Page 91 of Love or Tequila in Unexpected Places

Allison didn’t know why Angelo didn’t try harder to shove her brother off. Leopold was certainly fit, but there was no way he was stronger than Angelo. Especially considering the size of the man’s arms.

Large and defined in the shirt he was wearing, strong enough to hold her up—which she knew from experience.

Not now hormones.

Allison heaved an exasperated breath.

For fuck’s sake. Do I have to do everything around here?

Taking a deep breath, Allison decided to play her trump card. The one trick that had always worked when dealing with herbrothers. The tried-and-true method that had saved her sanity growing up as the only girl in a house full of boys.

“Hey, Dad.”

It worked like a charm.

The boys—because this was certainly not the behavior of grown men—froze mid-fight.

Leopold quickly released Angelo’s shirt and stood up straight, looking around like a guilty schoolboy. Frederick’s face dropped back into his usual expressionless mask, though the tension in his jaw gave him away. Angelo, meanwhile, lay sprawled on the couch, his shirt crumpled, a bruise already forming on his cheek, and his lip bleeding.

“Did you just call Dad? What are you, five?” Leopold scoffed, trying to fix his hair back into the bun that had slipped out during the scuffle.

“No, I didn’t. But you donotwant to start talking about maturity right now,” Allison shot back, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms. She watched as both of her brothers’ postures shifted, realizing they’d been played.

The mere mention of their father always worked like a magic spell. It didn’t matter they were grown men now—just the thought of them was enough to make them fall in line. Growing up in a house with three boys close in age had been a nightmare for Allison—constant fights over the PlayStation, endless bickering over girls, and a hunger that seemed impossible to satisfy. Peace was a rare commodity, and Allison had learned early on that if she wanted any, she needed to find a way to shut them all up.

That’s how she invented The Fake Call™. Short, sharp, and to the point. It had saved her sanity countless times back then, and apparently still worked wonders now—even though her brothers were in their thirties.

“Can we not be adults about this?” Allison pleaded, focusing her gaze on Leopold. His subtle nod was all she needed to relax slightly before turning her attention to Frederick.

With a dramatic flourish, she amped up the sass—arms crossed, eyebrows raised, left hip popped out. She stared him down, fully aware that while she might be smaller and shorter, she could be intimidating when she wanted to be.

And right now, shereallywanted it.

“Fine. I’ll try,” Frederick finally conceded, looking about as pleased as a cat in a bathtub. If Allison hadn’t been so exhausted by this whole mess, she might have done a little victory dance.

Instead, she motioned for him to sit back down, making sure to position herself away from Angelo this time. She had no idea what might set off these two idiot alphas again, and she wasn’t about to take any chances.

“Alright,” Frederick sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Start from the beginning. And, Allison—please, no more games.”

Allison glanced at Angelo, who was gingerly wiping the blood from his lip with the back of his hand, and took a deep breath. This was it—the moment of truth.

“Okay,” she said, her voice steady but filled with a hint of the exasperation she felt. “Here’s how it all went down…”

Twenty-Three

ANGELO

Angelo was rarely caught off guard, and he took pride in that. As a man of precision and control, he didn’t leave much to chance. So when Allison texted him with a time and place to meet, he’d prepared for every scenario—a calm discussion, a heated argument, or even a full-blown fight.

What he hadn’t prepared for was this: Allison’s two brothers attacking him the moment they discovered he’d gotten their sister pregnant.

Maybe if I’d kept my mouth shut, I wouldn’t be in this mess, he thought, gingerly touching the spot on his cheek where Leopold had landed a solid punch. It throbbed like a bad toothache, a pulsing reminder that sometimes honesty wasn’t the best policy.

“Start from the beginning,” Leopold commanded, his voice cold and controlled—a stark contrast to the chaos moments before. Angelo met his steely gaze, still feeling the sting from Leopold’s punch. The guy had surprising power, but only because Angelo had allowed it. He could easily fucking crush Leopold if it came down to it, but that wasn’t the goal.

Angelo wanted to be part of Allison’s life long-term, and having her brothers not plotting his demise would make that plan smoother.

Regrettably.

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