Unchained (Hogan Brothers 3)

Nox stood straight at that. “Excuse me, sir?” His brother’s voice was cold as ice.

“He admitted to being able to finish up the drawing today but refuses to do so because he’s busy this afternoon. I’ve contracted this to be done; it’s my money. It should be done when I want it.” He sounded like a petulant child.

“Is he past his original estimated date?” Nox asked the man.

“Well, no.”

“Then what’s the problem? Loch has been working tirelessly on this beauty for months. Trust me when I say, you can’t rush perfection.” The man was wavering. “Now, if you’d like to take it without that last piece of artwork on the hood that you specifically came to us for, by all means, go ahead into the front and Sophia will be happy to settle your bill now.”

The asshole was actually pondering it. “Fine. But I’ll be here at four sharp in two days to pick it up, and it had better be ready.”

“It will be,” Loch confirmed with a smirk.

The man walked out with a huff. “Dios, he’s like a spoiled niño.” Asher walked away shaking his head at a grown-ass man throwing a hissy fit.

“He’s not wrong,” Nox muttered. “Sage being discharged today?”

“Yeah. I think she’s nervous, too,” Loch confided.

“Why do you say that?”

“She was acting funny before I left. I don’t blame her. She’s being thrust into a world she isn’t familiar with and has to navigate a life she likely didn’t know she was going to be given.”

Whistling, Nox laughed. “Didn’t know you ran so deep, kid.” Loch’s lips twisted at his brother’s light teasing. “She still going to Ma’s?”

“Yeah, Ma’s got my old room ready for her. Soph and Hayes brought her some clothes over yesterday.” He was quiet for a moment before asking what he was most afraid of. “What if she decides this isn’t the world for her? What if she wants to go back?”

“You’ve always been a sensitive bastard, Loch.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“No, kid, I mean it. You’ve been more in tune with the world, Ma, everything, since the day you were born. You know what Ma said when she brought you home?”

“Great, another boy?” He was only half kidding.

“Shut up you idiot. Levi and I were assholes the day you came home. Jealous and wanting Ma and Pop’s attention. A quick whack on the ass had us both settling down right quick. Ma told us that when we were grown, we’d learn to appreciate each other. Stick up for one another. We did all that before any of us hit our teens. But she used to say that Loch is the one who we’ll have to watch for. He’ll be the one that falls the hardest and fights the most. You know why?”

“No.”

“Cause from the minute you came screaming into the fucking world—a thorn in my side—you were quiet, you watched and waited for everything. Until now, until Sage, you’ve not once had a passion as fierce as this. Pop knew you’d find a complicated girl, and Loch, you’ve found beyond complicated and dived straight into crazytown with her family.”

“That doesn’t really help,” Loch muttered.

Smacking the back of his head, Nox growled, “Stop overthinking it and fucking feel, Loch. Go with that.”

Listening to his brother, leading with his instincts, Loch knew he had to stop overanalyzing what he felt and wanted with Sage. From the very beginning, their lives had been set in stone. Their fates were decided. All that was left to do was make the choice to accept it.

Chapter Ten

When life gets too hard to stand, kneel.

“No, no, no,” Sage couldn’t stop repeating the word. As soon as Lochlan left, the walls surrounding her came crumbling down like dominoes.

The doctor—the man with the soulless gaze—was a close friend of her father’s from the outside world and had called him immediately.

Everything after her father, Morgan, and a few other devout parishioners had shown up happened so quickly, Sage hardly had time to react.

“You will be quiet. You will beg forgiveness. And so help me God, Sage, if you do not recite your vows as they have been laid out for you, it is not the pit you will have to fear.” The threat from Gideon’s lips shut her up.