I’d arrived yesterday, unpacked my bags in the hotel, and went out.
Searching.
For what, I did not know.
But I’d found it.
“Lilah?”
Abel calling my name meant my eyes moved slowly to his.
He was studying me closely.
“What’s up?” he asked.
We had an audience. It was clear he was tight with these guys. They were family the way I knew family, that meaning they didn’t share blood but they were family all the same.
Still, at that moment, I didn’t feel like sharing the latest bizarre nuance of all that was happening with anyone but Abel.
And maybe not even him.
Yet.
So I answered, “Nothin’.”
Abel gave me a sharp look that would have been scary if he hadn’t vowed never to harm me in a way I believed him, as in believed him. Then I felt relief when he didn’t push it, just nodded his head and looked to his brothers.
“Grab her bags and get her upstairs so I can get my shit done,” he ordered.
“Roundin’ it out,” Xun stated as he moved back to the bags he’d dumped, “Abel’s the oldest. He’s cocky and arrogant and badass and should be a general, not a biker, seein’ as he likes givin’ orders so fuckin’ much.”
“It’s that big of a pain in your ass,” Abel began. “I’ll take her shit upstairs.”
“I’ll take it,” Xun muttered, grabbing the handles.
“I’ll escort the lovely to Ma’s pad,” Wei said from beside me. I looked to him and saw he’d purloined a hunk of cheese from Abel’s fridge and was gnawing at it. He grabbed my hand, lifting it and curling my arm close to the side of his chest.
That was when it happened.
The room filled with something nasty and everyone went wired.
“Don’t touch her.”
This was snarled by Abel and my eyes flew to him.
Wei let me go.
“Brother,” he murmured.
“You touch her only if I tell you to,” Abel growled.
Holy fuck.
“You know you got nothin’—” Wei started.
“Wei.” Abel cut him off. “No reply necessary. Yeah?”
“Right, yeah. Calm, man,” Wei said.
Abel scowled at him, then I watched him take in a deep breath.
His eyes came to me. “No one touches you, Lilah. You got that?”
“I…uh…” I stared at him, noting his seriousness was serious, completely forgot about his vow never to harm me, then finished, “Yeah.”
“Right,” he muttered irately, looked through his brothers and ordered, “Go.”
Apparently unperturbed by Abel’s insanely protective behavior, Chen said, “Ma wants a family lunch in the private room upstairs.”
“She’ll get it, but seein’ as it’s near-on eleven o’clock, I don’t get my ass out to pick up the shit, it might turn into dinner,” Abel replied.
It was nearly eleven o’clock?
Well, I guessed after the last night’s late night, I’d slept in.
“Hi-ho, off we go,” Chen muttered, grinning at me and making me feel slightly better after the latest weirdness that had occurred.
I had never really considered what I wanted in a man. It was strange for a chick not to do this, but I didn’t.
And I didn’t for a number of reasons.
One being that my mom and dad had not had a good relationship, not when they were together in the time I remembered them together, and definitely not after. They fought. They hated each other. And they both let me know that in a way, in and of itself, it was enough to make a girl cautious about deciding to let a man in her life.
Two being that I had other concerns. Getting a job. Setting up an apartment. Buying shit for it. Having fun with my friends. And trying to forget there was something I was missing in my life that I feared I’d never find, and, further, that maybe my mom was right and I was whacked in the head.
The last being I was twenty-nine, and although I was getting to an age where I should think about sorting myself out (seeing as I wanted kids, I just wasn’t sure I wanted a relationship to go with them), I was still young. Mom and Dad got together really early. Dad said straight up that was the biggest mistake of his life, and the only reason he didn’t regret it in a way that would make him bitter forever, was that he got me out of it. He’d told me time and again to live my life, enjoy it, figure out who I was and what I wanted, and only then go out and find it. And when I did, not to settle for anything less.
But if I did consider what I wanted in a man, protectiveness would be one thing that would be high up on the necessary side. My dad was protective. His boys were protective. Even when Mom had custody of me, I had that when I was with my dad as well as when I wasn’t. It was all I knew and that was definitely going to be a part of not settling for anything less.
Though, rabid protectiveness to the point a man wouldn’t even let his brother take my hand was totally OTT.
I thought it best at that juncture to get my ass out of there, so I walked to the door. Chen moved aside as I came his way. I felt Wei and Xun moving in behind me.
Then I heard Abel speak.
“Lilah.”
I stopped and looked his way.
“Later,” he finished.
“Yeah. Later, Abel.”
He held my eyes.
I swallowed and left the room.
The boys and I walked down the hall, up the stairs, and into the alley. This was not something I relished because none of this was welcoming—it was dark and damp, even in the daylight—and also because I was only wearing Abel’s tee and had no shoes on.