Page 7 of Vegas Baby!

“A family friend, not that it’s any of your business.”

“Luke and my brother were best friends growing up,” Ava told him. “I’ve known him my whole life, or at least I did before he moved away.”

Ouch. Knife to the heart.

“I don’t expect you to accept, Ava, but I want you to know the offer is there. We’re scent matches and I want to help. If you’re already planning on moving to the East Coast anyway, you could stay with me.”

My instincts were screaming at me to toss her over my shoulder and tuck her away in my apartment, where she would be safe. I couldn’t do that for numerous reasons, though the biggest one keeping my instincts in check at the moment was that she couldn’t hang over my shoulder with a pregnant belly. I could still offer, though. If Ava was my scent match, the odds were good that she would probably match with Micah and Jesse as well, since they were my pack. If it was three against one, we could offer her a better life than Bryce. Probably. I needed to get her to meet them first.

“Aves, why don’t you come stay at my place tonight? It’s an apartment, but I can sleep on the couch. We can figure things out in the morning. Plus, I’ve got dinner ready to rock.” I picked up the bags of takeout that had slipped out of my fingers when I’d realized who she was.

Of course Bryce piped up again. “If you think I’m going to let her go anywhere alone with you, you are sadly mistaken. She might not know me, but I’m still going to protect her.”

Ava got quiet, listening to the two of us bicker about what the best course of action would be. Eventually she reached out to get Bryce’s attention, and the second she touched him it was like he was struck by lightning, entirely forgetting me to focus on her. “Are we really scent matches?”

“Pretty sure. If we stop by the pharmacy, I can get some wipes and try to get rid of the neutralizing wash I used.”

She looked plaintively at me. “Where’s the nearest pharmacy?”

Fuck. As much as I hated her giving Bryce the time of day, I wasn’t going to be a complete asshole and deny her a chance to find out for sure. The best I could hope for was that he was delusional.

“Basically across the street.” I sighed. “Let’s go, then.”

I scooped the takeout into one hand and laced my fingers with Ava’s, trying not to be too annoyed when Bryce did the same. I hung back with Ava once we arrived, letting Bryce figure out what he needed from the pharmacy, dreading the result and hoping against hope that he had made a mistake.

Ava looked up at me, her hazel eyes soft and sad. “I missed you.”

Those three words were like an arrow to the fucking heart. “I’m sorry I left.”

Ava sighed, and shrugged. “Nathan left too. I can’t really blame you.”

That was okay. I could blame myself enough for both of us.

Bryce approached us with flushed cheeks, and a bare wrist held out, the skin scrubbed pink, and a subtle whiff of cranberry and rum detectable. He offered it to Ava and a part of me died inside when she instantly reacted.

“Oh.”

That meant I was stuck with this fucker unless I could convince Ava to reject him. The best way to do that would be to show her that she could have a pack here. Bryce was one alpha, a stranger, and those things alone put him at a disadvantage. “Scent match or not, I’m not letting her go to your hotel.”

“But you wantmeto let her go toyourapartment?”

“She knows me.”

“How long has it been since you’ve seen him?” Bryce asked Ava.

Way to go right for the throat.

“Almost seven years, I think? He moved away when I was sixteen.”

Ava and I had grown up across the street from each other. I’d basically known her since she was born, her brother and me traipsing in and out of each other’s houses our entire childhoods, with Ava toddling after us from the moment she could walk.

I’d failed her before, but I wasn’t going to do that again. With a sigh, I offered Bryce a chance. “You can come too, I guess. I have to get this food home and I’m not letting her go anywhere alone with you.”

We were at an impasse, each unwilling to let Ava go with the other. The only way I was getting her to meet Micah and Jesse was if Bryce came along too, however annoying of a tagalong he might be.

After a bit of convincing, I got them back to the apartment. Hopefully Micah was awake and had cleaned at least a bit. We were better than a lot of bachelor packs, but I wasn’t sure whatAva was used to. Her mom had kept a pretty tidy home, and I could only assume Ava had probably inherited that preference.

I let out a relieved breath when I opened the door and found nothing obviously weird or gross within sight. Everything smelled vaguely of lemon, so maybe Micah had actually cleaned. He didn’t do that very often, but when he did, he went pretty balls to the wall about it.

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