I make my way to the door, and just as quick as my feet carry me, Victoria is at my side.

“I didn’t ask you to come with me.”

“I live with you. I don’t need an invitation.”

I spin quick, forcing her back into the doorframe.

“No, but you do need permission,” I snap.

“So give it to me,” she damn near begs, dropping her head to the metal behind it. “I don’t want to be here, don’t need to be if you aren’t. Take me home, Captain.”

The double intent in her tone has my groin heating, but I fight against myself to push it away. It would be so easy to give in, but easy is for pussies and she doesn’t deserve the power of rendering me weak.

In my peripheral, I spot Mike focused on us, so I turn to face him head-on, leaning in close and refusing to inhale her scent.

My fingers stretch wide at her side, and I slowly slide them up her ribs. Finally, his eyes lift from where I’m touching her body, meeting mine.

He’s a bold fuck, holds my gaze for a solid five seconds, before he finally cuts his head away.

I bring my mouth to Victoria’s ear.

“No,” I snap. “You stay, he’s your mess. You think you’re strong enough to be Bray, let’s see it. Make him disappear.” I pull back, glaring down at her. “But touch him, and I’ll shatter his knuckles, he touches you, it’s a bat to the kneecaps.”

Her lips pull to the side, and she pushes against me, causing my frown to deepen.

“You want him gone?” she whispers, leaning in only to slip away in the same second. She cocks her head, walking backward as she gives a single, hard blink. “Handle him yourself. He wouldn’t listen to me anyway, Brayshaw or not, but believe me when I say, Mike? He doesn’t belong here.”

She walks away, and not back where we came from, but out the fucking door and straight for Maddoc’s SUV.

And I’m not sure what I hate more.

How much I like when she fights me or how I crave her submission.

Something’s got to fucking give.

Chapter 8

Captain

“And this one and this one—oh!” Zoey runs to the windowsill, grabbing a small stuffed bear. “This one, too!”

She shoves the three into her backpack, sticking her tongue out as she tries to make them fit enough to zip the thing closed.

I laugh and bend on my knees beside her. “Why don’t we leave some home so you have room for new stuffed animals, huh?”

She gasps, looking to me with a smile, but her eyes quickly fly over my shoulder and she pushes to her feet, running over to my dad as he steps inside the room.

When Zoey cried for Victoria, I’d have sworn my fucking chest plate cracked. The only time I have ever seen her cry that way was when I’d go visit her and my time to leave her behind would come.

So, to see those emotions from her for a girl who doesn’t deserve her attention was hard. If I’m honest, it was the most unsettling experience I have ever fucking had.

A sick, twisted knot formed in my stomach, but I held my ground.

It only lasted a few minutes before she forgot why she was upset and started playing again, but I haven’t been able to erase the picture of her pink, tear-streaked cheeks from my mind.

I look from her to my dad.

“Ready, Zo?” he asks, opening his arms so he can lift her.

She smiles at him. “Yes! I want to see aaaall the animals.” She stretches her arms out as wide as she can. “All of them, k?”

I squint as I stare at my dad.

I’ve never known him to be an emotional guy, the opposite in fact. He was kind and caring with us, sure, but a seriousness always followed.

We were only months old when mine and Royce’s biological dads were murdered, and he took us in, along with our moms, to live with him, his wife, and Maddoc, who was only a couple weeks older than we were.

Our fathers were his best friends, men of Brayshaw, equals at his side as the three of us are now. Their plan was always to have us grow to take their places, so he felt no hesitation when he took us in, and then our mothers were killed.

Murdered by his very own maid, his wife dying right alongside them.

That’s the day he became a father to the three of us, rather than the father figure he planned to be. He’s loved us equally all our lives, but he’s made mistakes as all do.

He took a sentence that wasn’t his to take, in a courthouse he could have paid off with ease but didn’t in order to protect our world and the future he planned for my brothers and me. He gave eleven years of his life, working and connecting with us behind steel walls as Maybell filled the role of mother for us. He’s hidden things he shouldn’t have, the hardest truth for myself being the day I learned the man I thought to be my biological father, wasn’t, even though he saw me as his own.

Despite the bullshit along the way though, we’ve always trusted in our dad, even when he pissed us off. We know his every move made was to protect us in one way or another.

I understand that more than ever now.

The last couple months we’ve gotten to see a side of him we never have or don’t remember. A softer, gentle side that Zoey has drawn from him.

I swear his eyes grow glossy as he looks down at her, and nods. “Okay, Zo. We’ll see all of them.”

She claps her hands and darts out the door. “Uncle Bro! Where are you?”

I smile, stand and hand her pack over to my dad, giving him an extra empty one along with it just in case. “She insists on bringing all this shit.”

He grins but quickly turns sober. “You don’t like having her out of your sight, and you go back to school the day after tomorrow. Should I be concerned?”

I raise a brow. “This is Brayshaw.”

He nods, leading us out of the room. “Of course.”

“We got a tip we’re feeling out, set it up a bit already,” I tell him, looking away. “She can’t be there for that.”

“No she can’t.”

Zoey spots us coming down and starts to run for us but pauses mid-step, going back to Royce to take another bite of his donut.

He laughs, lifting her up, and they follow us outside. “Told you, baby girl, Uncle Bro’s got you covered.”

I grin, shaking my head as I open the back door to our dad’s town car finding Maybell already inside.

Royce sets her down, and she climbs across the seat with a smile.

“Hey, little miss.” Maybell helps her onto her lap. “You ready to go to the zoo?”

“And Papa, too!” She looks back to our dad.

He nods, a softness covering his face. “I’m coming, Zo. Climb in your seat, okay?” He turns to me.

My lips press in a firm line, and I look off.

“There’s nothing wrong with a little girl spending a few hours of fun with two people who love her,” he reassures me. “This is normal.”

“We aren’t normal.”

He laughs, his palm coming down on my shoulder. “The fact that this even makes you pause, says enough. You’ve got her for the rest of your life, you can share her with us from time to time,” he teases.

I hold my grin, dipping my head inside the car. “Miss Maybell.”