Chapter 20
After an hour spent ringing around my contacts in the families, I’d managed to get an agreement for a meeting. I hadn’t told them who else would be there, just pressed the urgency of it home. And any of them who were being dicks about it, well I’d just threatened them. Blackmail was sometimes the only thing these pricks listened to. You just had to know what buttons to press and when. We had all their dirty secrets thanks to our girl. It hadn’t taken much to persuade them after that.
Quinn had been on the phone to Viktor and afterwards, Geoff, but I didn’t ask for details. He seemed incredibly agitated and quite frankly, pissing him off any further would be a bad idea. Also bringing up Julian might cause him to go off the deep end. I was already pissed off about the whole situation. There was no doubt in my mind Julian was involved, but I didn’t want to alert him to the fact I knew. So I hadn’t gone charging down to the hospital to demand he tell me why he hadn’t kept to his word. I’d have to play nice for a little while longer.
I made a tray up for Ash in the kitchen as I knew she’d not eaten today and took it upstairs. Figuring Eric had taken Ash, I went to his bedroom first. I found both of them curled up in bed together. Walking in, I popped the tray down on the bedside table. Eric raised his head and gave me a grateful smile.
“She’s sleeping” he whispered.
I came around the bed and got in the other side, curling myself around Ash’s back. She didn’t stir as I stroked her blonde hair back from her face. She looked so fucking peaceful and angelic. A far cry from the mess she’d been earlier. My poor angel.
“Is she okay?” I whispered.
“I think so. She’s scared of losing us but determined to fix this.”
“That’s our girl.”
I leant down and kissed her cheek. When I raised my head, I noticed the dreamy look in his eyes as he watched her sleeping.
“What’s up with the gooey eyes shit?” I hissed.
The goofy smile on his face grew wider.
“She loves me.”
“She tell you that?”
He stroked her cheek so reverently.
“Yeah.”
“You look like you won the fucking lottery right now.”
He shrugged a little, continuing to stroke her cheek like she was the most precious thing in the world and he couldn’t believe she was his.
“Guess I did.”
His verdant eyes met mine and the depth of emotion in them made me blink.
“You’re not getting jealous again, are you? You know I love you just as much as her.”
I raised my eyebrows.
Me? Jealous?
Okay, so maybe I had been a little before, over the sex stuff, but I knew his heart belonged to the both of us. I didn’t like the feeling. It wasn’t like me. The guy who couldn’t get over the fact his girlfriend and boyfriend were together as well. If Ash could love four people and me, two, then Eric could love us both. There was nothing to be jealous over. Nothing at all.
“And what if I am?”
He reached over and shoved my shoulder.
“Then I’d tell you to stop being an idiot and making this about you. Needing to be the centre of attention all the time isn’t endearing.”
“Hey!”
“Shh, don’t wake her.”
He cupped the back of Ash’s head, checking she was still sleeping. The care he was taking over her made my chest tighten. I was worried about her too, but I wasn’t coddling her like a small child.
“She’s not fragile, E. You don’t need to treat her like she’s made of glass.”
His eyes flicked up to me, irritation appearing in them which took me back a little.
“Me caring about her well-being is suddenly a bad thing, is it?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Are you two fighting over me?” came Ash’s voice between us.
We both looked down finding her blue eyes staring back at us with no small amount of amusement in them.
“No,” I ground out, feeling more than a little annoyed Eric had snapped at me.
“Yes,” Eric said.
“We aren’t fighting.”
“We are. You just told me off for trying to look out for her.”
“I wasn’t telling you off, for fuck’s sake. I was telling you not to treat her like a fucking child.”
“How is that not telling me off?”
Ash twisted and put her hands up, placing them on each of our mouths.
“Stop it. I don’t want you fighting about me. In fact, I don’t want you two fighting at all. Haven’t you already argued enough recently?”
I hated she was right. Eric and I had been getting into arguments more often and it wasn’t good for either of us. I just never expected to have to navigate this kind of relationship. It was easy when it’d been Ash and the rest of us. Loving two people at once had me feeling more than a little crazy.
“Now if you don’t kiss and make up right now, I’ll be hauling both of you over hot coals until you cut this shit out.”
Hearing Ash tell us off like we were little boys had me trying to not laugh. How this girl managed to deal with the four of us was beyond me at times. Especially being only twenty-one. If this girl had balls, they’d be made of steel.
She dropped her hands from our mouths. Eric looked sheepish and I felt like I’d been given a slap over the wrist.
“Jesus, angel, you’re a taskmaster today.”
“Xavier…” The warning note in her voice had me snapping my mouth shut on another dig.
I looked over at Eric.
“I’m sorry, E, I shouldn’t have said that shit. I know you care about her.”
“I’m sorry too,” he said, his green eyes sad.
Fuck, he’s doing that puppy dog thing and I can’t fucking stand it.
Ash looked at the both
