SWNOVELS The Broken Note: Chapter 18
The moment the door clicks shut, Finn sets down his tablet and slams me with his dark gaze.
I slip a hand into my pocket and pointedly avoid the question in his eyes.
Between Zane and Finn, the one who makes me wary is my adopted brother.
Zane is pure emotion. It’s why he’s so good at the drums. He explodes in a mess of energy, feelings, and uncontrollable urges. The good, the bad, the ugly, it eventually comes roaring out of him until there’s nothing left.
I know where my twin stands with just a look.
But Finn is controlled. Contained.
The only way to know what he’s thinking is if he tells you directly.
“What did you mean when you promised you’d find the culprit for her?” Finn asks.
I stalk to the fridge, open it wide and grab a beer. “I meant we’d find a culprit for her.” I snap the tab and guzzle the drink. “I didn’t mean Sol.”
“You shouldn’t have agreed to that in the first place. It’s too risky,” Zane scolds me. His eyes are clear. A surprise given the amount of beers he drank before he hopped on his motorbike and took off last night.
Finn and I worried he wouldn’t make it back in one piece but, around two a.m. he sauntered in, smelling like sex, perfume and anger. We didn’t ask how he worked out his frustrations, but the truth came out pretty early.
His cheerleader of choice giddily posted a picture of him from behind.
Butt-naked.
Damn airhead had my brother’s cheeks plastered all over Jinx’s app by morning.
Zane doesn’t care.
But I do plan to have that airhead kicked off the cheerleading squad. If she doesn’t understand that discretion is a must when she spends the night with one of us, then I’ll make it my mission to teach her that lesson.
“You might have forgiven Cadence for taking a bat to everything in this room,” Finn says calmly. “But that doesn’t mean we have.”
“You have a problem?” I growl.
He lifts a shoulder in a careless shrug.
“Finn’s right. You got your pound of flesh from her. We agreed she paid her debt after giving up the goods.” Zane licks his lips. “We’re square. But she doesn’t belong in here after she disrespected our space.”
“Enough.” I lift a hand.
Finn draws one knee up and rests his long arm on top of it.
“Why the hell are you so sensitive about her?” Zane accuses. “Does she have something on you?”
My eyes slide over my twin’s.
“Or is there some kind of magic between her legs because if so—”
“Cadence is my fiancée,” I say sharply.
Both of my brothers fall silent.
Zane’s jaw is on the floor.
Finn’s eyes narrow to sharp slits.
I smile. Even though my brain is running on overdrive and there’s a giant freaking wall between me and Cadence in a wedding dress, it’s still a mind-blowing occasion.
My fiancée.
Damn.
It’s right. It’s perfect.
“Did you fall and hit your head?” Zane stammers. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“It’s not a brain injury. It’s the honest freaking truth.”
“Did you propose that night?” Finn’s eyes glint in the sunlight. “The night you went over to her place?”
I nod.
“Huh.” He seems amused.
“How are you so calm about this?” Zane shrieks. “This idiot is talking about marriage. Marriage! We’re barely eighteen.”
“It’s legal.”
“And she’s not.” Zane’s eyes narrow at me. “Have you thought of that? She’s seventeen.”
“In December—”
“It’s not December yet,” Zane huffs.
I don’t mind him cutting me off. His reaction is expected.
Finn studies me. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
“More? What more?” Zane squeezes his fingers over his temple and flops facedown in the couch. “I can’t take more.”
“Sit up. I need you paying attention for this.” I nudge him.
He snaps up, eyes narrowed. “Why didn’t you check with me? I could have hooked you up.”
“Hooked me up with what?”
“You wanted a challenge? You wanted inexperienced and wide-eyed? Easy. I could have had a line of virgins banging your door down. No marriage proposal needed.”
“If the virgins are banging his door down, then it isn’t necessarily a challenge,” Finn points out.
“Are you cracking jokes? Right now? Seriously?”
“Not a joke. Merely an observation.”
“When one of us does something stupid, we call each other out. That’s what you did for me. Why the hell does he get a pass?”
“He said there’s more,” Finn says simply.
Zane sucks in a deep breath, closes his eyes, and sits back down. “This better be good, Dutch.”
I sit rigidly and run the words through my mind, wondering how I’ll deliver them. There’s no way to pretty this up.
Might as well tear off the band-aid.
“Gran left her fortune to one of us,” I admit.
“Did I hear that right? Did you say ‘one’?” Zane arches a brow.
“Just one.”
“Biological?” Finn asks quietly.
I glance over. There’s a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. The first crack in his armor I’ve seen.
“Don’t think so. The requirements are that the grandson is married and has a kid before a year is up. That’s it.”
“A kid?” Zane’s eyebrows arch. “Like a human child?”
Finn looks disturbed. “A year?”
“There’s more.”
Both of them look like they’re bracing themselves.
“If one of us can’t fulfil the requirement… dad gets everything.”
“Abso-freaking-lutely not.” Zane explodes from his seat.
Finn stares into the distance, running my words over in his brilliant mind. Finally, he glances up at me. “The marriage to Miss Jamieson’s mom. Dad chose her for a reason, didn’t he?”
“To fulfil the will’s requirement and to keep Zane away from… recreating with her daughter.”
Zane stops cold.
I give him a sympathetic look. “Two birds. One stone.”
“Miss Jamieson wouldn’t have married me even if I paid her.”
“Would you have wanted to marry her though?”
He stares at the ground, saying nothing.
“That’s why dad’s at Redwood. He’s keeping an eye on us so we don’t even dream of touching the inheritance.”
There’s a moment of silence as my brothers absorb what that means.
Our father is a damn psychopath.
Finn’s dark gaze meets mine. “Tell me there’s not more.”
“That’s it.” I raise both hands to show that I’m empty.
“What about you two?” Zane points a trembling finger. “Why go after me?”
“What do you mean?”
“You both have the tools to make a baby in a year. You could make freaking three just to be safe.”
“That’s because…”
“Dad thinks I don’t qualify as a son.” Finn’s words are subdued. He looks like he just got run over by a truck.
“We don’t know that,” I mutter.
Finn shakes his head, clearly unwilling to talk about it. “What about Cadence? Pictures of you and her are all over Jinx’s app. Even if dad’s not subscribed, just talking to a couple people will have them pointing to you two as a couple.”
I stiffen, already suspicious of Cadence being on dad’s radar. The fact that Finn thinks the same way is confirmation.
My brother studies me. “Jinx mentioned that Cadence and dad are having secret talks after class. You think it was about this?”
“How the hell is dad going to bring this up?” Zane mutters. “‘Hi, seventeen-year-old student. I’ll pay you a million dollars if you don’t marry my son?’”
“It’s not below him,” Finn says.
“Nothing’s below him because he’s lower than dirt. But dad is smart. He wouldn’t out himself like that.” Zane presses his lips together. “Besides, dad wouldn’t need to pay a dime. She’d not marry you for free.”
“She will marry me,” I say sharply.
“Are you going to kidnap her sister and threaten her?”
“Of course not.” If I touched her sister, Cadence would probably slit my neck in my sleep.
“Are you going to forge her signature on the court records?”
“No.”
“Then it’s not happening.”
“It is happening,” I say evenly. “She’s family now.” I glance between them. “And I need you both to help me convince her of that.”
“You’ll need a miracle to convince that girl,” Zane mumbles.
Finn looks thoughtful. “Cadence is stubborn. We did everything we could to get her out of Redwood, but she stuck through it all. And when we managed to kick her out, she came back. Getting her to marry you will be ten times harder than anything we’ve done in the past.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I growl. “I’m not marrying anyone else. Unless you both want to sign up for a wife?”
My brothers shut their mouths.
“Since there are no other takers, my wedding to Cadence is a sure thing.”
“Why don’t you get her pregnant first and worry about marriage later?” Finn suggests.
My ears perk up.
Even Zane looks intrigued.
“Mom didn’t specify in what order it had to happen, did she?”
“No.”
“If someone like dad can qualify for the inheritance,” Zane mumbles, “then I don’t see why Dutch can’t get started on the baby part before he signs the papers. It could work.”
“Having a baby could be what convinces Cadence to marry you too,” Finn says.
“It’s an option.” I rub my chin. The thought of pumping Cadence full of my children gets my blood hot. I can already picture her, legs sprawled, mouth open, eyes seeing stars as I impregnate her with our child.
“But she’s going to hate you,” Finn says quietly.
His words shatter my vision. I glance at my brother.
He’s staring at me with those eyes that see more than they say. “Lying to her about Sol is one thing. But if you lie to her about this…”
“It doesn’t matter. She can’t escape me.”
“What if she does?”
“I’ll drag her back,” I growl, staring him down.
“Is that love?” Finn wonders.
It sounds like he’s thinking out loud rather than accusing me, but I still get defensive.
“Who gives a damn about love? We’re talking about marriage. Aren’t you terrified?” Zane’s eyes bug. “This isn’t a dare. This isn’t hooking up. This is marriage. This is being a father. Are you ready for all that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know then?” Finn inquires, his eyes flitting over me.
“I know that I want dad to lose something after what he’s done to us.”
Zane turns away, a vein bulging in his neck.
“I know that the moment I get married to Cadence, that’s it for me. I’m married for life.”
Zane looks surprised by that.
Finn doesn’t.
“I know that she’s important enough to me that I’d die for her. And I know that when I’m with her I feel…” I inhale deeply. “I feel like that first time I stepped on stage with my guitar. Lightheaded. Eager. Alive.”
Finn turns to me. His eyes burn. “I’m in.”
My eyebrows shoot up.
“Let’s make Cadence your wife.”
Zane reluctantly walks over. “And let’s hope we’re more successful this time than when we tried to kick her out of Redwood.”