Page 23 of Even if It Hurts

“One time,” I agreed. “Massive lawsuits. Monroe can take care of herself if someone gets handsy.”

“Never said she couldn’t,” he muttered, acceptance replacing the teasing in his voice. “But I was raised not to let those kinds of situations go unchecked.”

“It didn’t go unchecked,” I reminded him. “Shehandled it. You made it worse when you stepped in and broke an ambassador’s jaw.”

“You also don’t see me knocking out the women who inappropriately touch all of you when we’re working,” Monroe added, reaching forward to grab and chuck her stylus at Gray, her eyes rolling when he easily caught it. “Respect me the same way I respect you.”

He pointed the stylus at her, an edgy laugh creeping from him as he held back whatever he clearly wanted to say.

“Gray respects you, Monroe,” Rush said with an annoyed sigh as he ran a hand over his short hair. “He wouldn’t have fought beside you and trusted you to have his back for all these years if he didn’t. But you’ve lived here long enough and have worked with us even longer, so you should know that Texas boys are raised a certain way. Stop taking offense. Gray, there will be jobs where Briggs separates you and Monroe; get over it.” Focusing on me, he made a face that I understood all too well.

It encompassed everything that was Gray and Monroe.

They’d always worked best together but couldn’t have a conversation without bickering, at the very least. Honestly, if Gray wasn’t bound to break her heart, and I wasn’t worried Monroe would try to kill him somewhere along the way, I would’ve begged them to get together long ago to save the rest of us the headache. But as it was, relationships were fleeting at best for the members of my team, and I didn’t think we could survive the fallout of their attempt at one.

“Everyone understand their assignments for the summit?” I asked, taking the time to look at each member of my team and ignoring Gray’s obvious discontent with it.

He would get over it.

“Great, now let’s talk about why you’re so irritated,” Thatch said as if that was his only reason for attending the meeting.

My hand slowly curled into a fist as my gaze dragged back to him. The grief that had become a constant thrum in my veins burned hotter as I tried forcing back the urge to yell.

Not at Thatch, justyell. Anything to relieve this pressure on my chest, making it difficult to breathe. Anything to get rid of the guilt I could feel sinking deeper into me, dragging me down, if even for a moment.

Once I was sure I could answer around the knot in my throat, I reminded him, “I’m burying my brother and sister-in-law in a couple days.”

“That isn’t?—”

“I’ve spent every day since they died doing whatever was necessary to make sure Kaia won’t ever go into the system,” I said over him. “I haven’t slept since I got the call that my brother overdosed, Thatch, what exactly do you want from me? To have us sit in a circle, hugging and sharing our feelings?”

Thatch’s perpetual smile had faded as I spoke, replaced with remorse. But with a visibly forced swallow, he still said, “I know you’re hurting, Briggs. We all know, and we’re hurting with you. But you know that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

“I clearly don’t.”

He quickly glanced at the others before releasing a harsh sigh and meeting my stare again. “The way you’ve been acting since you got the call about your brother was one thing. The stress of Kaia added onto your grief was another. Then this morning...” He gestured to me with his heavily tattooed arms as if there was nothing left to say.

And I hated that, in less than a second, I knew exactly what he was talking about.Who.

My jaw flexed as I fought every one of the flashes that burst to mind as if I had any right thinking about the girl who had tipped my life even more on its side by stepping back into it.

“Told you,” Rush murmured, a ghost of a smile curling at the edge of his mouth as he tapped on his tablet.

“Don’t,” I said in warning.

Beau Evans, the youngest and newest member of the team, looked between the rest of us before asking, “Wait, what happened this morning?”

When tense silence filled the conference room, Gray sighed exaggeratedly and explained, “Apparently, even the great Asher Briggs wasn’t immune to the new nanny.” He pointed at me with Monroe’s stylus. “But I called dibs as soon as I saw?—”

“No.” The word left me on a near snarl and had the rest of my team bursting into laughter. “She’s Ada’s great-niece and an employee,” I said over them, my tone low and grave and effectively shutting them up. “No one goes near her.”

“No one?” Thatch asked with an amused and meaningful look my way.

“No one.” Once I was sure no one else was going to comment on Lainey or the way I’d reacted at the thought of Gray going after her, I said, “Back to the meeting. I’m waiting on the rest of the information, but it looks like we’ll be adding a Donut. Depending on what I receive, it’ll need to be immediate and around-the-clock, which makes things tricky with Ru Tech.”

Gray and Monroe both tried to claim lead before falling into a new argument.

Thatch smacked his hands together as he lowered his feet to the floor. “Been a long time since we’ve done a job like this.”

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