Eight Brothers Fiancee (Love by Numbers 7)

Keaton smiled. “Were you really gonna try and take on Dante with a knife because of us?”

I looked at all of them and smelled Quentin’s cologne coiling around me. “I mean… Yeah.” My eyes landed on Maverick. “I heard him call out your name and I thought something had happened to you.”

Maverick tilted his head. “Aw, were you worried about me?” He put his hands on his hips. “I’m okay, baby!”

Delvin swatted his hand across the back of his head. “Knock it off.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s okay. I thought you were dead ten seconds ago, so feel free to be as ‘Maverick’ as you want.”

Keaton looked at Maverick and then back at me. “I mean, does it work for all of us, because I can…” He put his hands on his hips and crouched way down until he was comically short. “I’m okay, baby.” His voice was high pitched and mocking.

Maverick looked over at him. “I will fuck you up.”

“Why all the screaming?” I asked. Keaton, Maverick, and Delvin stood aside, revealing the television they were all looking at. The screen was split four ways, each with a World War II setting on it, and three of the screens were grayed out with the words ‘You Died’ on them. “Oh. Call of War.”

Maverick’s jaw dropped. “You know it?”

“Yeah. I play it with my brother all the time.”

“God, you are so cool,” Maverick muttered, his eyes shimmering like he was looking at a superhero.

I realized I was still clung to Quentin and pulled myself free. I walked over to the two armless sofas that were in the center of the room and sat down. “I thought maybe Malia was threatening you guys or something.” All four men went silent and started to exchange nervous looks. “What? What happened?”

“Malia actually did threaten us,” Quentin said, walking over and sitting on the opposite sofa, facing me. “She’s working on a plan to split us up, all of us. One of us to California, one of us to Florida, she even wants to send Jett and Rogan overseas.”

“What?” I yelped. “She can’t do that. Your dad would never go for it.”

“He likes the idea of expanding the business, besides, once she has control of the company she’ll be able to do whatever she wants,” Delvin said. “I could talk my dad out of separating us, but it won’t be up to him anymore.”

“Yeah, and a devil won’t be able to convince a devil not to be a devil,” Maverick said, referring to his brother’s nickname and Malia’s pure villainy.

“She won’t have control of the company as long as Harley doesn’t marry her. He’s working on a way to get out of it, right?” I asked and all the guys’ heads dropped. “What now?”

“He’s going through with it. The wedding,” Keaton said. “He’s gonna marry her.”

It was like a bullet straight through the gut. I imagined Harley hovering over me, taking my virginity, passionately kissing my leg, and smiling at me. I didn’t understand the thoughts that were running through my brain like, How could he marry her? and What about me? What had happened to convince him to go through with it? “Why? Why would he do that?”

“He’s worried about everyone’s safety,” Maverick explained. “Especially yours.”

“Me? I’m fine!”

“You’re not,” Delvin said. “She knows about you and the twins. She said her first order of business was to get rid of you, and then Huxley.”

My back tingled as though Huxley’s arm was wrapped around it once again. I thought of him walking me down the row of his family pictures, telling me about his family, and cheaply trying to convince me that he was the only damaged one, complete with an immature smile. I wasn’t sure when it happened, but the twins had become important to me. In truth, when I thought something had happened to Quentin and Maverick, that killed me too. The Foxx brothers had become an important part of my life, and I didn’t want them to be split up. I didn’t want them to leave each other, and more importantly, I didn’t want them to leave me.

“I’ll figure it out,” I said and all their eyes shot to me. “I’ll fix this.”

“How?” Quentin asked.

“Yeah. I know you had a butcher knife plan when you came in here, but Dante is coming full heat to this wedding,” Maverick said. “If something happened to you…”

All of the Foxx siblings made an array of pained expressions that sunk into me and spread through me like a poison. They cared about me too.

“I don’t know,” I murmured, reaching forward to grab Quentin’s face and tip it up to me. “But I will, I promise.” The guys’ wind had been knocked from their sails. I looked over at the game, awaiting its players’ return, and smiled. We all needed a distraction for a little bit until I could figure out what to do. “Come on. Let’s have a tournament.”