Page 3 of Twisted Ruck

"Or Snow," Frost suggested. He snapped his fingers. "I know, Chelsea could be Snow. We could be Snow White and the Seven Smashers." He wiggled his eyebrows at the idea.

I shook my head in response. "I always preferred Rose Red."

What in the world would I do with seven guys? I had my hands full enough as it was. Not to mention all of my holes, a lot of the time.

"Like blood?" Frost asked.

"Like red roses," I replied firmly. "Red is my favourite colour."

It was also my brother's favourite colour, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Hedidchoose it because it was the colour of blood. He also quite liked lavender, for no reason other than he liked the look of it.

"My favourite colour is the exact shade of your pussy," Dallas supplied.

"Mine too," Storm said.

"Mine is a tie between Chelsea's pussy and the colour of Storm's cock when he's hard," Frost said.

"I‘ve always said you had good taste," Storm said, as he cupped his groin through his track pants. He smiled, but his stormy grey eyes remained troubled. His thoughts were on much more difficult topics than our favourite colours.

All of our minds should be.

This? It was our way of dealing with the situation. Joking around and talking about trivial things, rather than morbid ones.

"And I taste good," Frost said. He gulped down the last of his coffee and stood. "I don't know about you all, but I'm ready to get down there and face the music."

"Are you sure you're not guilty?" Dallas asked. "Because that's something a guilty person would say."

"I'm guilty of a lot of things," Frost agreed, "but havinganythingto do with Bruce dying isn't one of them."

He sighed out his nose after the last couple of words, his expression grim again. "I meant we'll have to face the fact it's true. You know what they say about not believing everything you read on the Internet."

"I don't think something like that would be up there if it wasn't true," Storm said reluctantly. "Let's head on in and find out for sure."

"And don't go pointing any fingers at Atlas until we have some idea whether or not he had anything to do with it," I said, giving them all a long look. "The police might be looking into the cause of death. We don't want to complicate things."

We shouldn't blame an innocent man for a murder when no murder took place. If one had, I'd make sure the right people knew what happened.Therightpeoplebeing my brother. He'd either deal with Atlas directly, or he'd make sure the police found out what he did.

I pushed the thought to the side for now. I was getting way ahead of myself.

"I love that about you," Frost said. "He hurt you last night, but you're still not ready to hate on him." He leaned over and lightly kissed my mouth.

"It might mean I’m too naïve," I suggested.

And it might mean I spent a lifetime covering for criminals. A habit I wasn't going to break anytime soon, even if I wanted to. Those same people would have me killed if I got underfoot. My brother would try to stop them, but they'd persist until they got to me. He couldn't watch me twenty-four hours a day.

No, better to keep my mouth shut. It got me this far. I saw no reason to change now.

"It means you're a nicer person than Storm," Dallas said. "And me, before he starts throwing stones."

"Most people are nicer than us," Storm said with a shrug. He finished a piece of apple and got to his feet. "My SUV. I'll drive."

None of us was in the mood to argue with him. It wasn't worth it at the best of times. Today was definitelynotthe best of times.

I couldn't shake the heavy feeling beginning to settle on me. Or the fear of facing Atlas. If he'd kill Bruce to keep me from working for the Smashers, then what else was he capable of? He might decide to go after Storm, Frost, or Dallas. Or he might decide I was an easier target.

If he killed me, my brother would go to war with him. Things would get very, very ugly very, very fast.

"Things will be okay." Frost laced his fingers in mine. "We'll get to the bottom of what happened. The team will get a new GM and you'll get the job. Everything can go back to normal."

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