Page 9 of The Brat Tamers

Lee pulls into the secure garage underneath the downtown building that we bought two years ago. On the outside, it looks near abandoned. There is no yard or anything to give it a homey feel. But it’s solid and practically indestructible, and nobody bothers us in the middle of the industrial neighborhood.

“Where are we?” Epi curls her lip.

“Our place. We need to pack a couple of bags ourselves.” I open my door at the same time Porter opens hers.

“Can’t I wait in the car?” she whines, looking around as if something on the ground is going to jump up and bite her. What she doesn’t realize is the only things prepared to bite her are the three males protecting her.

“Nope. Outside of using the bathroom, you will not be out of our sight until this is over. Don’t worry; this won’t take but a few minutes.” Porter offers her his hand.

She huffs and takes it, letting him escort her from the car.

We will travel in two vehicles up to the safe house. Porter and I will drive the second one while Lee drives the front vehicle with Epi sitting in the backseat. Most threats come from the rear, and while I’m driving, Porter will be my tactical eyes.

Because we’re always ready to go, it takes less than five minutes to change out of my suit, grab my go bag plus my tactical gear and meet everyone back in the living room.

“Wow,” she muses when we re-enter the living area. “This place is a lot nicer on the inside.”

“Sometimes it’s beneficial to have people underestimate you by what they see on the outside.”

She scoffs, “Not in my line of work.”

Lee stops what he’s doing and turns to look at her. “And how much of your life is not online?”

“None. It doesn’t pay to not be online. That’s where my money comes from.”

“Why don’t your fans know you have a twin sister? Are you ashamed of her?”

She spins on me, anger flaring to life in her eyes, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that poking at her turns me on. “My sister doesn’t like to have attention trained on her in any way. I’m not ashamed of her, although I will admit I don’t know her very well. It’s out of respect for her privacy that I don’t tell people about her.”

“Respect?” I quip.

“Who in your world knows about her?” Lee asks at the same time, throwing me a look that sayschill out.

“No one. She and I started living very different lives after our mother died, and there was no reason to talk about her when she’s not a part of my social circle.” Epiphany plops down on the couch and sighs. “I know I sound like a real bitch right now, and don’t get me wrong, I love my sister—I would do anything for her, if she’d ever asked—but we have nothing in common. We handled our mother’s death differently. She clung to our father—not that he noticed—and I took the opportunity of having no one looking after me to take care of myself.”

She lays her gaze on me and crosses her arms over her chest. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to bring Leti home, and I feel horrible this happened—which is the only reason I’m going along with any of this—but this is not my fault, and I don’t appreciate you trying to make me feel bad about it.”

The way she digs in her heels, the contempt for me in her expression—fuck, I’m a sick and twisted man because all it does is make me hot. I glance at Lee and then at Porter, who is standing and watching from the kitchen doorway, before shaking my head and turning away.

* * *

Ten minutes later, we’re pulling onto the interstate and heading north.

Porter finally breaks the silence. “She’s something else, isn’t she?”

“That’s describing her mildly.”

“So, you feel it too?”

I nod, not taking my eyes off the road. “So does Lee, not that we can do shit about it.”

“I wonder how crazy she’s making him in the car right now?” Porter chuckles.

I grin. “Two hundred bucks says as soon as we stop at the cabin, he says he has to take a walk.”

“As soon as we get there? You don’t think he can hold his shit together for a bit longer than that?”

I shake my head, my grin spreading into a full-blown smile. What Porter doesn’t know is that her phone is bound to stop working while on the drive, which means she’ll have nothing better to do than to needle Lee. I have no doubt she knows what she’s doing to us with her quick tongue and bratty attitude. Maybe she doesn’t realize how much it gets us hard, but she knows she has our attention in more than one way. “Nope. Two hundred bucks. Take it or leave it.”

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