Page 123 of The Pack Next Door
“That was four.” I grinned as I stroked his hair back from his face. “It’s OK. I’ve worked out what to do with that smart mouth of yours.” I pressed a gentle kiss to it. “Keep it busy doing something much more fun than annoying me.”
“Well, I am told I am very, very annoying…” He shot me a meaningful look. “Seems like I’m gonna spend a whole lotta time on my knees before you, my mate, but that’s OK. As long as I can push my face up your skirt.”
I burst out laughing, imagining him doing just that at an inopportune moment, and that relieved the last of any residual tension.
Chapter 60
Gideon
The day of the launch
I had to remind myself that everything was fine.
Everyone on Briar’s team, my brothers included, had worked like Trojans to ensure it all came together. We’d had meeting after meeting, were introduced to project management software, and I loved the way it mapped out the entirety of what we were trying to achieve. Each time another part was checked off, it felt like we were putting another brick down, building something huge.
But if you build something, someone can always come along and try to destroy it.
The dark fear kept me up the night before the launch, allowing me very little sleep. I’d lain there in the massive bed in Briar’s apartment, listening to my mate’s and my brothers’ long, slow breaths while my mind raced, trying to identify anything we’d missed.
We hadn’t.
“Ready?” Briar said when we arrived at the church. I was already out of the car, opening her door for her. All of theadrenaline that was coursing through my veins needed to be directed somewhere, and right now, this was it.
“More than ready,” I assured her, then looked up to see Mads arrive with the truck full of all the stock. “Jace?”
“Already on it.” He placed a little kiss on Briar’s nose. “We’ve got the heavy stuff. You go in with Em and start working out how you want this to look.”
According to the carefully designed diagram we’d created, I wanted to insist, but that wasn’t how this worked. Not for the first time, I cursed the fact that my mate was involved in a creative industry, because apparently that meant one hundred per cent more unpredictability.
Except fate had decided she was the one woman in the world for me.
Because this was her dream, I’d sat up late, looking at videos made by museum curators and gallery owners, discussing the way pieces could be displayed and protected in public spaces. I was still learning, but it helped to know there was a logic to it. Today would be the first time I got to put that to the test and so we walked towards the truck.
Boxes were unloaded, each item carefully unwrapped. All hands were on deck as Briar and Emma focussed on displaying each pot. Seb worked to clear the space of all debris, storing the boxes and bubble wrap in the back of the truck, while we did the heavy work. I blinked when we got to the last box, feeling strangely hollow when it was done. What the hell did I do now?
“Food truck has arrived and they want to know where to set up?” Seb called out as he joined us inside the church. Briar looked up from a discussion she was having with Emma, a slight frown on her face.
“On it,” I said, because this I knew. Where to set up, how they would access power and water, it was all pre-planned so I left the church to deal with the food service. Once they wereready to go, the first savoury scents of cooking food melding with the resin of the gum trees, I was free to walk back inside.
“Gideon?”
I turned to see the security team had arrived. Brent was a retired police officer who now worked event security. Most of what his team would be doing was managing the informal parking arrangements on church grounds. He held out his hand and I shook it firmly as he glanced at the venue. “It’s all looking good out here. People are going to start arriving in about an hour, right?”
I went to agree, when the crunch of tyres on stone had us both turning to find the source. No one was supposed to… Claws felt like they were raking across my chest, leaving trails of white-hot pain in their wake.
“Who’s this?” Brent asked the question, not understanding how important the answer was. “Someone must’ve gotten the time wrong.”
“No.” I was moving forward. “Some people have the wrong place.”
I knew my fathers’ truck well. A massive beast of a machine, the thick tyres bit into the gravel, sending rocks flying as they drove into the carpark, ignoring the team’s attempt to set up temporary barriers.
And wasn’t that a metaphor for my parents’ entire existence.
“Found you, son.”
Ned dropped out of the passenger side seat and beer cans rolled free, clattering on the ground as he approached. Brent’s brows drew down. Perhaps because the stink of alcohol was detectable even at this distance. I closed the gap in a few strides, because this, this was my true purpose, I realised.
Mads and Jace could’ve handled the transport and moving of all the items on their own. I was an extra pair of hands, but notmore useful than any other. Emma understood the protocols for a launch and it was Briar’s vision we all followed, but I…
