Page 9 of Tempted to Rebel

Grinning, I clap my brother on the shoulder. “You’re his right hand man. Make it happen for me.”

The sun begins to set in the distance, casting long shadows all around us. Thanatos’s gaze flickers to each of them as he mentally surveys the perimeter like a bad habit.

“We’re on the estate, brother.” I squeeze his shoulder. “Relax. This place is safer than anywhere else in the city.”

Security on the main house quadrupled once ourpakhanAndrei brought his wife Valentina home after their botched wedding. Rumor has it that he pulled our men from the city’s perimeter and housed them here, and honestly, I don’t blame him for it.

Nothing is more important than keeping your woman safe.

I picture Celia kneeling in our new cage, peering up at me with those big, round, doe-eyes. Her full breasts popping out of her bra and the swell of her stomach on full display, her soft hands reaching for my shaft as I feed it to her through the bars?—

Drawing a breath, I hold it inside my chest and let the pressure ease the burn of my blood rushing between my thighs. As gorgeous and tempting every fantasy I’ve conjured of Celia in the cage is, its purpose isn’t inherently sexual. I need to keep her off the streets and out of the public eye until we catch the bastard who dared threaten her safety. If I let her wander freely through the city, she’ll gain attention on account of who she is and how well she carries herself. Both stranger and acquaintance can’t help but watch her every time she walks by—she’s fucking mesmerizing.

And our killer knows it.

Thanatos frowns again, the lines around his mouth deepening. I’m not sure that he’s happy to be back in the city, but it can’t have been sunshine and rainbows outside of it, either. We haven’t kept in contact during the years he was away—keeping track of him was difficult when he was constantly on the move, and it’s not like he kept up with a burner phone or wrote home the old fashioned way. He’s the oldest of my brothers—older than me, even—and has always looked out for us, going so far as to defect from the bratva once our father cut and run to escape trial. Thanatos’s selfless nature hasn’t changed in all the years that have passed since we were kids.

He’s always trying to keep us safe, even from ourselves.

“She isn’t good for you,” he says finally, breaching the topic of conversation we’ve been skirting around. He crosses his arms over his chest. “Let her go, Rage.”

I shake my head. “I can’t do that.” I made a promise to my woman, and I’m going to keep it no matter what.

He knows where I’m going with this. “Break your promise, then. I’d rather you compromise your code of ethics than be tied to someone who doesn’t deserve you. She’s not pregnant. You can still end this before it’s too late.”

My fists clench. “Shewillbe. I’m not abandoning the mother of my children.”

Thanatos sighs. “You could pick anyone, Rage.”

I know. “It has to be Celia.”

Although my attraction to Celia started the moment I laid eyes on her at the Baranova wedding, our connection goes beyond that now. She’s wrapped my brothers around her finger—no easy feat—and despite her claims otherwise, she’s just as drawn to us as we are to her. I see it. Ifeelit. We are meant to be together, all four of us, now into eternity.

“Keep her safe,” I tell Thanatos, meeting his eyes. “If not for her, then for me.”

If there’s one way to get through to him, it’s by reminding him that it’s not just Celia he will be protecting—but all of us, too. If she goes down, we all do.

A beat of silence passes before he nods, albeit reluctantly. “Fine. But only until you let her go, Rage.”

That won’t happen, but it’s pointless to argue. He’s just as convinced as I am about Celia, only on opposing sides of the argument.

We walk together in silence to the main house to give our separate reports for the day. Once we’re standing before ourpakhanand his two topvors, one of which being Celia’s brother Mikhail Monrovia, I bring up another order of business.

Bringing Thanatos home where he belongs.

It takes some convincing, but we work together to negotiate a way for my brother to reorganize his current commitments to join our security detail at the club. Andrei isn’t thrilled about letting his wife’s new favorite bodyguard go, but he understands the importance of keeping both family and business assets safe, so he relinquishes his queen’s hold over my brother as her personal bodyguard to give him back to us.

Once Thanatos and I are getting into a car to head back to the club, he turns to face me. “I’m not sleeping in your apartment.” His nose crinkles, like he’s picturing the rest of us jerking off to our woman—oronher, which sounds fucking fantastic to me.

I relent, however, seeing as how he agreed to stay with us in the first place. “You can have the other wing, then. It’s unfurnished if you don’t count the gym equipment, but it’s spacious. You’ll have multiple rooms to fuck around in.”

We make the rest of the drive in silence until the club comes into view. My body thrums with renewed energy at the prospect of seeing Celia again—and even better,touchingher. Tasting her. Fucking her.

A sharp ache seizes inside my chest as I remember the last time I opened up to her and how poorlythatended. I press a fist to my sternum to quell the feeling. The truth is, when Celia handcuffed me to my car and left me to rot, she hurt me. Not physically—but the aftershocks of the betrayal still run deep, constantly reminding me that although she initially chose me,although she let me plant my hopes to start a family deep inside her womb, although we made promises to each other and made fuckingloveto keep them…

I wasn’t enough for her to stay.

Who I am might even be the reason she left.

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