Page 54 of Gilded Desires

“In Belle, yeah I know.” The impossibly tight grip wrapped around my insides releases some of the tension. We’ve been through hell and back a few times together. Leaving without them feels like quitting on the men I depend on for life. I’m glad I’m not faced with the decision to pick between her and my brothers. I would have died before I gave up either.

I lock eyes with Gage. “And what about you? What is your decision?”

He’s silent a little longer, his eyes tracking the passing buildings as we head farther outside city limits.

“I don’t know. What do we do after?”

Aziel throws down his sun visor and nails our brother with a hard look. “You have less than ten miles to come up with an answer.”

I lay on the horn and swerve through Chicago’s evening traffic.

I rub my chest and hope today is not the day I find out I have the same heart defect as my father. This girl has put us through hell these past few weeks.

Aziel clutches my shoulder when we take a seriously steep bend in the road at top speed. “What’s the matter? You forget we are on civilian roads, bro? Take it easy. We kill someone getting to her and we might as well sign up to be shower bitch buddies in prison.”

“Fuck you. If anyone is a bitch buddy, it’s you.”

The pain in my chest doesn’t ease. Nah, this feeling of not being able to breathe is something else.

“Something’s wrong.” Spears drive through my heart with every mile we cover. I didn’t feel like this when we were air-dropped in the middle of the South American jungle last year or having a shootout with that fucking Mexican cartel.

“You’re in love, dipshit.”

Silence. No one speaks for the rest of the ride home. What the hell are we doing falling in love? We signed our lives over to the Navy. We have no business signing up for happily ever afters.

Aziel and Gage are out of the doors before I can get our SUV in park. We take the stairs to the porch and storm inside. We all head to the main bedroom only to find the bed empty. There’s nothing but the dildo she used to torture us with and her phone.

“What is this?” I pick up a note tucked under the edge of her phone.

Find me if you want me.

Gage stalks over to the window and his face turns ghost white. “Son of a bitch, she’s going to go swimming.” The sliding door is open and he’s dashing across the backyard, his clothes hitting the ground like grenades.

Aziel and I are right behind him.

“Belle, stop!” Gage’s warning carries away on the evening wind. A storm is rolling in which will only make the waters stronger.

God, no! We can’t lose her. Death claws closer. I’ve had enough brushes with the dark lord of the underworld to know what it looks like. Chills erupt over my arms and the steel spikes driving into my heart sink deeper.

Just last week a woman drowned not twenty feet down the beach. Undercurrents are tricky beasts and can kill men like us trained to swim in the deadliest of waters.

The idea of them tearing her from us puts fire in my legs.

We strip off anything that can weigh us down just as she turns and waves.

She’s a siren with her flowing hair and beautiful body on full display.

“Stop, Belle!” Aziel hits the dock at full speed, the boards rattling and shaking as he pounds them getting to her.

Fear grips her face. The smile drops from her lips. She backtracks and gets dangerously close to the edge. “What? What’s wrong?”

Aziel reaches her first and narrowly misses her hand as she starts to fall back into the swirling waters.

Fuck! My heart is ready to burst. My brother pins her to his chest. Aziel’s red eyes meet mine over the top of her head.

“Thank God. You got her brother. Loosen your hold, man. She can’t breathe.”

“Yes, she can’t breathe,” Belle mutters into Aziel’s chest.

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