Page 40 of The Brat Tamers

Case turns and places the pizzas on a tool bench, freeing his hands.

There is no time to dawdle, as I suspect they are about to search the garage.

“Surprise!!!” I scream and toss a couple of water balloons at them from my haven behind their vehicle. One smacks Lee right in the chest while the other lands at Case’s feet.

“What the fuck?” Case pauses just long enough for me to fire two more water balloons, one smacking him in the stomach, the other exploding on the ground between them. Then I grab the glitter cannons and run toward them, salting the air with fine hot pink glitter.

It takes approximately two seconds for recognition to morph into surprise in their eyes. “Epi?”

“That’s me.”

Lee’s cheeks turn red. “Are you fucking crazy? We are heavily armed men. You know this.”

“Are you armed right now?”

They exchange glances, and I know the answer is no. That’s why I did this via a food delivery—I hoped to catch them off guard.

I might be crazy, but I’m not stupid.

“What are you doing here?”

I yank two cans of silly string out of my cargo pockets and aim at them. “Since you never called, I figured I’d drop by and tell you what I think about that.”

I douse them in silly string and turn to run when the garage door starts to close. I’m far enough inside the building that I might not make it safely out without some home plate sliding action, but I have no choice but to try. Lee growls, "Grab her!" as I run for the door.

I skid to a stop when Porter steps out from behind a pillar, the garage door slamming shut as if it sped up by a factor of ten. “Hello, Epi.”

Smiling, I glance behind me as Case approaches at more of a stalk versus a jog. “Hi, Porter.”

I run back toward Case, dodging him at the last minute and sliding to my knees behind the SUV where my bag of tricks remains. I have three more water balloons, one more glitter cannon, and two more cans of silly string.

Crouching down, I look under the car to find two sets of shoes approaching me from either side. But where is the third?

“We’ve fucking missed you.” Lee pulls me up into a bear hug, pinning my arms to my chest. My back sticks to his soaking wet chest as I struggle in his grasp, kicking and thrashing with about half the power I’m capable of. Not so much to hurt him, or think I really want him to let me go, but just enough to make it interesting. The more I fight, the harder he squeezes and the wetter I get between my legs. Within point four seconds, Case and Porter are on either side of me, grabbing my legs and rendering me pinned.

“You missed me?” I say breathlessly, sagging in their arms.

“Every fucking day,” Case says.

“Then why didn’t you come get me?” I stick my bottom lip out.

Porter chuckles as Lee grumbles behind me, the vibration from his chest tickling my back. “Because we had to know you missed us, too.”

Case and Porter let my legs down, and then I’m lifted into Lee’s arms like a bride. The three men walk me to the elevator, where Case grabs the pizzas off the bench. “Where are we going?”

“You came here to tell us what you think. Well, we have some things to tell you, too.”

The elevator doors open, and we walk in. Porter leans in and kisses my ear, sucking my earlobe between his teeth. “And we plan to tell you all night into the early morning.”

“Yeah,” Case says, a slice of pizza stuffed into his mouth. “You’re pretty hardheaded, so we think we’ll have to tell you again and again and again, until you get it through your pretty little skull.”

“What’s that?” I grin, an overwhelming sense of relief and gratitude infusing my bones. This worked. They let me in. They wanted me to come back to them. All of them.

Lee leans down and kisses me on the lips. “That you are ours, now and forever.”

The elevator opens up on what I think is the fourth floor. Lee sets me down and then strips off his tank top, leaving the hot pink glitter mess behind on the floor.

Case then hands Porter the pizza boxes and, with a wedge of crust between his teeth, also takes off his wet, glittery tank top, depositing it on the floor.

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