacationing with my sisters, Angelo?” Luc’s voice holds a hint of exasperation, but none of the heat Marc’s does, and when I look closer, not only is Luc in bed, but he’s trying really fucking hard not to show us who’s in bed beside him. “What do you need to tell me?”

“Nothing.”

“Why are you vacationing with my sisters, Angelo? Why are you double dating with Jess and the thug?”

“I’m here because Laine asked me to come. I’m here because she’s my friend and she didn’t want to be the third wheel.”

“Angelo…”

Fuck it.

Jess and Kane know; why not just put my shit out there for them all?

A year ago, I might’ve been afraid of risking my friends over this, because we all know what happened when Luc started dating Marc’s sister and how well that went down, but since everything this past year with Laine, I realize true friends are in it for life. They might get pissy, they might even punch you in the face and attack you with a plank of wood, but they’re either in or they’re out, and the emotional warfare is a load of bullshit.

Tomorrow isn’t always guaranteed. Laine already proved that. So a squabble between friends just isn’t something that hits my radar anymore.

“Alright.” I let out a deep breath and lay my shit out there. “I’m here because I’m in love with your sister, Luc. Take it, leave it, do whatever the fuck you want with it. One day, a long time from now, when she’s not so vulnerable from the shit Graham put her through, maybe she’d be open to dating again. Maybe then I’ll have the balls to step up the way I wanted to two years ago and say something. She doesn’t know I feel like this, so maybe you bigmouths can keep this shit to yourselves until I get a chance to bring it up. If you throw it in her face, you might scare her, and if you’re the reason she cries today, I’m gonna beat your asses.”

“Um…” Shirtless, in bed, and swatting Kari outside camera range, Luc swallows and tries to stare at me through a black screen.

Taking pity on the guy, I hit the accept button and watch my face pop up next to his. His eyes flick around the screen. “You’re in bed.”

“I am. But you gotta relax, it’s not like that. She needed a friend on this trip. That’s all this is.”

“You’re there with Bishop and the twins, right?”

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