Page 52 of The Devil's Pair

Thiswas the sign that she’d been waiting and praying for.

Chapter Thirteen

Briley jolted awake at the sound of a key in a lock. She blinked, momentarily confused about why she was on a sofa, in a living room that certainly wasn’t hers. Then she saw Dux and Drake standing there, inspecting her closely, those matching blue eyes slicing through her like laser beams.

“Hey,” she managed, struggling to a seated position; her hair had fallen out of its bun while she slept, and it was tousled and wild over her shoulders. “You guys OK?”

“We are,” Drake said, sitting down at the other end of the sofa. “How about you?”

“A bit more tired than I thought,” she admitted, smoothing down what was surely a disastrous tangled mess on her head. “Sorry about crashing out.”

“C’mon, babe,” Dux said, waving his hand, turning the dining room chair and straddling it. “You know we don’t care about that. What wedocare about, however, is what’s so wrong that you got on a plane without saying a word to us about it.”

“Uhhh –” she cleared her throat, fought to stay calm now that the conversation was upon her. “Why do you assume something’s wrong?”

“So does that mean that something’sright?” Drake said. “Because that’s the only other option.”

“I don’t know if it’sright, exactly,” she said, mustering up her courage. “But it could be good, I think… I mean, I hope.”

They looked at her steadily now, silent and waiting, and once again she remembered what it was like to have these men’s attention fixed solely on her.God, being the focus of their intensity was always an experience – even when fully clothed – and Briley wondered just how the hell she had survived itwhen she’d been surrounded by their naked strength. It seemed miraculous, now that she thought about it.

“OK, ummmm. Here it is.” She closed her eyes, exhaled and sent up a sort of fervent wish that this was all going to be be fine somehow, maybe if she took the ‘rip off the bandaid’ approach to delivering news. She opened her eyes again and said, “I’m about sixteen weeks pregnant. With twins.” She paused, then for some inane reason she added, “Oh. And they’re yours.”

Whatever reaction she’d been anticipating didn’t come close to what actually happened next. Dux and Drake stared at her for a full ten seconds, wearing identical expressions of shock and amazement, which – even as she watched – swiftly turned to happiness and then sheer delight. Without a word, they both got to their feet and came to her now. Drake settled closer to her on the sofa, his thigh pressed against hers, and Dux got to his knees on the floor, gently touched her cheek.

“Pregnant with twins?” Drake said in a low voice. “For real, darlin’?”

“For real,” she whispered. “I saw the heartbeats on the ultrasound,both of them.”

“And is everything OK with them?” Dux asked. “With our babies?”

At the word ‘our’, Briley was suddenly blinking back tears: she knew then that she wasn’t in this all by herself anymore, and that both brothers would be stepping up, stepping in. Oh, there was no guarantee that they’d be able to do more than maybe be at the births, maybe help financially, maybe come visit on important dates like birthdays or holidays… but she’d take it. She hadn’t realized how scared she’d been until right this second, and it was a huge relief to be able to hand over some of her fears to two of the steadiest, strongest men that she’d ever known.

Unfortunately, they seemed to take her tears as a sign of something bad, and right away, they looked mightily worried.

“Babe?” Dux said. “Is something wrong? Did something show up on the ultrasound?”

“No, no,” she rushed to reassure them, wiping her eyes impatiently. “They’re totally fine and healthy. Nothing wrong at all… I’m just tired and I’m being emotional. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” Drake said gently. “You’ve been alone in this, and that’s a lot. I imagine it’s been overwhelming.”

“If you can believe it, I only found out yesterday,” she told them with a shaky laugh. “So I haven’t really had time to get overwhelmed yet, but I must admit that Ihavebeen good and freaked out. I mean – we didn’t plan this, any of us, but here it is, and it’s a reality. I just – I knew that I wanted to tell you, but I don’t know what to do next, or what’s going to happen.”

“What do youwantto happen?” Dux asked her.

“I – I don’t know.” She lowered her eyes, avoiding those unnerving x-ray stares. “I mean – I’d like you to be part of their lives, but I don’t know what that can look like. You guys are here, I’m in Pennsylvania. We neverreallyhad a relationship, if you think about it, there was no tried-and-true commitment or long-term plans, and so we don’t have much of a foundation on which to build. You guys are single and free out here, so I can understand that you won’t want to get bogged down in the whole parenthood thing, not even part-time.” She shrugged. “I guess my part is pretty easy – I’m having these babies, I’m keeping them – and so you guys need to tell me how involved you’d like to be, and what you don’t want to do.”

“Good Lord, darlin’,” Drake said in an amused tone. “Do you know what we were talking about outside the bar, when you pulled up in the taxi?”

“Uh. No.”

“You. We were talking aboutyou.”

“Oh.” She gazed up at them again, taken aback at this piece of information. “What about me?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Dux said airily. “We were just saying how much we’ve missed you. Oh, and how we’ve fallen for you.”

“You –what?” she said. Her heart stopped dead in her chest, started up again double time, making her feel breathless and dizzy. “Bothof you?”

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