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An hour later she came out and stood in the doorway. "Mag..."
I grunted in what I thought was a friendly way. The anger had cooled, and I'd been simmering in guilty juices the whole time. She was a sweet girl in a rough situation. She did not deserve my bullshit.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I pushed it."
I sat up and braced my elbows on my knees as I stared at the floor. "Not your fault at all. I apologize for taking my frustration out on you like that."
"I never want to say or do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. You're trying to be honorable, and I'm making it difficult."
"You're not." I alone was torturing myself by selfishly wanting to keep her close and push her away at the same time.
"Still. I want you to know I value you as a person, and I like you a lot. I'm really lucky to have met you, and I don't want to ruin the friendship we're creating."
Jesus, she was sweet. Like to the core good. "You want to be friends with me?"
"Family. Right?" She shrugged and tilted her head. Wren was a much better person than I was in all ways apparent.
"Right."
We remained in companionable silence for a long time. Only the sound of the refrigerator in the kitchen hummed through the room with the occasional click and pop of the fan. Left unsaid between us was the fact that she would not be family if she didn't take Gavin back. What would we do then? Neither one of us was ready to have that conversation.
"Tonight was a lot," she said as she broke the silence.
"You're going through it," I replied.
"So are you."
I chuckled without humor. She was worried about me and my errant brother when she'd just remembered her parents were brutally murdered before her eyes and she'drepressed the memory her entire life. "I've been through a lot of things. This is all new to you."
"Still. Come back to bed. I won't touch you, but it makes me feel safe."
Now that things had cooled down, I felt like I could handle being next to her again, and her eyes said she really needed it. So, I stood up and did what any good brother-in-law would do. I slept with my brother's wife.
Chapter 19 Validity
Wren
"So how are things with Mag?"
I was back at the safe house in Los Angeles after spending the last three days with Magnum in San Diego. It was Valentine's Day, and the magic show was scheduled to start later that evening.
Stella sat opposite me as my hand soaked in bubbly warm water on a small table between us. I'd never had a manicure before, and it seemed extravagant, but she'd insisted we had to do this before getting dressed for the event.
"Good. We've been so busy preparing for tonight that I haven't had much time to stress." Luckily, being with Mag had helped me relax and the skin on my arms had healed enough to wear the sleeveless dress we'd purchased on Rodeo Drive. We'd been lucky enough to find a vintage Versace gown that fit me perfectly. I only hoped I could do it justice tonight.
"What have you guys been doing?" Brandy sat on the bed that was off to the side of the little manicure station Stella had set up outside the bathroom.
At the office, I didn't have a chance to chat with the girls about stuff, so this was nice, and we had privacy. "We went over all the possibilities for tonight. He explained how he'd be wired with a microphone but no gun. The team is pretty sure there will be a lot of people there, and we'll be safe. If we arrive, and there are no other guests, we're not going in."
"Sounds like a plan," Stella said calmly like she did stuff like this all the time.
"If there are other guests, we go in as Gavin and Wren Beaumont. Gavin is a tech guy and we're married. If Kenny asks about the money, Gavin will tell him that we planned to pay him, but our computers and phones were hacked. That way if Gavin did hack him, it makes us look like we were victims too."
"Clever." Stella removed my right hand from the water and plopped my left hand in. She dried my right hand with a towel and began to rub lotion on my fingers.
"We're supposed to be confidently united and appear wealthy. We're trying to send a message that Gavin is in the game now, and we want to form an alliance with Kenny. Mostly, we want him to be intimidated by Gavin so he's less likely to attack me again."
"Should work." Stella took a round stick with an angled end and started pushing my cuticles back.
