Page 155 of Allegiance
He.
Was.
Aware.
It sucked too.
“Oh, I’m definitely freaking out. Why I suddenly have this clarity is also a mystery. If any of you geniuses want to clue me in…”
Zayn bit into an apple that he snagged from the bowl on the counter. Stella kept them in healthy food since she’d taken on the role of house mother.
Because he wasn’t letting her out of the house with a gun—unless he was wearing it. She was carrying his next child, and that wasn’t happening.
Because Dakota was Dakota, he explained.
“Ehh, you were bitchy for one reason and only one reason. You were scared. That’s why you didn’t want kids. No one really dislikes having kids. Well, decent people don’t. You just got freaked out that you’d have to bury them both and that made you act stupid.”
He stared at him.
Sometimes, he forgot that Zayn was pretty smart and astute. He hid behind the big Native act all too much.
“I really don’t like you. Be more like Boone. He sits there and says nothing. We all like Boone for a reason. He doesn’t cause shit.”
The men all laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
Why?
Because Dakota was in the position he was in because Boone had slipped him a Voodoo-y spell bracelet. He wasn’t so innocent.
“What?” Dakota asked.
“Nothing,” Boone said, giving them all a one-eye glare. He’d curse their asses if they opened their mouths and pointed the crazy at him.
No way.
Dakota sensed something off.
He was suspicious on a good day, and today had blindsided the hell out of him.
“No. You’re not telling me something. I’m freaked out, not dumb. I can read a room. What is it that made the chuckle fucks laugh, and you get nervous?”
No one said anything.
“Okay, I’ll go ask Stella because she’ll just tell me. We all know whatever it is, you’ve already told her, Zayn, because you’re a gossipy grandmother.”
Okay.
He had him there.
Instead of arguing, Zayn shrugged. It was time they told him the truth anyway.
“That bracelet got your babe knocked up. Boone put the Voodoo hoo-doo on you-boo-boo.”
Dakota stared down at it.