“Yeah,” she whispered. “I’ll get him. You distract him.”
Derek’s eyes narrowed on us.
“What are y’all whispering about over there?” he asked, tensing.
I moved forward, feeling Katy’s arm drop from around my shoulders, and walked right up to my brother.
Katy gave it a few seconds before moving, too.
“Derek,” I said. “Does my head make me look like a boy?”
Logan choked behind me on the swallow of coffee he’d just partaken in.
Derek looked panicked for a few seconds as he said, “No.”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I took his hand. “Feel how soft my head is.”
Derek allowed me to take his hand and rub it along my head.
“It feels like a hairless cat,” he said.
I frowned. “What does a hairless cat feel like?” I asked. “And why do you know what one feels like?”
Katy snuck around to his other side while I had him distracted.
“Puppy, monkey, baby!”
I watched out of the corner of my eye as she leaned down, then licked him on his face, across his cheek, over his eye, all the way to his forehead.
Derek reacted instantly, but since I still had his hand and was holding on for dear life, Katy was able to get away and hide behind Logan before he’d even made it out of his seat.
That was how I made my mistake.
I should’ve run while he was distracted.
But I’d forgotten how fast Derek had gotten.
When we used to do this, he’d been a gangly teenager with poor reaction time.
Now? Well, now he was a badass ninja who could do things that I couldn’t imagine.
Just as I took a step back, Derek’s hand locked on my wrist and pulled me toward him.
Despite fighting as hard as I possibly could, his strength was just way too much for me to ever put up a solid fight against.
“Noooo!” I cried out. “Save me, Katy!”
Katy was too busy laughing her ass off hanging onto Logan to do anything.
My mother just watched, unaffected, as chaos ensued in her kitchen.
“Daddy!” I yelled. “Help!”
My dad, who was on the back porch talking on the phone, flicked his gaze over his shoulder.
He took one glance and then turned back around as if my imminent death didn’t affect him in the least.
“Daddyyyyyy!” I cried again as Derek finally got his arms around me and was pulling me in. “Help, Daddy! You told me you would always be there!”
By this point I was screeching.
“Don’t you dare, Derek Dammit!” I burst out when he started heading toward the back yard.
“Don’t I dare do what?” Derek asked as he transferred my entire body weight to one arm and reached for the doorknob.
I fought harder, knowing where this was going, kicking, screaming, and biting.
“Oowww!” Derek said when I bit him on the forearm. “That hurt!”
Yet he still didn’t let me go.
And when I went to bite him again, he took that moment to yank the door open and start running.
“Daddy!” I cried out again. “Please! I’ll buy you a cookie!”
Dad watched, dispassionate, as Derek carried me to the edge of the pool.
“You throw me in here, Derek Dammit, and I’ll…”
I hit the water with a rush.
And the water that was cold—so fucking cold—year-round.
I froze my ass off as I sank like a stone to the bottom of the pool.
I stayed there for what felt like forever, until I couldn’t possibly hold my breath anymore.
By the time I breached the surface, there was a very worried looking man gazing into the pool at me.
The moment I gasped in a breath and opened my eyes, I found Dax’s panicked eyes looking into mine.
“I thought I was going to have to jump in there after you,” he said, sounding winded.
I grinned.
“Rowen used to swim in high school,” Dad said as he pocketed his phone. “She’s got a hell of a gift for holding her breath, too.”
I looked back at Dax to see him holding his hand out for me.
I took it, gasping when he lifted me out in one swift move.
One second I was in the pool, and the next I was standing beside the strong man with my clothes sopping wet.
“What did you do to your brother?” Dad asked.
I saw my brother on the deck talking to Logan and Katy.
Katy was still hiding behind Logan as if that would save her.
It would… for now.
“Excuse me,” I said as I swept past Dax and my father.
Dax moved to the side so I wouldn’t get him wet, and I grinned.
I wasn’t grinning at Dax, though.
I was grinning at what I was about to do.
Which I did in the next second.
With Derek’s back to me, he hadn’t seen me coming in time.
By the time he had noticed, I was already wrapped around him, soaking him.
“Fuuuuck!” Derek said as he tried to get me off.
“You ready?” Luke asked Dax, his voice sounding unperturbed and used to the chaos of the household around him.