Easy Charm (Boudreaux 2)

And it sounds like she doesn’t like him much.

“Damn it, I’m off my game tonight,” Eli mutters as he walks away from the table and Beau steps up.

“You’re out of practice,” Beau says mildly.

My eyes are on the game on the TV. Mariners are up, three to one, at the bottom of the sixth.

“I can see if the Cubs are playing,” Beau offers. I simply smile and shake my head.

“No, it’s cool. Are you a Mariners fan?”

“Nah, this was the first game I found,” Ben replies. “Would you like a tour of the house?”

“Are you going to kill me and bury me in the basement?” I ask. Declan snickers and Beau and Eli exchange glances, but Ben’s face remains perfectly calm and sober.

“Not right away,” he replies and then a smile slowly slides over his face.

“Not that that’s terribly reassuring, but sure, I’d love a tour. Your place is beautiful.”

“Thanks.” Ben turns to the brothers, nods, and leads me out of the room.

He’s a man of few words.

“The house was built in 1875,” he begins. “By one of my great-grandfathers.”

“So you inherited it.”

“I did.”

He leads me upstairs and shows me around the first floor, then leads me through the rest of the house. Finally, he gestures for me to follow him outside and to a guest house out back.

He really is going to kill me.

“So, you’re not going to bury me in the basement. You’re going to bury me in the back yard.”

He simply smiles back at me. A cold smile that would make most men’s blood run with ice.

I simply raise a brow and follow him into the building, then whistle at the sight of the exercise equipment and fighting ring. “This is impressive.”

“This is where I find my balance,” he replies quietly. “Look, the other guys might want to kill you, and if you fuck up, I will too, but I just wanted to talk to you alone.”

“Fair enough.” I cross my arms over my chest and wait for the other man to speak. Ben frowns and looks down, then looks back up at me with pure possessiveness.

“I’m sure you’ve already received a few fuck with my sister and I’ll kill you talks.”

I nod, but I don’t smile. It’s not funny.

“So I want to give you mine. Gabby is as much my little sister as she is the others. I’ve known her since the day she came home from the hospital. She’s amazing.”

“No lie.”

The door opens behind me and the other guys walk in.

“We didn’t want you to kill him without us seeing it,” Declan says to Ben calmly. “He’s a big guy. It could be a good show.”

“I want to help,” Eli says.

“You do realize that without me, you and Kate wouldn’t be,” I remind him. “Don’t make me regret encouraging her to forgive you for being an idiot.”

Beau lays on a bench and begins doing bench press.

“As I was saying,” Ben says, glaring at the other guys. “Gabby is important to all of us. She’s sweet, and she has an innocence about her that makes her vulnerable.”

“She’s the strongest person I know,” I reply. She’s not weak.

“She’s been through a lot,” Ben continues. “I wanted to kill the fucker who knocked her up and left her high and dry, but no one would let me.”

“I would have let you,” Beau says. “If I could have helped.”

“I’d like to kill him myself,” I add.

“Let me put it this way,” Ben says as he steps closer to me. I stand my ground, looking him unblinkingly in the eyes. I’ll be damned if he’s going to intimidate me and scare me away. “If you fuck with her and break her heart, I’ll kill you and no one will ever find the body. I may go to jail, but it won’t be because they found your body.”

“I’m not going to hurt her,” I reply and shake my head. “Hurting her is the farthest thing from my mind. I love her, for fuck sake.”

I push my hands through my hair and pace. “Why does everyone always assume that I’ll break her heart?”

“Because you’re not permanent,” Declan replies. “You’re here for a while, but then you’re leaving again, and Gabby’s home is here.”

“I am gone a lot for my job,” I agree. “But that doesn’t mean that Gabby and Sam can’t join me in the summer sometimes, or that I can’t make New Orleans my home base.”

“You’d do that?” Beau asks, not looking convinced. “You’d uproot your life for her?”

“I’d do anything for her,” I reply honestly. “She is all that matters.”

“There’s Sam too,” Eli says. “They are a package deal.”

“Absolutely. Jesus, do you all think I’m such an asshole that I don’t know that Sam is, and will always be, a part of it?”

“We don’t think you’re an asshole,” Declan says. “We’ve seen the way you look at Gabby, the way you treat both of them, and if we thought it was with anything less than love and kindness, we’d have killed you already.”

“But kids complicate relationships,” Ben says. “People put up with someone’s kid for a while, and then get tired of them.”

Now I’m just getting pissed.

“Those people are assholes,” I reply coldly. “Sam is a great boy. He’s smart and loving, and I love having him around. He’s not an add-on or something for me to tolerate.”