Page 68 of Deliver us from Evil

As soon as I realize my leg’s bouncing, I lean forward and rest my elbows on my thighs, lacing my fingers together. I’ve got nothing to fidget with, so I toy with my fingers, meshing them together then moving them apart, as I wait in the small den adjacent to the main bedroom.

Our bedrooms are on the second level, but Trinity sleeps on the top floor, and everyone usually joins her up there.

Except me.

I was banished the moment I set foot in my own house.

My leg starts jittering again until I push away that negative thought.

A cigarette would have helped. A joint would have been even better.

Trinity doesn’t like us smoking cigarettes inside the mansion. Despite the fact we outnumber her four-to-one, my brothers treat her word like law.

I don’t understand it. Not one fucking iota.

There’s no sane reason for us to bend the knee to a girl. Especially one as little as her.

But she’s got everyone wrapped around her little finger.

Including me.

Not that I’m complaining. Trinity fascinates me. Despite everything she went through she only holds one grudge.

I’ve heard her admit to my brothers that she’s forgiven Gabriel. Her parents.

But not me.

What gives?

Tonight is her last chance. If she won’t hear me out, if she won’t pass that same forgiveness onto me…then there’s nothing left for me to do but leave. It would kill me to go, to abandon my brothers again, but I’ll have no choice.

Maybe I’ll still get the kids on weekends, who knows?

I drop my head, letting out a rueful huff as I watch my fingers work against each other.

Then come the footsteps.

When I look up and see her standing a few feet away dressed in a silk robe that does nothing to hide her exquisite curves, my heart pulses in my chest. I put a hand over it, wincing before I can stop myself. Ever since the surgery, it’s been doing some strange things inside my chest.

My doctor says I’m imagining it.

I think he bought his degree.

Trinity’s eyes dart to my hand, then back to my eyes. Her face is steel, her body rigid.

Rube comes up behind her, a towel wrapped around his waist. I’d have assumed they fucked in the shower, but from what the guys tell me, that belt cinching her waist might as well be a chastity belt. There’s been nothing serious between the four of them since that day in the library back at Saint Amos.

Guess we all still have some issues to work through.

“Well?” she says, quirking her eyebrow at me. “I’m listening.”

My hackles rise at her tone, but then Rube sticks out a hand, palm down. I force myself to take a breath, and then I stand, urging myself to stay calm.

“Where do you want to—” I begin.

“Right here. Right now.” Trinity plants her ass on the couch opposite to the one I was sitting on, putting a small coffee table between us. Then she spends a few seconds rearranging her robe, as if she doesn’t dare let me get a peek at her legs.

“Fine.” I sit again, run my palms down my thighs, and wish my heart didn’t feel like it missed every other beat.

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