Page 46 of Taken By my Brothers' Best Friends

“Don’t talk to her like that.” Reed stepped forward and gently wrapped his hand around my upper arm to pull me out of the way. “You want to talk about it, you talk to us.”

Dean cleared his throat. “We’re with Vera.”

Lennon and West stood up at the same time. I felt like I was watching a horror movie unfold in front of me. My brothers looked furious. I still didn’t expect the next words out of Tate’s mouth.

“What the fuck? We’ve heard about all the shit you three are into. You’re not doing that sick shit to our little sister.” He balled his hands into fists and shook his head. “You’re over a decade older than her!”

I felt the words like a punch but worse, I could see they landed with Reed. I wouldn’t have fought for myself but I wasn’t okay with my brothers hurting Reed. “Grow up, Tate! Your brothers are in a relationship just like this one. It’s not sick shit. It’s just a normal relationship.”

“For fuck’s sake, Vera. Gray and the guys are grown. We don’t like what they do but they’re adults who take care of their own shit, away from our roof. You still live like a fucking teenager!”Mills stepped closer. “Honestly, Vera, this is a new low. You wreak havoc everywhere you go.”

“That’s enough.” Dean came around the couch and pulled me behind him. “Your issue isn’t with her. It’s with us. We know we crossed a line but we didn’t take it lightly. You know us. When have we ever gone into anything without thinking it through?”

“Is it supposed to make me feel better? That you thought it through before sleeping with our little sister?” Mills growled out the words. “Fuck this. We shouldn’t have sent her here. We’ll take over watching her. She’s not any safer here than she is under our supervision.”

“What? No!” I glared at Mills from behind Dean. “I’m staying.”

“You’re just a fucking kid, Vera! You don’t get to make your own decisions anymore, especially when you clearly aren’t grown up enough to make good ones.” Mills shook his head. “This is fucked up.”

“I’m not a kid, Mills!”

He scoffed. “Bullshit. You live off of us, Vera. You don’t work. You barely finished high school. You’re a kid.”

Dean raised his voice and shouted. “You don’t have a fucking clue who your sister is!”

My stomach twisted. I grabbed his arm. “Dean, stop.”

“She’s a best-selling author! You three are so sure of who she is that you haven’t gotten to know her at all. She’s fucking brilliant.”

I let my hand fall from his arm and took a step backwards. A sense of betrayal sat heavily on my chest.

“What are you talking about?” Mills turned his gaze on me and read the expression on my face well enough to know what Dean was saying was true. “Vera?”

I wrapped my arms around myself and moved away from Dean. “It’s… It’s nothing.”

Reed shook his head. “Bullshit. She’s talented. She’s successful. You have no right to talk to her like that, even if she wasn’t.”

“Her books have a cult following. They’re not exaggerating. Your sister is amazing.” Lennon threw his two cents into the talk, too.

“That can’t be true.” Mills glared at me. “It can’t be true because that would mean you hid an entire career from us.”

I rubbed my hands over my face and moved completely away from all of them. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You have an entire life you haven’t told us about?” Tate sounded hurt. “What the hell, V?”

“You’re a liar.” Mills was focusing on his anger, as always. “You fucking lied to us. Why the fuck would you do that? You let us support you even when the ranch was struggling, Vera. How selfish are you?”

I snapped. “Where do you think the extra money came from that saved the ranch? Did you think the bank just fudged their numbers? I’ve been pouring my own money into the ranch for years! How dare you call me selfish.This! This is why I never said anything. You’re so judgmental! You judged the triplets until they left. You’ve judged me until I want to leave! If I’d told you I write romance novels, you would’ve written me off. I couldn’t handle you laughing at me over one more thing!”

They were silent and I realized I’d said too much. Admitting I was supplementing the ranch would hurt them.

I let out a frustrated growl and spun on Dean. “And you! You promised me you wouldn’t say anything. You promised. I trusted you. I trusted all of you and you blurted out my secret the first chance you got.”

I went to my room to grab my laptop and came back to find the six of them still standing where I’d left them, looking shellshocked.

“I want to leave.”

Dean snapped back into action. “No. You’re safe here.”

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