The Fight In Us: A Brother's Best Friend College Romance (The Four Book 4) Becca Steele (speld decodable readers .TXT) 📖

“Do you think he’s the one bringing the dogs in?”

West shrugged. “It seems like it.”

“What about Thom?” My eyes focused on that one word, typed in bold with a load of question marks next to it.

“I don’t know.” He heaved a sigh, dragging me back against him at the same time. “He was mentioned in that message from Martin Smith’s phone, wasn’t he?”

I nodded, thinking back to the messages and what we knew of the guys already.

“Do you think he could be the guy in the hood that was collecting the bets at the fight?” I wondered aloud.

“Could be. That was my first thought, but fuck knows. There are a lot of people involved in this shit.”

“That’s true.” We both stared at the screen, Weston’s head leaning on my shoulder while he navigated through the data.

“See that?” He opened up a record of import. “Fits with the date that was mentioned in that email, remember?”

“This looks cosy.”

An overly loud voice sounded from behind us, and I felt rather than heard Weston’s sigh in my ear. He spun us around lazily, until we were both facing my brother.

The expression on Cassius’ face…I couldn’t read it. It was like he was happy, and not happy at the same time. Like he didn’t know whether to be pleased with us or not.

“You wanna see my list?” Weston offered, and Cassius blinked, then nodded.

“Yeah, mate. Show me what you got.”

“Is breakfast ready?” My stomach suddenly decided to make itself known.

“Almost. I left Z in charge.” Cassius flashed me a smile, and I climbed off Weston, needing to leave them alone.

“I’m gonna keep an eye on him.” I escaped the room and made my way to the kitchen, where Caiden and Zayde were finishing up the food prep while Winter and Kinslee set everything out on the table.

“What can I do to help?”

It was Caiden who answered me. “Get the salt and pepper.”

After I did that, I slid into a seat on the left side of the table. “Breakfast is a big deal here, huh?” I stared at the spread laid out in front of me.

“Yep.” My brother had re-entered the room with Weston, and he took over from Zayde, dishing out the eggs onto everyone’s plates. “Take a seat.”

“I already did.”

He rolled his eyes in response, concentrating on dishing out the food. My attention focused on Kinslee. She barely paid attention to West, and I relaxed against my chair.

“What do you think, Kins?” Cassius spoke, turning my attention back to her unwillingly. She shrugged, her eyes dancing, amused by whatever my brother had said when I wasn’t paying attention.

“I have no idea,” she drawled. “I’ll let you decide.”

Because I was clearly a masochist, I slid out of my chair and spoke in Kinslee’s ear. “Do you want to come to Cassius’ birthday lunch?”

Her eyes met mine, all wide, amber pools, fringed by heavy black lashes. Why did she have to be so fucking pretty? And why the fuck did I even care? This stupid, irrational jealousy over Weston needed to go away. Now. “I’d like that.” Her eyes narrowed. “If you’re okay with it.”

Apparently, I was way too easy to read.

“I’m fine with that.”

She gave me a knowing look. “Lena.”

“What.”

Her voice lowered so it was barely above a whisper. She scooped food onto her fork with one hand, while still focusing on me.

“Weston never looked at me the way he looks at you.”

I didn’t know I needed to hear those words until she said them.

Something inside me settled, and I smiled at her for real.

THIRTY-FIVE

After breakfast, Winter decided that she wanted to hang out with me and Kinslee while the boys played football. It was raining hard outside, so our options were limited.

“What about Skirmish?” I named the huge warehouse-style place owned by Credence Pope, aka Creed, that offered everything from archery to paintballing.

“Let’s do it. I wanna improve my knife-throwing skills.”

Winter’s enthusiasm caught me off guard, and I looked to Kinslee, who shrugged. “I’m good with that, if you can book us a slot with short notice.”

After a quick call to the centre, we booked one of the throwing ranges, which allowed up to eight people at once.

“Should we invite someone else? Make it an even number?” Winter suggested to me. “Why don’t you invite one of your friends from Alstone High? It’s time I got to know them, really. Especially since I have a feeling that you’re going to be spending a lot more time around here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?

“West.” She coughed into her hand, and I rolled my eyes as Kinslee laughed.

“So subtle.”

One more phone call later, and we were on our way to Skirmish, stopping to pick up Raine on the way. After her initial shyness, Raine was coaxed into a conversation with us about her clothing designs. I happened to mention the leggings she’d designed for me, and by the time we’d pulled into the Skirmish car park, she’d agreed to design a pair for both Winter and Kinslee.

Inside, we were shown to the throwing range and took up position. The others made me go first, supposedly so I could give the rest of them tips. Raine wasn’t bad, for a beginner, and soon we were all involved in the game, trying to be the first to hit the centre.

While Raine and Kinslee took their turns, Winter sidled up to me. “I’ve been meaning to speak to you. What’s going on now with you and West?”

I sank to the floor of the range, leaning my head back against the wall, and she took a seat next to me. Stretching my legs out in front of me, I thought for a minute. “We both agreed to take a step back. Mostly to give Cass a chance to cool off, and…” My voice lowered. “I wanted him to make sure that this was what he wanted. If this was worth it. If I was worth it,