Page 69 of With This Ring

“Nico,” I called when we got home, and he had one foot on the bottom stair. I told Carter to start the shower so we could get in and I’d be up shortly. Carter looked like he wanted to tell me to fuck off, but I needed to talk to Nico alone.

When it was just the two of us, I approached Nico and put my hand on his shoulder. “Listen?—”

Nico turned around before I could step back and socked me in the jaw. It was so sudden that I fell on my ass, looking up at him in shock.

He stood over me, vexation shining in his eyes. “Twice, Kai. Twice you ran out without me. You could have fucking died. Then where would I be?”

I shook my head. “Carter would have given you another job. He would?—”

Growling, Nico grabbed me by the front of the shirt and hauled up me, shaking me so hard my teeth clacked together. “It’s not about a fucking job, Kai. You’re my fucking brother. Where would I have been if you died? And on my watch? How do you think that would have fucked me up?”

I knew it would hurt him that I ran off, but not this much. I considered Nico my brother as well, but I wasn’t thinking about him when I left. It was all me, all my shit. No one, not even Carter, was on my mind. I just had to get away.

I explained as much to Nico, his hands slowly relaxing in my shirt. “I’m sorry, Nico. I really am. My head…” I shook my head and Nico dropped his hands. “My head was too fucked up to think about anyone else. But I promise I won’t do it again. I’m a fucking grown man and need to talk about shit like one. You have my word.”

Nico looked at me skeptically, but I didn’t take offense. I told him before I wouldn’t take off without him and I fucking did.

He scoffed and walked up the stairs. “If you do and you’re not dead, I’ll fucking kill you myself.”

That was as close to an acceptance as I would get.

I had to keep Carter in the shower when he saw the bruise on my jaw. While he said he understood the urge to sock me, no one but him had that right.

He said the sweetest things.

“What is it? And who the fuck is that?” Carter asks in a sharp tone. He’s still sore that Nico hit me. I fight back a smile at his attitude.

Nico throws the man to the floor. The bruised man glares at both me and Carter. I have no idea who he is. “Tell them what you told me,” Nico says harshly.

“What you made me tell you,” the man corrects, then spits a glob of blood on Carter’s floor. “Diego got orders to kill Carter.”

“Orders from who?” Carter asks in a nonchalant manner, though I see his eyes flash.

“Charlie St. Clair.” The beat-up man grins at me, his teeth bloodied. “Your daddy wanted your husband dead, and you were gonna follow as soon as you had control of his family.”

Nico pulls out his gun and clocks the man on the back of the head with enough force to send him tumbling to the ground. “Show some fucking respect.”

“Why?” the man asks, his voice muffled from the carpet he’s eating. “Charlie should be where he stands. Diego and I would have seen to that.”

I lift my foot and connect with his chin, sending him to his back with a loud pain laced groan. “Charlie is fucking dead. And you will be too.”

“Not in my office,” Carter says with a smile in his tone as he stands beside me. “Nico, get Gavin and take this scum to the basement. I’ll call my brother and have him do the honors of offing him.”

The man shoots daggers at us as Nico pulls him to his feet. He opens his mouth to spew some foul shit, but Nico puts a gun to his temple and snarls, “If you open your fucking pie hole, I’ll fill you with lead.”

He clamps his mouth shut though his expression doesn’t change. Nico pulls him out of the office and it’s only Carter’s hand on my shoulder that stops me from following so I can do the deed myself.

“It’s Declan’s kill,” he says. “It’ll be a present to him when I have to swallow my fucking pride and apologize to him.”

I roll my eyes. “You and me both.”

Declan is not happy to be summoned to our home, but there are more men here, which means tighter security. He storms into Carter’s office, his face twisted in a mask of irritation. “The fuck do you want? Wanna beat me up again because your husband breathed in my direction?”

Carter huffs but walks closer to his brother. “No, dickhead. I wanted to apologize and tell you you were right.”

Declan rears back, confusion clouds his features. “Say what now?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Carter explains what we just heard from the guy that Nico brought in. He must have been the one Declan heard on the phone with Diego. I’m not sure how they managed to get someone else on the phone to lie for them so fast, but I’ll task someone to get to the bottom of it.

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