Cease Fire (Blackbridge Security 9)

Brooks holds his hands up in surrender. “What I’m saying is, the woman is hot.”

“I don’t think this is the time—”

Brooks looks to Deacon, stopping him from continuing. “The woman is a smoke show and there were ample chances for her to invite someone else to her room. There weren’t many guys there that would turn her down. She didn’t even flirt with any of them that I saw. When I looked at Jules, she was looking at you.”

“Okay,” I say. “I can accept that, I guess.”

My heart beats a little faster. I guess being picked by her makes me feel better, but it doesn’t help with the lies.

“But you’re still fucked up about it,” Jude says.

“Yeah.”

“It’s a fucked-up situation to be in,” Quinten agrees.

“How would you feel if you didn’t hook up with her at the wedding?” Wren asks. “What would you be going through right now if you found out she purposely got pregnant by someone else?”

I shake my head, refusing to even think about that shit.

“Exactly,” Wren says as if not answering was an answer itself.

“You’d be devastated,” Brooks says, emotion clogging his throat. “I know it for a fact because I saw how you looked when I lied and said it was my baby.”

He’s absolutely right. I would’ve probably gone off the deep end. I was halfway there by the time I found out the truth, and it had been mere hours since she walked into Blackbridge Security.

“Why did you lie for her?” Gaige asks.

All eyes go to my best friend, but Brooks shrugs, lifting his glass to his lips before answering.

“She seemed desperate. I wanted to know the details before I outed her.”

It seems like a plausible reason, but I know there has to be more, and I want to kick myself for not questioning his reasoning before.

The bottle of whiskey clinks on the top of my glass as Jude pours more in.

“Thanks, man.”

He nods, resting the bottle back in his lap.

“I say you cool off for a few days and then see where your head is at,” Deacon suggests.

“She has two days,” I remind him.

He gives me a sad look, his head shaking slightly. “That may not be enough time.”

“It has to be,” I say stubbornly. “I’m tired of the lies.”

Brooks grunts in agreement.

“Would the truth hurt more?” Finnegan asks.

I huff and glare at the redhead. “It would hurt her more, or at least she thinks it will.”

“And you want her to hurt?” he challenges.

I frown.

“You can’t imagine her hurting can you? That’s because you love her,” Deacon says.

I don’t deny it. Brooks has teased me enough about Jules in front of these guys, I’m sure they thought I loved her the way I do now this entire time.

I clench my jaw and take another sip of whiskey at thinking of those emotions in the present tense. I was able to make everything in the past tense when I was confronting Jules, but it seems the alcohol isn’t leaving room for the distinction right now.

“This is not the support I was thinking of when I saw you all sitting in here,” I mutter.

“You want us to bullshit you?” Wren asks. “I might have more than a year ago before I met Whitney, but now that I know what true love is, I just can’t bring myself to do it.”

A round of grunts from the men in love echo throughout the room.

“I don’t think Jules is capable of real love,” I mutter, frowning when lifting my glass to my lips only to discover the glass empty.

I look to Jude, but the bottle of whiskey has somehow disappeared.

“I think you may be wrong,” Brooks says.

“How can you say that? You were there when she lied so easily to my family earlier tonight.”

“And you didn’t see her cry the entire drive over. This isn’t easy for her. She hates that she’s putting you through this.”

I shake my head. I can’t let insidious thoughts like that grow inside of me.

“Can’t you all just hate her with me?”

“We could,” Deacon says. “If you hated her, I think we could, too, but you don’t hate her.”

“You’re disappointed in her,” Quinten says.

“And those aren’t the same things,” Flynn offers.

“I’m pretty pissed with her,” Ignacio says. “Lies about kids are fucked up.”

“I agree,” Wren says. “But maybe look at it from her perspective. She wanted your baby, and to get that, she had to betray Beth.”

“I’m still not sold on it being a betrayal to Beth. You’re both fucking grown,” Quinten mutters.

“You have to understand that Jules has no one else but the Riggs’s family. In her mind, breaking that promise means losing all of that,” Brooks says.

“Then get pregnant by someone else,” Ignacio hisses, getting fired up because of his own past trauma.

I have to bite my lips to keep from jumping in to defend Jules.