Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

I somehow doubted that.

Maybe when he was around, they were perfect.

But when he wasn’t? Yeah, there was no way in hell.

Not with how awful they were acting right now.

There were six of them in total, and each one of them was its own special kind of dreadful.

I wasn’t too sure what to think of the kids. Honestly, at first, they were fairly good. But as the night went on, they got progressively worse.

We were all getting to know each other when the first devil, one of the twins, looked me straight in the eye and asked me why I was there.

After having answered his question explaining that I was helping his uncles decorate the tree, he then asked if I was sleeping with one of them.

That was when Nico, the devil’s father, tersely told him to stop, and it really started to go bad.

Which led to right then, the five children belonging to Nico and Georgia staring at me with complete and utter annoyance at my presence.

Apparently when one child got reprimanded, they all closed ranks.

Booth and Bourne were the twins and both of them had their father’s hard eyes. Bell, a beautiful female version of Nico, who I thought to be around seven or eight, was looking at me like she was searching for hidden weaknesses. Then there was sweet Heath. And cute little Daniella.

Or, at least, she looked cute. Until her mother and father had left to go run an errand. And then Ace, Banks, and Callum had gone outside to the barn to see what other Christmas decorations they could find for the kids to help put up.

They’d thought they were leaving me with Desi. Except Desi had gone to the bathroom over ten minutes ago and hadn’t come back out since.

Which left me alone with them.

“Do you like Ace?” Bell asked sweetly.

I’d never been around kids before. I was unsure if I had to answer her or not.

“Well?” Booth prodded.

My eyes swung to him.

“Yes,” I answered. “As well as one person could like another person, I guess.”

They didn’t need to know what the actual status of my relationship with their uncle was.

Did they?

I mean, they didn’t need to know that their uncle gave me butterflies when he walked in the room. Or looked at me. Or I smelled him. Or when I saw his ass in a pair of Wranglers.

Shit.

I flushed and looked away, my eyes going out the kitchen window in hopes that I’d see the Valentine men heading back to the house.

Did I mention how uncomfortable I was around kids?

“What exactly does ‘as well as one person could like another person’ mean?” Bourne asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

He looked like he was enjoying the line of questioning, as well as how uncomfortable I was.

The boys were definitely going to be little killers. Not lady killers. Actual goddamn killers. I could see the dangerous glint in their eyes. They were exactly like their father, down to the way they dressed.

“It means that he’s my neighbor and I like him as a person,” I admitted.

I sat back on the couch and crossed my arms defensively over my chest, wondering if I could just make a run for it.

I was seriously considering it, even cataloging my chances of making it to the door without causing all four of them to pounce on me like rabid dogs.

Finally, I decided to hell with it.

Getting up, I walked across the room and straight out the front door. I didn’t even bother to close it behind me. Just got up out of my chair and left.

Unfortunately, my workout clothes were still slightly damp from my workout and spilling my water over myself, twice. Meaning the moment I got outside into the quickly chilling evening air, I instantly started to shiver.

Taking the steps down from the porch two at a time, I made it to the end of the walk right as Nico pulled back into the driveway in his large black truck.

The truck suited him, I decided.

Dark like his soul… and his kids’ souls.

Ignoring them both, I took a hard right at the first pasture gate and let myself through, closing it securely behind me.

My eyes automatically started scanning for the horses that were usually in this pen, but I decided that Ace or one of the brothers had already gotten them put up for the night.

I made it all the way out of the pen, and to the pasture gate that would lead over to our property. Eventually.

I was glad that Ace had moved Scooby earlier in the week, because that kept me from having to take the long way around.

I got all the way to the first fence, and was about to hop it, when I heard the approaching hoofbeats.

I sighed and turned, knowing before I had visual confirmation that it was Ace.