Page 96 of Being Us (Next Generation 4)

“Good.” I kissed her one last time, breathing her in. “I need you to be a good girl and go upstairs. Can you do that for me?”

She opened her mouth to argue but snapped her mouth shut instead. When her shoulders slumped in defeat, she pulled away from me and left the bedroom. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she turned back to me and blew me a kiss.

When she disappeared up the stairs, I took a step forward, suddenly needing her back.

“Careful.” Greyson stepped in front of me. “You’ve lost your chance to play nice, Tanner. Now tell us what the fuck is going on.”

“You need to let me leave,” I said, aiming the gun at him again.

“Why now? Why not right when you got here or even before this?” he asked, closing the distance between us. “I know you won’t shoot me. You wouldn’t want to hurt Bee that way.”

I swallowed hard. “I need answers. I can’t sit here and wait anymore.” As soon as I saw the pregnancy test, I made a vow to myself that no matter what the outcome was, I would leave and get the answers myself. I had been holed up for too damn long. Rowan did what he could, and I appreciated his help, but this was now on me.

“I need to leave. I need answers.” I felt like a damn parrot.

“Why should we do that?” said Catch, asking the question that I was sure everyone was thinking.

“Because I’m not getting anywhere by staying here. I shouldn’t have been here this long anyway.” But I was and had fallen in love in the meantime. Who knew that a man like me would even be capable of such a thing?”

“And then you started sleeping with my daughter,” Tray added.

“I didn’t start sleeping with her when I first got here,” I corrected him.

“But you wanted to,” Sammy interjected. “I saw the way you looked at her. We all did.”

“It doesn’t matter. That shit is between Busy and I. No one else. I don’t give a flying fuck who you are or what your relation to her is. What happens between us, stays between us.” I raised both arms. “Now, are you going to let me leave or not?”

“Everyone, out, now!” Greyson’s deep voice boomed through the small room.

“Grey, we’re not leaving you in here with him.” Catch nodded toward me. “The fucker’s unstable.”

Truth was, I had never felt more stable in my life. And Busy had everything to do with that little fact alone. It was all her. My emotions. My strength. My fucking power. It was because of Beatrix Lister. I didn’t just love her. I breathed her. Lived for her. I was everything. For her. My feelings had come on hard and fast. Maybe it was because I had been alone for so long. Or the fact that she wasn’t experienced. Either way, we would learn and explore together. Once I got the answers I was looking for, after all of this, I would take her out of here and build a life with her. Just us and our little family.

“Leave,” Greyson repeated, coming around the bed and stepping directly in front of me. “He won’t shoot me. He doesn’t want to hurt Bee.” He had said that twice. While that all may be true, ifhehurt her, I would end him before he had a chance to hurt another. That was the only reason he was still standing. Because of Busy, it was the only reason I hadn’t blown up the place yet.

I lowered my arms, dropping them at my sides. “I need answers.”

“I know,” he said gently. “Leave us,” he told his crew. “I won’t say it again.”

The guys shuffled out of the room.

“And shut the damn door,” Greyson ordered.

Sammy shut the door, doing as his president directed.

“Tanner.”

“I need to leave,” I murmured.

“How did you get the guns? One of my guys give them to you?”

I met Greyson’s gaze then. “What do you want?”

“I want answers just like you do. I also don’t want my niece getting hurt in the process. So, what are you doing to do, Tanner?”

Everything. I was going to do everything. And I didn’t give a shit who I had to go through. I just prayed that I would see Busy again after this because if I didn’t, then what was the point?

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