Page 57 of One Little Mistake
“Come now, Grumpy Growler. What is it you Westbrooks say? Welcome to the chaos? Well, come on now, welcome to my chaos, Mister.” GG reaches around me and wraps him in a hug. “She’ll come around. Hang in there, Growler.”
“GG!” I screech. She might have thought she was whispering, but she may as well have yelled for all of Charlotte to hear.
“Ah, thanks?” Easton grabs me by the elbow and escorts me down the stairs of the plane.
As I attempt to wiggle free, he tightens his grip.
“Lexi, there are not many times I’ll force you to do something, but this is one of those times. We have shit to talk about, and it is going to happen tonight, at my house. So say your good-byes because you are coming home with me.”
Every independent bone in my body wants to fight him, but I know the longer we wait to have this conversation, the trickier it will get.
“Fine. Let me go so I can tell the girls.”
He reluctantly releases my arm just as Ashton walks up.
“I don’t know what it is with this family and secret weddings, but you two were the last ones I expected this from.”
Easton and I freeze in place.How the fuck does he know?Watching my face, he answers with a smirk.
“I have all of you tagged. So I get notified of everything, on any of you, anywhere in the world. It’s a safety measure I never expected we’d need, but it has turned out to be rather fruitful recently.” He frowns, and I see worry lines I’ve never noticed before. For someone so young, he seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Listen, I happen to approve of this union, but the thing is, there’s shit going down, and you need to keep it under wraps for a while. Our family cannot take on any press right now.”
Easton takes Ash’s tone the same way I do, and I see him turn from Grumpy Growler to big brother protector in the blink of an eye.
“What’s going on, Ash? Does this have anything to do with Pacen?”
“Pacen. Loki. It’s all a clusterfuck of epic proportions. So, please, just trust me when I say keep this under wraps.”
“But, we’ll just get an annulment, right? Then it won’t matter.”
“You can’t, Lexi. I’m sorry. It would end up in the papers for sure. Right now, we’re lucky I got in with the judge first thing this morning to bury your license. It will give us a few months before anyone finds out, but if you go for an annulment or a divorce, it will be everywhere.”
“That’s not good enough, Ash. I can’t stay married. So I need you to give me more than that,” I hiss.
“Lives, Lexi. That’s what I’m giving you by asking you to keep this quiet. People won’t fucking die, and that’s all I can tell you.”
Ashton and Loki are the ones who rescued me, along with their partner, Seth, so I know he deals with life and death every day, but to hear it so bluntly knocks the wind out of me.
“I-I don’t understand.”
“And that’s the way it has to stay, Lexi. Trust me, the less you know, the better.”
“Ash, what the fuck is going on? Let us in, let us help. Just because Loki does this shit on his own doesn’t mean you have to.”
There’s pain in Ashton’s expression, and it’s obvious he’s fighting a war within himself.
“I can’t, East. Just please, do as I ask.”
Easton and I stare at each other, neither knowing what to say. Finally, Ash takes our silence as acceptance, kisses me on the cheek, and walks away.
“I … wh-what do we do now?”
Easton shakes his head. “You’re still coming home with me. We need to figure some stuff out. Ashton needs us, even if he can’t admit it.”
I nod, but my entire body trembles with fear. I’ve witnessed first hand the kind of shit Ashton does. He’s saved me from that evil once already. I’m not sure I can willingly walk into this again. Call me selfish, but I’m a hairsbreadth away from losing my mind. This might be the catalyst that finally breaks me, and I know there will be no recovering from it.
Chapter 22
Easton
