Her Forbidden Threeway

Reade jumped in with irritation. “Yet you’ve had enough time to put an ‘employees wanted’ sign in the window, yet not enough time to call me and tell me you were both okay? I was in an accident, Marnie nearly died, you had vanished—” She pointed to Scott, turning then to Jackson. “And you sent me home in a cab and didn’t say a word.”

Jackson interrupted. “Okay, let’s settle this with a sorry.”

Reade inhaled a sharp breath, looking away.

“Apology accepted.” Scott said with a grin, and his brother laughed.

“Since I’m here.” Reade then remembered. “My dad wants us to destroy the book.”

“The book that sent Romeo over there into the dark side?” Scott asked, motioning his head towards his brother.

She nodded.

“Tried. Failed.” Jackson shrugged.

Reade rolled her eyes. “I know how to destroy it.”

Scott turned his attention to Jackson and cocked a brow before slowing directing back to Reade. “Go ahead, you’ve got our attention.”

*****

“So, you just stab the book with the sword?” Jackson asked as the three of them stood around the counter, the abandoned sword from last week sitting in Reade’s hand. “That seems easy enough.”

“I think that’s the idea,” Reade replied, nodding her head as she glanced quizzically at the book . “Apparently the venom running through the blade is harmful to the ink this book was written with.”

“And why can’t I use the sword again?” Scott asked like a child who had their toy taken away from them. “I’m pretty sure it would be better off in my hands than in anyone else’s.”

“I already explained this,” Reade answered with a hint of irritation in her tone. “If the one yielding the dagger is mythical, it will kill them. It’s as simple as that.”

“And I’m mythical?” Scott and Jackson both asked in unison.

“You guys!” Reade exclaimed as she slapped her palm against her forehead. “Your breed doesn’t exist. Stop being so complicated.”

 “Just get it over with,” Jackson said, looking at the book and curling his lip in disgust. “Looking at it is making me nauseous.”

Reade lifted the handle to the dagger and caused the jagged tip to sparkle in the daylight. There was a hint of green still in its possession and it reminded her of the sea. Reade inhaled a deep breath of air while she mentally prepared herself and lunged forward, forcing the dagger down. The sharpened edge pierced through the gem that sealed the book closed and a spectrum of multi color shattered through their sight, whirling Reade’s crimson hair into a storm centered on them.

The seconds ticked by and the powerful colors continued to swarm. The book blew into a reign of fire, an untameable inferno that licked the oxygen and got bigger in size. Scott and Jackson stood back and Reade nodded her head to indicate she was ready. She took another calming breath and pulled a crystal from her cleavage, throwing it into the blazing flames to destroy the book that was made for destruction.

The fire turned to white, and fizzled out, leaving a pile of ashes in place of the leather manual.

Scott released a low whistle. “Well, that was enough excitement for one day.”

Reade gave him a look, handing the sword to Jackson, who seemed higher in spirits. Reade wondered what it was like for Jackson to have been trapped in the storm of darkness. One that made him want to kill and hate even those closest to him, but she knew he wouldn’t possibly want to explain. She knew making him explain could potentially drive him away.

“I have a favor to ask.” Reade sighed.

Scott rolled his eyes and turned to the counter, throwing a dustpan and brush to his brother, who rethought the existential dilemma whether to play with the sword or clean up the mess. Reade didn’t turn back to find out.

“I want the job opening here.”

“Why? So you can keep an eye on your bodyguards?” Scott asked rhetorically. He wasn’t surprised by Reade’s request and she was capable of reading it on his face. “I thought that was supposed to work the other way around.”

Reade trailed around the counter and ran her fingers over Scott’s arm despite his sourness and bitter sarcasm. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “Not exactly,” she said, her eyes soft and full of understanding. “I just want to be close to you. I want to be close to the both of you.”

Scott stiffened in his place. Reade knew that deep down inside, Scott was having issues sharing her with his brother though she knew it wasn’t the first time. Scott had made it abundantly clear in the very beginning that they shared mostly everything, it’s what you did when you loved someone. They practically had the same identity and together, they made one complete person. Scott was hard and cold, while Jackson was sweet and warm like melted candy.

Nothing else mattered to Reade other than being with them.

She would need to convince her father another time.