“That’s all sweet and shit, but I’m not done with you, Cutter,” Shane bit out. I turned to face my brother, finally getting to put my body between Devlin and the murderous rage still burning in my brother’s eyes.
Drake had Zander by the shirt again and stopped beside Shane before pushing Zander toward me. I caught his arm to steady him, not wanting him to fall. The blood coming from his nose and the way his eye was swelling told me that Drake had gotten in a few good hits. “So you love that one.” Drake nodded his head at Devlin. “But what about this one? Do you forgive him?”
“Yeah, of course I do.” I patted Zander on the arm but Devlin made a growling sound and pulled my hand away. I rolled my eyes at him before turning back to the angry Stevenson men standing like angels of death in front of us. “Look, this was exactly what I didn’t want. For you two to get pissed off and start throwing your fists around. That’s why I asked Emmie not to say anything…” I broke off when my brothers’ eyes widened and they turned their glare on Emmie.
Emmie grimaced, but didn’t back down under the force of their matching glares.
“You knew all about this, didn’t you?” Drake demanded.
“How could you not tell us, Em?” Shane sounded hurt.
Emmie stepped forward, putting herself between me and the two big, beautiful Demons that were my brothers. “Because when you accepted Natalie and Jenna back into your lives, I accepted them both as part of our family. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but when she asked me to keep her confidence I didn’t hesitate. I love her just as much as anyone else in our family. If either of you had asked me to keep something like that from her, I would have. I can’t pick and choose whom I’m going to be loyal to. It was hard not telling you, but I’d do it again if I she asked me to.”
Her answer didn’t do anything to soften the hardness of Shane and Drake’s faces but it made me feel loved. I knew that Emmie cared about me, but I’d always thought that she’d kept the bet a secret because I worked for her and didn’t want Drake and Shane to do anything stupid any more than I had. Not because she considered me family. That she loved me that much, to chance having two of the men who had basically dedicated their lives to watching over her pissed off at her, warmed me more than I could possibly ever tell her. When they didn’t say anything, just stood there glaring at her, she let out a pained sigh and moved out of the way. It wasn’t often that any of the Demons were upset with Emmie.
Harper pushed through the crowd that had surrounded us so that she could reach Shane. Without hesitating she put her hand on his arm. That one touch seemed to calm my brother more than anything else ever could. He looked down at her, his rage fading as those blue-gray eyes identical to my own filled with love. “You got to do your brotherly duty. You punched him, and he let you. That takes guts. She says she loves him, and from the way he’s looking at her like some love-struck fool, the feeling is mutual.”
I gasped at her description of the way Devlin was looking at me and turned to see if it was true. His eyes were bright, his lips tilted upward in a smile even though they were bleeding. Was that the look of a man in love? Glancing back at Shane and seeing the same look on his face, I realized that, yeah, it definitely was.
Swallowing hard, I tried not to look at Devlin again. I couldn’t yet. Realizing that the man I loved also loved me back was something that I wanted to process alone. Not here in front of everyone I had to deal with on a daily basis for another two months.
Harper cupped Shane’s jaw in her hand and gave him a soft smile. “Let it go, baby. Your job is done.”
Shane blew out a long sigh, kissed his wife hungrily for a moment and then turned to glare at Devlin over my head. “You’d better be good to my sister, fucker.”
Beside Drake, Lana wrapped her arms around his waist as much as she could with her baby bump. She didn’t say anything, but nudged him with her elbow. He brushed a kiss over her brow, pulling her as close as she could possible get. His glare wasn’t nearly as harsh as Shane’s was. “If you hurt her again I will destroy you.” He turned the glare on Zander. “Both of you.”
Zander raised his hands. “Lesson learned, dude. Lesson learned.”
I felt Devlin’s fingers stroking over my short hair, but still couldn’t look at him. Soon, I promised my pounding heart. Soon I would look at him and deal with the fullness that had invaded my heart with the knowledge that he loved me. When Devlin spoke, his voice was rough and raspy. “I can’t promise not to make her cry again, but I can swear on my soul to never hurt her.”
Shane and Drake absorbed their answers for a moment and then the rest of their anger seemed to evaporate before my eyes. Shane stuck his hand out first, and soon so did Drake. That it was my brothers making the first move warmed my heart further. They loved me, unconditionally, and were willing to put their own anger aside to make me happy. Zander shook Drake’s hand first, then Shane’s. Devlin lowered his hand from my hair to my waist and stepped forward to shake their hands.
I breathed a sigh of relief that it was all over and that no one had been left broken, even if there had been some bloodshed. I would gladly thank all of Emmie’s gods that no one needed medical attention.
Around us everyone was losing interest since the fight was over and the Stevenson brothers were once again calm. The show was officially over when Lana whispered something close to Drake’s ear and his eyes darkened. He nodded his head at the two men standing beside me then lifted his wife into his arms as if she weighed nothing at all. Shane bent his head to kiss Harper again before giving me a long look that told me loud and clear how much he loved me, and then walked off toward his bus.
Zander’s shoulders sagged in relief as he watched Nik and Jesse give smirks before turning away. “Damn, my face hurts.” He touched his nose, then his eye. “Three punches and he hurt me almost as bad as you did in ten minutes, Dev.”
Devlin touched his free hand to his lips, grimacing in pain when he touched the swelling corner. “Yeah, I was pretty glad when Shane stopped.” He met Zander’s gaze and I thought I could actually see the lingering anger those two men had for each other fade just as quickly as Drake’s and Shane’s anger had just minutes ago. Zander was the one who offered his hand this time.
Devlin didn’t hesitate to shake it. “Friends?”