Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(22)

Cam scowled. “You’re gonna play it like that? I’ve never known you to shuck your responsibility.”

“And I’m not now. I’m telling you she can’t be pregnant because we’ve never f*cked, all right?”

“What about earlier tonight?” Greer asked softly, finally breaking his silence.

Jesus. Could this conversation get any more uncomfortable? “It was a blow job. Now can we drop this?”

A murmur of awkward agreement went around the room, and the five of them sat in brooding silence for several minutes.

Cam scrubbed his hands over his head. “Just…why?”

Now came the tricky part. How did he explain the marriage without divulging the blackmail and the potential for Wilde Security’s financial ruin?

Reece met his brother’s gaze. “Cam, you know me. You know I always have a reason, and you just have to trust that I know exactly what I’m doing. Like I said, it’s a business arrangement, and when I can tell you the whys of it, I will. But until then, I need you all to play it like we’re really married.”

“You are legally married?” Greer asked.

“Yes, we are. But for the sake of appearances, it needs to look like more than the business arrangement it is. It needs to look real.”

Cam paced away. “This is so f*cked up.” He stood in front of the windows for a moment. Then with a shake of his head, he spun back to face the group. He held up a finger in warning. “Don’t hurt her, Reece. You hurt her, you’ll hurt Eva, and then we’re gonna have problems.”

If anyone was going to get hurt in this whole f*cked up situation, he had a feeling it’d be him—but he wasn’t about to say that to his brothers. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

The room settled into another uneasy silence.

Finally, Jude held up the beer in a mock toast. “Let’s all just take a moment here to appreciate the fact that I am no longer the family f*ckup.”

A chorus of groans rang out, and Vaughn smacked him upside the head.

Even Greer cracked a small smile. “Nobody can take that hard-won title from you, little brother.”

Jude shrugged. “But you gotta admit, Reece is doing a damn fine job of trying. And Vaughn’s not far behind. Hell, Greer, even you’ve been in the running lately. A distant third, but still third place. I should have trophies made up.”

More groans. And just like that, everything was normal again. Reece had to admire Jude’s ability to break the tension in any situation. For the longest time he’d thought his youngest brother was little more than the family clown—annoying, somewhat scatterbrained, and all but useless during a crisis. He’d been wrong. Jude wasn’t an idiot, and he wielded his sharp wit like a weapon, but also knew how to use humor as a kind of glue to bring the five of them back together after a fight. It was a respectable talent, one not many people had.

Shelby had that same talent, he realized with a jolt of surprise. But somehow he doubted she was using it now over in Cam and Eva’s suite. If anything, Libby was playing the peacemaker between the sisters. And for some idiotic reason, he wanted to walk over there and stand in front of Shelby, use himself like a human shield to keep away all the hurtful things Eva was probably saying. The kinds of things he knew too well because he’d said them enough times to Jude over the years.

He watched his youngest brother mercilessly poke fun at Greer, who sat there and took it with a half amused, half exasperated expression on his hard face. It was like watching a grizzly bear patiently enduring the antics of a rambunctious cub.

Reece had never been patient when it came to Jude. Still wasn’t, although he was working on it. And he’d already apologized for it, but…

Suddenly, it didn’t seem enough.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Jude’s right. I f*cked up.”

And there went the moment of levity. If Jude’s superpower was humor, then he must be the villain of this story, the anti-Jude, sucking the funny out of everything.

The room went silent again.

“Well,” Cam said after an uncomfortable amount of time. “I’d better go make sure the girls aren’t killing one another. Reece, you should probably stay out of Eva’s way for…ah, the next decade or so.”

“Unless you want to be KO’d again,” Jude said. “She knocked you flat.”

“Yeah, man, what happened to all those black belts you have?” Vaughn asked.

“I don’t hit women.” Unless it was his open hand on Shelby’s gorgeously heart-shaped ass.

And, f*ck, that was not an appropriate thought, given the circumstances.

Vaughn grunted. “You could have subdued her.”

Yes, he could have, but he’d deserved the punch for the way he’d spoken to Shelby in the limo. He was an *.

And he owed her an apology.

Reece knew when he was being avoided, and Shelby had gone into full-blown avoidance mode since the disastrous announcement of their marriage to the family. He’d tried to corner her in the casino, and again during a tense dinner with the family, but she always managed to escape before he could talk to her.

This marriage scheme wasn’t going to work if she kept avoiding him.

But now, as they boarded the plane back to D.C., she wasn’t going to have a choice but to talk to him.