Forced Enemy by Stephanie St. Klaire

Author:Stephanie St. Klaire [St. Klaire, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub

15

“I thought I’d find you here,” Ronan said as he entered the Lair.

“Considering there’s a debrief in ten minutes, it wasn’t exactly a stretch, brother. I know this is where we typically throw in the title Captain Obvious, but you’ll forgive me if I’m not feeling punchy.” Ryker didn’t even make eye contact. “Rough couple of days.”

“Then you sit, and…” Ronan looked over Ryker’s shoulder and saw him retracing notes he’d made on a pad. “Doodle. Is that a flower?”

“It’s just some swirls or something. I don’t know what it is,” Ryker said. “What do you want, Ro?”

“I want to talk to you.”

“I don’t feel much like talking.”

“Then I’ll talk, and you listen. I’m the one who has some explaining to do anyway.” Ronan pulled up a chair next to Ryker and straddled it backward. “Listen. I know I let you down. I hurt you.”

“Pfft. Okay.” Ryker tossed his pencil and leaned back in his chair with a rigid stare fixed on his twin brother. “Let me down. Hurt me. This sounds like some of that Hallmark bullshit the women around here watch. Are we going to toss our feelings on the table and hug it out, brother?”

“No. I mean, unless you want to, but that sounds a little weird. I thought we could talk and maybe figure it out. I don’t like being at odds with you.”

“Then maybe you should have thought about that, oh…” Ryker looked up and mouthed the words as he calculated his answer. “I don’t know, at least nine months ago. Do we even know if it’s been nine months? Maybe ten? A year? The divorce was final at least a year ago, probably longer. Did you even wait for the ink to dry, or did you swoop right in? Fuck Trevor. Fuck family. Fuck everyone…especially Daily. You clearly did that.”

“You’ll watch how you speak of her, brother,” Sheridan scolded as she walked into the Lair. “That was out of line, and you know it, Ry. That’s beneath you, and you know better.”

The Lair was the conference room used by the team within their building, Watermark Tower, for business. It was wall-to-wall technology. Screens on all walls, a security cage with multiple servers behind it, and a workstation usually manned by Killion or their cousin Liam that had everything they needed to run the world. Or at least hack it.

“Sorry, sis.” He waved his hand between himself and Ronan. “Having an emotional brotherly moment, and it got the best of me.”

“It’s not me you need to apologize to. Daily isn’t to blame here. Neither is Ro. Only you are responsible for your feelings, Ryker,” Sheridan said, sitting on the table between where they sat. The brothers rarely argued, much less fought, but the tension in the room was thicker than she’d ever seen with the two, and she worried this could escalate to a level they’d never seen.

“So, you’re on his side. This is all my fault,” Ryker said.

“No. Not at all. They certainly carried on, but how you feel or react is on you.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.