Page 60 of Messing With My Brother's Best Friends

“Nothing.” Van appeared at my shoulder. “We just got home and were about to start making dinner so it’s ready by the time we finish working on her car.”

“Her car…?” Finn looked down at his phone, then shoved the screen in our faces as he played the voicemail. “So what’s this about?”

Sure enough, she’d left a terse message about wanting to talk to him.

“I dunno.” Van was all nonchalance as he shrugged. “I think she’s in the shower—”

“Where’s Gage?” Finn was a lot of things, but he wasn’t stupid. He noted that just the two of us had answered the door, not all three, and his eyes narrowed. “Where the fuck is Gage, and what is he doing with my sister?”

Hopefully he was kissing her long and slow while the two of them came down from that high. He needed to be holding her tight, making her feel safe and secure, and most of all, wanted right now. Kendall deserved all of the afterglow, and I was prepared to fight Finn to get it. Van was evidently of the same mind, moving to block the doorway as well.

“Where the fuck is Kendall?” Finn growled. “Kendall!”

Jesus, he’d have the whole neighbourhood staging an intervention with the way he was yelling, and I was frantically thinking of a way to de-escalate things when a feminine voice stopped him cold.

“I’m here.”

If I was envious before, I was fucking jealous as hell now, because the woman herself came walking down the hallway dressed only in one of Gage’s old t-shirts. It was far too big for her, the neckline hanging off one bare shoulder.

Which had me wondering.

Was she bare underneath it? Did Gage clean her up properly or was his seed dripping down her leg right now. I didn’t mind a bit of cream pie action in porn, but I needed to know more than my next breath. Her cunt, swollen, pink and dripping cream as I—

“You said you wanted to talk?”

Finn’s tone had changed completely. He’d gone as stiff as a board as he took his sister in. That tension only ratcheted tighter as Gage came behind her, spreading his hands possessively over her hips before tilting her head back. My mouth went dry, my lips shifting as they kissed, like I was the one doing it, not Gage. I needed to know how she tasted like I needed my next breath, but that wasn’t what happened. Instead, she shot him a smug smile before her gaze hardened as she turned to her brother.

“Yeah, I want to talk. About you and swapping the sugar for the salt when I was cooking in preparation for that interview with the bakery.”

That was what had happened? I’d busted my balls getting Dad to agree to arrange a meeting between the bakery and Kendall, forced to promise him I’d go to university rather than get an apprenticeship. It’d all come to nothing and Dad had thrown that in my face, going on and on about how he knew he should never have stuck his neck out for her right before I went back on the deal. I was broken out of my reverie by the fact she pushed past Van and me to stand on the doorstep, facing her brother down.

“You came home and found the kitchen a mess. I’d lost my shit, screaming and tossing all of my hard work on the floor, and when Mum was off getting a broom and a mop, you told me…”

Did Finn hear the rage vibrating in her voice? Because I did. Whatever Gage had done, he’d unlocked a part of Kendall I was beginning to fear had been stuffed down, never to return. We hassled her endlessly, but she gave as good as she got, never backing down.

And she didn’t now.

“You told me the guys did it, deliberately as one last prank. To make sure I didn’t get that apprenticeship.” My heart was beating too damn fast, a faint whine starting up in my head as I stared at the man I thought was my best friend.

And saw a stranger.

One that looked worried, then furtive, eyes flicking around, throat working and ready to come up with an excuse, any excuse, to get him out of this. My hands became fists and so did Van’s, the two of us squaring off to face him.

“You got me out of the house, took me to a friend’s place, and helped me find somewhere to rent later, but…” She shook her head, and I knew why. It was as if she wanted to dislodge this thought, one she couldn’t bear to consider. “I thought you were finally looking out for me, being my big brother, but you… But you…”

My hand shot out, grabbing hers, and I expected her to throw it off, but instead her grip tightened. Her fingers were like iron bands as she finally squeezed this out.

“You just wanted me out of the way. Why, Finn?”

When her voice broke, I tried to pull her closer, but that wasn’t Kendall. She endured our shit stoically, facing us down, even when she had tears in her eyes. But I didn’t want her to have to tough it out anymore, so I dared to put my arm around her.

“It’s OK.” I said that, but it was a lie and we both knew it, which was perhaps why she pressed against me, but her body didn’t soften. “Everything’s OK.”

“I…” Finn was on the back foot now, taking a step backwards, but Gage and Van weren’t about to let that happen. They advanced on him, ready to grab him bodily and force him to answer our girl. “I… Look, fellas—”

“Fucking answer Kendall, mate.”

Van bit that last word off like it was the vilest of swear words as we watched Finn collapse in on himself.

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