I didn’t know the answer and was afraid of both sides of that war, but right now, the only thing I could do was hide. And I was good at it, damn good at it.
Because being in my situation meant surviving.
13
Frankie
I could hear my brothers bitching, felt their rage and annoyance directed at me, but my mind wasn’t focused on anything but the woman at the laundromat.
I stood by the sink, braced my hands on it, and stared out the kitchen window. I couldn’t see anything with the darkness covering everything like a cloak, but I didn’t mind, because my mind was so clouded with the possibilities of that woman being Nadja.
“He’s not even fucking paying attention,” Dom muttered, but it went in one ear and out the other.
“What the fuck is up with him?” Cullen was the one to speak now.
“Frankie, look at us, man.”
I turned when Wilder addressed me and stared at three very pissed-off faces. I had no excuse for fucking up like I did. Doing what I had could’ve meant us getting caught, or worse, getting killed in that part of town.
I exhaled and ran a hand over the back of my head. “I thought I saw her,” I said in a low, deep voice. I wasn’t about to admit I thought it was her. They’d think I’d lost my damn mind.
Maybe I had.
Cullen and Dom looked at each other with confusion in their faces. “You thought you saw who?” Dom was the one to ask.
I could see on Wilder’s face he knew who I was talking about.
“Nadja.” The room grew tense and quiet after I said her name.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Cullen muttered and started pacing the kitchen. “You thought you saw a woman you had a fling with over five years ago, and that’s why you nearly fucked us over on this job tonight?” His voice was raised, his anger clear.
I felt my own anger rise and pushed away from the counter to step up to him. Wilder inserted his body between us, a hand on my chest to stop me as I leveled a stare at my older brother.
“It wasn’t a fucking fling.” The way I said those words would have had any other man cowering. Cullen just narrowed his eyes at me even more. “You fucking know it was more than that.” My voice was low, deadly. Cullen took a step toward me, but I held my ground, wanted to tell Wilder to move the fuck along and let us hash this out. “You tell me how you’d feel if I said that fucked-up bullshit about your woman.”
Cullen curled his lip, and I thought he’d shove Wilder aside so we could go at it. But he finally exhaled and took a step back. I watched as he walked away, rubbing his hand over the back of his head and muttering under his breath.
“Dude, you know logically it can’t be her.”
I snapped my head in Dom’s direction.
“I don’t know that.” I could hear the malice, the acidic denial in my voice. I didn’t know that. But I did. Chances that it was Nadja were so fucking slim I almost couldn’t even grasp it. But I had hope. That’s all I had at this point.
“You’ve lost your fucking mind,” Cullen rumbled. “I’m going home to my woman. We’ll discuss the job details tomorrow. I can’t deal with this bizarre shit right now.”
I growled, wanting to deck Cullen in the fucking jaw. Wilder’s hand on my shoulder had me realizing I’d been about to do just that, stalking toward him, about to get into it with him.
“Let him go,” Wilder said deep and low, so low only I heard.
I watched as Cullen left. Dom just shook his head and finally exhaled.
“You can’t let anything get in the way of a job, brother.” He clapped me on the other shoulder and then left as well.
You can’t let anything get in the way of a job, brother.
I clenched my jaw. “Funny coming from you.” Dom’s nostrils flared as his anger rose because of my words. “Kind of like taking a woman hostage during a damn job and keeping her prisoner in your room?”
I heard Dom’s teeth gnash together. I’d gotten under his skin. Good. None of my fucking brothers had any room to talk. Yeah, I’d nearly fucked up the job severely. But we were here and whole. Things had worked out. I didn’t want to hear one word from them regarding this.
Dom had taken a female during a heist simply because he wanted her. Cullen had his black, cold heart brought to life while he was trapped with his woman. Hell, Wilder’s woman had been kidnapped by me, because she’d seen too much, and all that shit worked out.
“Dom, just get the fuck out and let things cool,” Wilder said, and Dom exhaled once more before giving a nod and leaving.