“And she knows it was you?” Jake asks.
“Yes.” There’s no fucking way I’m telling them I followed her home and then sexted her from my truck while I got myself off. We’re brothers, but there’s such a thing as TMI. Unless you’re Luke, and I’m not.
Jake turns off the burner, moves the pan to a cold element. He pulls out a plate and begins to load it. “You went there specifically for her. Not general surveillance.”
That's not a question either.
I nod. “Yes.”
The kitchen goes quiet except for Shadow's breathing and the faint hum of the refrigerator. I drink my coffee and wait for whatever's coming next.
Luke's the one who breaks the silence.
“So.” He tilts his head, studying me with the same precision he uses to assess a tactical situation. “You’re still sure you aren’t thinking with your dick?”
I meet his eyes. “I’m not.” At least not where Lily’s safety is concerned.
Jake sets the spatula down and turns to face us fully. “Mason doesn't think with his dick. That's not his problem.” There's something almost sympathetic in his expression as he brings theplate over to the table. It’s piled with bacon. “Which means this is serious.”
Luke grabs a piece like he hasn’t eaten in days, but his gaze never leaves mine. “You want her?”
I don't hesitate. “Yes.”
The word lands in the kitchen like a stone dropped into still water. Final. Unequivocal. The kind of certainty I've spent my entire life avoiding because certainty means vulnerability and vulnerability means risk.
But there's no other answer.
I want Lily Carter. I want her safe. I want her close. I want herminein a way that has nothing to do with logic or tactical advantage and everything to do with the fact that she's gotten under my skin so deep I can't separate her from my own pulse anymore.
Jake and Luke exchange a look—one of those silent conversations brothers have when they've been through enough hell together that words become optional.
Then they both nod.
“Okay,” Jake says simply.
“She's in,” Luke adds. “We've got you.”
That's it. No judgment. No interrogation. Just acceptance.
The tension I didn't realize I was carrying releases from my shoulders.
“She's complicated,” I say, because they need to understand what they're signing up for. “I don’t know what she’s thinking yet, but Lily's here for vengeance, not justice.”
“Vengeance I understand,” Jake says quietly.
Luke nods. “And Turner's already our problem. If she's hunting him too, that makes her an asset.”
“She's more than an asset.” The words come out harder than I intend. “She's not a tool. She's not a weapon we deploy. She's?—”
“Yours,” Luke finishes. “We get it.”
I drain the rest of my coffee, set the mug down on the counter. Shadow lifts his head, watching me.
“There's something else,” I say. “Last night at her place?—”
“You went to her house after the alarm?” Jake's eyebrows rise.
“Had to make sure she got home safe. Had to make sure she was alive and whole,” I say, turning to Jake. I know he’ll understand, given how he feels about Emma. “We talked. She kissed me.”