“Leave her alone.”
She pulls the door open, forcing me to move back to avoid touching her. “Fine.”
I blink. “Fine?”
“Yes, fine.” Monroe stops and looks over her shoulder. “I’ll leave your precious best friend alone.”
My feet feel like they’ve grown roots. I was so braced for a fight, I’m not sure how to react to her easy capitulation. “Oh.” I clear my throat. “Good.”
“That’s not the thing you should be focusing on, husband.”
I don’t want to ask; I already know I won’t like the answer. “What should I be focusing on?” I follow her out of the bathroom, pausing to shut the door behind me. She doesn’t answer until we’re out on the street. Shiloh is nowhere in evidence, and I’d worry about her, but she’s more than capable of taking care of herself and getting back to the compound on her own. Monroe and I fall into step through the crowd.
She gives me a sweet smile. “The fact that Shiloh is not going to leave me alone.”
I shake my head. She’s baiting me. She must be. “She won’t touch you without some meddling on your part.” Shiloh’s too good, too focused. How could she be drawn to someone like Monroe, with venom in her very blood?
How could I be drawn to Monroe?
I shove the thought away. “It won’t happen.”
“Would you like to bet on it?”
Sheer rage has me saying, “Of course.”
“If I’m correct, and Shiloh comes to me without any manipulations on my part, then you’re mine for a week.”
I stop short. “What?”
Monroe stops, too. “A week, husband, where you stop pretending you’re a good man and do what you really want.” She steps closer. Though she doesn’t touch me, the phantom memory of her nails skating up my chest has me fighting back a shiver. “Where you take what you really want.”
I’d be a fool a thousand times over to make a bet with this woman. No matter what she promises, she will cheat, lie, and steal to win. That’s just the kind of person Monroe is; she fights dirty. I open my mouth to tell her to fuck off, but that’s not what comes out. “You have yourself a deal.”
Chapter 7 Shiloh
I’m so furious, I can barely see straight. The walk back to the compound takes half the time it should. The entire time, all I can focus on is how unbelievably over-bearing Broderick has become. He’s always been over-protective, but never once in the last seven years has he tried to steamroll me. Not about my ability to do my job. Not about my dating life.
Sure, there hasn’t been much of a dating life to speak of, but ultimately that changes nothing. The man was making decrees about me as if I’m a child to be controlled.
I am not a child.
I’m a fucking adult, and he can choke on his decrees for all I care.
I shove through the front doors of the main house so hard, they bounce off the wall. A small voice inside me warns that I need to give myself time to cool off before doing anything else, but for once in my life I’m too angry to listen. There’s no room for caution here, no space to be rational.
Gabriel Paine, the youngest of the Paine brothers, jumps in surprise at my entrance. “Shiloh?” He narrows his eyes. “Is everything okay?”
“No.” I barely sound like myself. My voice is so cold, I’m half surprised it doesn’t cloud the air in front of me. “Where is Cohen?” I could try approaching Maddox, but he’ll just tell me to deal with it on my own. For all that he’s the more approachable of the two, he’s the least likely to understand how fucked this situation is. I doubt Maddox has ever been in over his head even once in his life.
Not that Cohen has ever been in over his head, but he has six brothers so surely he can sympathize when one of them gets a stick up his ass and starts making commands that are none of his damn business.
“Upstairs.”
I don’t hesitate, pushing past him and starting up the stairs. It’s only when I reach the second floor, where all the private suites are, that I realize I might still be a little drunk and have lipstick smeared on my face and neck. It would be smart to slow down, to give myself time to gather my wits and figure out a game plan, but it’s as if I have too much momentum. I can’t stop, no matter how ill-advised this is.
Cohen and Maddox’s room is at the far end of the north hall. As best as I can tell, his bride, Winry—Monroe’s little sister—has been sharing their room the entire time. Unlike Broderick, who ceded his new space to Monroe and has been sleeping alone gods knew where. Because that makes sense. Avoid the problem and hope it goes away.
Just like he’s been avoiding me.
How dare he think he can tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing? I’ve seen him a grand total of three times in three weeks, and each time he’s all but sprinted from my presence the second he gets an opening.
Not too long ago, I might have listened to him if he told me to stay away from Monroe. Our friendship has spanned nearly a full third of my life. In that time, Broderick has been nothing but steady and stable and taken care of everyone around him. He’s not the type to fly off the handle or lose his temper over something ridiculous. He just handles shit.
Until now.
Maybe in a day or two, I’ll be able to admit that coming back to Sabine Valley has put him into a tailspin, but I’m too busy doing my own spin out to worry about him. If this was any other time, any other place, we’d lean on each other until the ground steadied beneath our feet. It’s what we’ve always done in the
