Chapter 114

“No, Iris,” Christian says, grabbing my arms and pulling me back, smiling and shaking his head at me. “Did you seriously not know?”

“Know what?” I ask, going still.

“Iris, I had it so bad for you –“ he says, laughing sheepishly, shaking his head like it’s incredible. “I had the world’s biggest crush – I was so obsessed with you –“

“You were!?” I squeak, shocked breathless. I gape at him, disbelieving.

He nods vehemently. “You were so pretty, and so sweet –“

I burst into embarrassed laughter, tucking my face against his chest again, my toes curling with joy.

“I did everything I could to see you all the time,” he murmurs, wrapping his arms around me and holding me close. “I was like, obsessed – I always had to make Damon let you hang out with us, but it was so hard not letting him figure it out –“

“Wait, why couldn’t he know!?” I gasp, looking up at him.

“Because, then he definitely wouldn’t have let me hang out with you! No one wants to be a third wheel to their best friend and their sister.”

“Well then why did you date those other girls!? In middle school!?”

“I don’t know, Iris,” Christian moans. “Because it was middle school, and that’s what was…done. I don’t know – please don’t push too hard on that. But my heart, the whole time, was with you – even though my friendship with Damon meant it was like, completely forbidden.”

I laugh a little, shaking my head at him. “I never knew,” I whisper. “I was so heartbroken thinking that you didn’t, Chris.”

“Then I did my job keeping it a secret,” he murmurs, turning his hand backwards and letting his knuckles drift down my cheek. “I couldn’t get enough of you, though.”

“We were just kids,” I whisper.

“We were,” he says, nodding, agreeing utterly. “It was…very sweet, very innocent. I didn’t know what it meant – I just knew…that I thought you were the best person I’d ever met. I loved you very sincerely, Iris, even if I didn’t know what it meant to feel that way.”

My heart fills almost to bursting, thinking of my sweet Christian – my best friend – loving me as a child.

Slowly, I dip my head and press a gentle kiss to his chest. “I loved you too, Chris.”

Christian wraps his arms around me and turns again in the bed, again taking me with him and pulling me up so that we’re face to face, nose-to-nose almost, on the pillow. He smiles at me, sweet and handsome, and I lean forward, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“Iris,” he murmurs, looking at me seriously. “I still –“

But I never find out what he was going to say.

Because before he can finish the words, we both sit up stark straight in bed, looking towards the front door.

Where we hear the crunch of tires on the gravel in the driveway.

“Get dressed,” Christian snaps, jumping naked out of the bed and moving steadily for the door, reaching on top of a wardrobe on the way and grabbing something from the top.

I’m already grabbing my dress from yesterday, working to turn it right-way round, when I gasp and go completely still –

Because Christian has a fucking gun in his hands.

“Put that down!” I shriek, instantly terrified.

“What?” he snaps, looking around at me, confused. But when he sees the direction of my gaze he just rolls his eyes. “You’re going to have to get a lot more comfortable with guns, Iris, if you’re going to be part of this world.”

“No one outlined that in the bargain!” I squeak.

“Dressed!” he barks, peering again out the door. “Now!”

I scowl and do as I’m told, my hands shaking a little as I wrap the dress around my back and hastily start to do up the buttons. My head flies up, though, when Christian groans, his shoulders going slack.

“What?” I whisper.

“It’s just Nico,” he says, glancing back at me. Then he waves the gun at me, making me shriek and cover my head. “Keep getting dressed, Iris!”

“Put that down!”

“It’s fine –“

“Put it down!” I shout.

“Oh my god,” he mutters, striding back to the wardrobe and placing the gun back on top of it before reading for his underwear, piled on the floor. “We have about five seconds before they find us in here naked, Iris –“

“They?” I gasp, luckily doing up the last of my buttons as Christian hastily sits on the bed, pulling his underwear on. I throw his pants at him from their spot at the edge of the bed.

“They,” he says, his voice tight. “I think I saw Frankie too.”

“Oh my god,” I whisper, my mind racing. Frankie – how did they get him out of Romano’s custody? And – and didn’t Nico say that it was going to take until tonight for him to get back here untraced?

Why on earth are they back so early?

I stumble off of the bed, grabbing my sweatshirt off the floor and starting to tug it on. But it’s too late – before I can get it over my head I hear the front door open.

Christian curses lightly, striding to a dresser and pulling out a black t-shirt, tugging it hastily on as I pull my sweatshirt down over my chest.

When I spin to the bedroom door, though, they’re already there.

Nico smirks, leaning against the doorframe, and Frankie just stands behind him, looking at me with wide eyes and raised brows. His gaze immediately flicks over my sleep-mussed hair, and my hastily buttoned dress, my bare legs, and then down to where my panties are still laying on the bedroom floor.

Hastily, I kick them under the bed – but it doesn’t hide anything.

There’s no time to think about the implications of any of it, though, because the true surprise is the other two people in the doorway, staring at us. One of whom I know a little bit more than the other.

Due to our mutual trauma.

“Bambi?” Lucy says, her eyes going wide as she looks between Christian and me. “What…what are you doing here?”

“Hey, Lucy,” I say, giving her an awkward smile and an even more awkward wave. “Um…” I hesitate, not knowing what to say, my eyes flicking to Christian as he hastily crosses to my side, his face shocked.

“Tony?” Christian says, gaping at his youngest brother. Then his face darkens as he steps in front of me, as if guarding me. “What the fuck are you doing here!?”

“Easy, tiger,” Nico says, smirking and crossing his arms, keeping his gaze steadily on Christian. “He comes in peace.”

Christian storms forward and Lucy’s eyes go wide as she hastily steps out of the way – probably a good choice, considering that Christian instantly grabs her fiancé by the arm and gives Nico a hearty shove, pushing him back into Frankie. The four boys burst into angry whispers.

Though honestly, I’m not sure why they’re even being quiet. It’s not like Lucy and I can’t hear everything anyway in this tiny house.

Lucy steps quickly to my side, grimacing a little. “Sorry,” she whispers, leaning close so her shoulder bumps familiarly against mine. “I didn’t…know this was going to cause such trouble.”

“Nico knew,” I say, a little dry, sending him a little glare that he doesn’t catch. “He pretends he’s so stoic, but he loves a dramatic entrance.”

She laughs a little, grinning at me like she really thinks I’m funny. I smile back at her, unable to help it. Lucy – she really is cool, isn’t she?

“Um, my real name is Iris,” I say quietly, giving her an apologetic shrug.

“Oh!” she says, her eyebrows going up as she nods. “Okay, yeah, Nico said you’d be here. I just…never put it together that that was…you.”

“Yeah, my identity was kind of a secret or something,” I say, grimacing a little as I tuck my hair awkwardly behind my ear. “But, cat’s out of the bag now.”

“Cool,” she says, giving a shrug. Then she quickly glance around the room, taking in the very obvious evidence of what happened last night, before nodding back over to the boys. “So, are you like…my new sister-in-law?” She looks at me hopefully.

I blush a deep red and laugh a little, shaking my head and shrugging, because while last night was important for us...

I mean, honestly, I have no idea what it really means. We didn’t get there yet, in our conversation, before we were so abruptly interrupted.

“Oh, well, as-yet undecided then,” she says, grinning and wrapping an arm around my waist, tugging me back towards the door. “Come on, let’s make some coffee – I’m dying for some caffeine after sleeping in the car all night. Do you have any?”

“Coffee we’ve got,” I say, grinning at her, grateful for her deft change in subject. “Croissant, too.”

“Amazing,” she breathes happily, walking confidently to the boys and shoving through them, calling out to make way for the ladies.

To my shock, the boys part like the Red Sea, letting us pass through even as they continue their argument. Lucy and I scurry by, headed into the kitchen to make coffee while we wait for the drama of their arrival to sort itself out.