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The music gets louder and louder until I have no choice but to fling back the covers, angrily kick them off my legs and launch myself at Vic, knocking him on his ass, both of us sprawled on the floor. Not that it stops that infernal song. When I hit Vic square on, it knocked the phone from his hand. Now Chris and Dom have taken over singing backup vocals.
“Um, I heard a ruckus. Are you all OK?”
Our heads snap to the doorway, Lovely chewing her lip, shuffling from side to side, her floor length blue dress with lace collar swishing as she moves. Chris stops GnR and Vic and I get up off the floor and act like we’re normal people. Well, as normal as we all can be. Especially when I’m braless in a butt ugly oversized tee with my mom panties on. The big ones.
“Oh hey, sorry, when Blanche is here we like to wake her up with GnR’s Patience,” Chris grins at her.
Her eyes dart around a moment before she clears her throat. “Why?”
“Didn’t she tell you?” A grin starts to grow on Vic’s face, so I punch him in the shoulder, not even rocking the big jerk. “Her real name is Patience. Which is an absolute joke because she doesn’t have any - hey!” Vic yells when I charlie horse him and then leap back onto the bed to escape retaliation.
“Oh. Um, yeah, Patience, doesn’t really quite suit you I guess.” Lovely realizes what she says and turns bright red.
“Got that right,” Dom snorts. “Let’s head down for breakfast and we can come up with a plan. What do you say, new little sis?”
Lovely’s face brightens, and she beams at our brothers while I take in the scene. Jesus, our father’s genes are strong. All of Mercy’s offspring have thick black hair with not a kink to be found. All of us have his dark eyes and pointed chin. All of us are solidly built. Obviously, it looks better on the boys, who at around 6 ft pull it off. Unfortunately for Mercy’s daughters, the tallest tops out at around 5’5, making us short and sturdy.
“Get eyes for Christmas,Patience?” Dom asks with a smirk and then runs out of the room, the other two following behind him, cackling like loons.
“You know, people outside of the Keep are not at all like I imagined,” Lovely says, a smile playing on her lips before shaking her head wistfully before she too follows them downstairs.
Flopping back on my bed, I check my phone messages to make sure that everything is all good at home. Niko sends me a pic of the little kids dressed and ready for school and I blink my eyes to clear the tears. I know in my head I should be there with them, but in my heart I know what I do, saving people like Lovely, is important. My kids understand that sometimes mommy needs to help people, but sometimes mommy feels guilty about that.
A message from Niko vibrates the phone in my hand. I glance at it and then bark out a laugh.
We’re fine. Stop being a pussy, suck it up, and get back to work.
Following my eldest’s orders, I throw on some clothes and head downstairs to find Lovely holding her baby, staring as our brothers work together to make pancakes and bacon.
“You good?” I ask as I plop down at the table beside her.
“It’s like watching three unicorns. I’ve never seen men in the kitchen before,” she whispers back in awe.
“We kinda had to learn when Blanche refused to feed us anymore,” Vic shrugs.
Lovely turns to me, wide-eyed. “Why would you refuse to feed them?”
The boys snort before Chris answers her. “When the Prophet banished us, we had nowhere to go, but we wrangled a ride from a car salesman relocating a vehicle. He dropped us off at the diner here, and the first person we met was a tough old lady named Blanche. After we found jobs, we ate all our meals at the diner.”
“Until Blanche kicked us out, telling us she didn’t want us to die of heart attacks in her diner. After that, we had to learn to feed ourselves,” Dom finishes.
Lovely’s eyes bounce around as the boys continue cooking and finishing each other’s sentences.
“Um, why were you banished?” Lovely asks, then realizing she asked something that could be misconstrued as overly personal, she lowers her gaze, head down.
“Hey, you can ask us anything you like. We’re family, remember?” Vic says gently, waiting for Lovely to raise her head and look at him before smiling at her.
“Lovely, have you ever noticed that the men with the largest number of wives are all old fuckers?” Dom asks as he scrambles the eggs in the pan he’s manning.
Lovely’s brows pinch before she nods. “That’s because they’re the council members, remember?”
“Or, stay with me sis, they are making up the rules. The men with the most power get the women, the others get what they are given, which don’t get me wrong, a lovely, willing wife and children is what everyone should want. But for guys like us? From the family line, young, virile, handso- ow!” I cuff my brother round the head to get him back on track, “Harpy,” he hisses at me. “As I was saying, we are a threat to the council. As Mercy’s eldest sons, it would be natural for at least one of us to take the mantle when he’s elderly, infirm or deceased. Hell, if we really wanted to, we could have challenged him to stand down. The threat was too great, so instead, he turned us out onto the streets, to fend for ourselves in a world we knew nothing about.”
“That must have been very, very scary,” Lovely whispers, her eyes welling up. I thank whoever is listening that Lovely managed to get out of there. This woman is exactly what her name means. Royal would have destroyed her if she had stayed.
“It was. That’s why we do what we do. We take in the young men who are cast out of the Keep for nothing more than being of age and wanting a wife. Blanche goes in and collects women such as yourself, then she brings you to us and we take over.” Chris answers, working in perfect rhythm with Dom and Vic as they plate up our breakfasts.
“When I left Eden’s Keep I was lucky enough to have been in contact with our brothers. I knew I would never survive in the outside world, pregnant and alone. The boys came and got me, and taught me everything I would need to live out here. Blanche, the wonderful woman from the diner, she taught me to thrive.” I say with a big grin, digging into my eggs. Vic always cooks them to perfection.