Page 121 of Outcast

"Let's have a drink and you can fill me in." Grey tapped on his phone. "I let the guys know the threat was gone, but they're going to do one last sweep.

"Why weren't you all outside taking care of the attack?" I scratched the back of my head.

It was always a mind fuck leaving an intense scene and dropping into a room so clean and crisp, like I stepped into a parallel universe. My adrenaline was automatically leveling as if my system realized that clean dishes and counters meant the threat was over.

And it was.

As long as Tad gave the girls everything he had. And if he was apprised of who was involved.

"Our house is pretty much attack proof. The windows are bulletproof and the doors are reinforced. Cossette's nursery is a glorified safe room." Grey grabbed a bottle off the shelf and got down a handful of glasses.

"Poor girl doesn't get to have any windows." Lafe walked in carrying a baby monitor in his hand.

I'd spent a decent amount of time with them since I'd come back and it was still just as shocking to see my hard as shit, deranged brothers so happy in domestic bliss. Even if there was a twist, like making their nursery into a safe room.

"She doesn't need windows." Andre came around the corner sighing, like he'd had this conversation with them thousands of times. "Windows when she's sleeping means someone can break in. Windows when she's awake means that she can break out. Neither option works for me."

"She's less than a year old," I reminded Andre. "She's not breaking anywhere."

"That's what you think." Parker joined us and Esteban was right behind him.

Grey grabbed two more glasses and started to fill them as Parker and Esteban found a spot on the island, Esteban moving next to me. The glasses were slid out with two fingers of bourbon.

The label caught my eye. "Does that say what I think it says?"

Grinning, Grey twisted the bottle around. "Yeah. Bastard Brothers. It's a gold label liquor. Just a fun side business because Amorette is adamant that we have enough above board businesses to cover our moreillegalactivities."

Andre glanced at me, before shifting his gaze to Esteban. "Want to tell us why we had a Dirty Dogs attack? And why Esteban isn't in the basement with the other guy?"

Esteban tensed, his fingers turning white on his glass.

"Relax." I nudged him with my elbow. "Andre is joking."

Steel slid through Andre's gaze. "I'm not joking."

I blew out a breath. "Fine, then take my word for it. Esteban doesn't have anything to do with it." I downed the liquor, enjoying the sweet burn. Immediately, warmth spread out through my stomach and I started telling them the story.

Leaving out the more intimate parts, of course.

Esteban remained quiet, happy to let me fill my brothers in. As I got to the part about tonight, and the heads rolling across the floor, Parker whistled as Lafe winced.

"That's ruthless." Parker sounded impressed.

"That's reckless," I returned, the words whipping through the kitchen. Grey filled my glass up again and this time I sipped it.

"Did you do the research I asked on the group?" I'd called and given Andre everything I had on them. Hopefully they wouldn't have anyone left to take revenge in their name.

While Rita was right, we should have given them a chance, I didn't want to take the chance that anything like this could happen again. If even one of thosependejoswere still alive, they had to go.

"They were a unit of soldiers who served in the Iraq war. A couple of them got dishonorably discharged. Some got out when their next term was up. And two retired in the last few months. All single. No kids. They seemed to enjoy the war side of life a little too much. It seemed like they all had trouble assimilating back into civilian life," Andre rattled off like he memorized a report.

"That was twenty years ago. They've just been hanging out since then?" I took the last sip. When Grey went to fill up the glass again, I waved my hand and pushed it back. That was enough for me. We may still need to deal with the club tonight.

Esteban hadn't even touched his, instead eyeing all five of us with too much interest.

"And several of the men spent time in and out of jail or prison for various charges. Nothing related to any kind of trafficking. Surprising, since those are the businesses they wanted to start up."

"It's easy money." Parker rolled his eyes. "That's why."

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