Page 62 of Four Fiances & I

I glance at the others and see them all giving their undying attention to their eldest brother, who runs his hand over his head again before taking my left hand and playing with my engagement ring.

Watching Christian, I don’t miss how vulnerable he looks. He's not making eye contact with anyone and has lost the dominance he holds when in any room.

“The reason I’ve been away so much is that we have had a large number of properties burnt down or vandalised. There’s been sixteen in total.” All three of the guys curse under their breath. “Most of them were ones we took over from Taylor. People haven’t been happy and made sure they would be useless to us.”

I frown, wondering what he means.

“When we killed Taylor, we took procession of his businesses. The majority of them had been started with money we had given him, or Tommy had, so in theory, they were ours,” Christian explains.

“Over the last few months, more and more of our properties have been torched or vandalised. At first, it was the odd one, which you can expect now and again, especially as they were empty and ideal places for kids to hang out and cause trouble. Squatters took over one, and instead of kicking them out, I had it made it into a shelter for them. But over time, more and more things happened to the properties. Before Young’s death, there had been one, maybe two properties affected a month, which could all be put down to them being empty. I sold a few more off, and things seemed to calm down.”

“I take it things are getting worse,” I ask. Christian nods and closes his eyes for a moment.

“There has been something every other day: a break-in, broken windows, fires started, equipment damaged, the list goes on. It’s been exhausting, to put it mildly. It’s why I have been away so much. I’ve been dealing with everything that gets thrown at us.”

“Is that why you said I couldn’t go with you on the occasions I asked?”

Christian nods as he looks at me.

“Where were you when you said your phone was broken?” Jason asks, leaning forward and looking at his brother.

“I’d been arrested.”

“What?” all four of us cry out together. I look around and realise that I wasn’t the only one who had no idea.

“On what grounds?” Jason asks.

“Someone called and told them that I was lighting a fire in my own building to claim on the insurance, knowing that I was heading there after a tip-off about some squatters.”

“Let me guess, when you got there, the place had already been set alight?” Jason sighs as Christian nods.

“The police turned up as I was on the phone to the fire brigade. They arrested me and kept me as long as they could get away with. They tried to pin all kinds on me, and I had to prove to them I wasn’t involved in each property that had been damaged. It took the solicitor hours to get all my known whereabouts together for the previous few weeks.”

“Have they dropped all charges?” Sean asks. Christian nods, and I let out a sigh of relief.

“They had nothing to go on, but they are keeping an eye on me, which is why I’ve been away more than usual.”

“So, in other words, people aren’t happy about you taking Taylor’s buildings and are what? Claiming them back?” I ask, trying to get my head around it all.

“More like trying to get rid of him full stop,” Maximus adds, standing and walking away from the sofas. I look to Christian, who is back, staring at my hand and avoiding all eye contact.

“What aren’t you telling us?” Jason asks from across the room. Christian continues to look anywhere but at any of us. I look between the two of them, then the twins. No one is saying anything, just staring at Christian, who won’t look up. It’s Jason who breaks the silence.

“No!”

“I’ve had the details confirmed,” he starts before looking at Jason, who stares for a moment before jumping to his feet angrily.

“If you are saying what I think you are, I’m going to kick your fucking ass again.” Christian and Jason stare at each other before Jason snaps. “You fucking stupid, stubborn, proud bastard!” he starts pacing around, and I can see the twins don’t know what he’s on about.

“What?” Maximus asks as he stares at his brother. But Christian looks at me, and I know he doesn’t want to say it in front of me, which means it must be bad.

“Tell me.” The words barely a whisper, but I see the fear in Christian's eyes. “Whatever it is, we can deal with it together.” I’d hoped to reassure him, but from how he turns away and refuses to look at me, I know I failed.

“Tell her!” Jason snaps, standing in front of his brother. “Fucking tell the woman you claim to love what you have been hiding from all of us,” he shouts, pointing at me.

“I don’tclaimto love her. Idofucking love her! Which is why I’ve been protecting her!” Christian shouts, jumping to his feet. “Everything I have been doing is to protect the four of you, especially her!”

The rest of us are on our feet now. All waiting for Jason and Christian to start fighting again.

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