Schroeder, Melissa - Getting Lei'd [Hawaiian Holidays 3] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour) (2 page)

“I–I don’t know.” Being around all the happiness her friends had found with their men might be a little too much for her.

Sophia pulled back and looked at her. “Come on. We’ll have fun, and besides, you should at least do something with those two weeks.”

“Yeah, it’ll be fun. The three musketeers take Hawaii!” Eddie joked.

She looked from one friend to the other and realized that they weren’t going to let it go. Sophia had that determined glint in her eye that she got when going after a business deal, and Eddie looked ready to hog-tie her and throw her on the plane if she disagreed.

“Sure. Why not?”

* * * *

Damon Walters looked at his brother and barely held on to his temper. He should have known the bastard was cheating on Mari. He’d never been faithful, not once, and especially to a woman he didn’t really care for. He’d played the part of bemused suitor, but there had been something calculating behind his eyes, his actions. There always was.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” His brother still hadn’t recovered from the knee to the groin, so the words came out a lot less strong than he probably wanted them to.

“One hell of a stupid man.”

“Get off my back.”

There was a knock at the door. Damon cracked the door, worried Mr. Sawyer had gone for his hunting rifle. There was no doubt in his mind that Mari’s father was ready to kill Aaron. Well, he had to get in line.

Instead, he found skanky Denise.

“Is he okay?”

He hated this woman. He had never actively hated another human being until he met her. As a paramedic, he didn’t have it in him to hate. It went against the nature of his life’s work. But this woman was mean to the core. She did everything in her power to hurt Mari.

“He’s fine.”

Her expression soured, her lips pursing. He knew that look. It was always on her face when she struck out at someone. Usually Mari.

“I’d like to see him.”

“I think you’ve done enough damage for the day.”

“Let her in.” This came from his stupid-ass brother.

She pushed her way in. “Oh, my poor baby.” She rushed to his brother with all the sympathy of a reality star losing on a show. He knew better. Denise wasn’t any better than his brother.

She cooed and kissed him, and Damon tried his best not to vomit. The woman was disgusting, always had been. Come to think it, the things he hated about the plastic Barbie were the same things he could never accept about his brother. They were both calculating, mean-spirited, nasty, and plain evil.

“Poor baby? You mean you think Mari did something wrong? Hell, he’s lucky all she did was whack him in the gonads. It could have been worse.”

“Worse? How could it be worse?”

“Well, I would be careful of Mr. Sawyer. He hunts. And from the expression on his face, you are his next quarry.”

What little color there had been in his brother’s face faded. “Shit.”

“Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He’s just jealous because he’s had a crush on Mari his entire life.”

He tried to hide it, had done a damned good job with everyone, except Denise. The bitch had picked up on his feelings for Mari when they were teenagers.

“Don’t be an idiot. Damon’s gay.”

Another idiotic statement from an idiotic brother. Just because he and his roommate, Alex, shared women, his brother thought they were both gay.

Denise opened her mouth to correct him, but Damon didn’t need another argument, another target for his brother’s anger.

“You’re screwed, big brother. And I, for one, wash my hands of you.”

He turned to leave.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“You had a good woman, one who wanted you, would have loved you until the end of your days. But you weren’t happy with that.”

“What I said out there was right. She was damned frigid.”

Anger swelled, along with a healthy dose of jealousy. He didn’t even want to think about his brother and his best friend having sex. Not when he had wanted her for too long.

“It’s your fault, as the man, if she’s not enjoying herself.”

“Yeah, well fucking her was like fucking a cold fish.”

Denise snickered, and before Damon could stop himself, he took two steps in Aaron’s direction, grabbed the jackass by the front of his shirt, yanked him up, and punched him in the nose. Bone cracked, and blood spurted all over the front of his shirt. Damon threw him back into the chair as a squealing Denise rushed toward Aaron.

It took him several minutes to calm himself after leaving the room. He was prepared to tear the bastard limb from limb. He noticed Alex Santiago, his roommate, and headed toward him.

“Hey, how’s your brother?” his best friend asked.

“His balls are fine. Now he has to worry about the broken nose I just gave him.”

Alex’s brows shot up. “Really? You lost your temper? What the hell did he do?

“He didn’t do anything. He said horrible things about Mari.”

“What kind of things?”

He could see the anger lighting in his best friend’s eyes and started to worry. Damon had a temper he usually kept under control. But Alex’s Hispanic temper sometimes got the better of him. They’d both had a crush on Mari for a long time. Since he’d been in the third grade, Damon had been halfway in love with her. From the moment Damon had introduced Alex to Mari, he’d been infatuated.
 
Knowing she would never go for their need to share a woman, they had both opted to be friends.

“It was something about sex, wasn’t it?”

Damon nodded once.

Alex growled, but Damon’s cell phone ringing stopped him. It was Mari.

“Hey, sweetie, how you doing?”

“Fine, baby,” Eddie said, amusement threading her voice.

“Where’s Mari?”

There was a beat of silence as he realized how territorial he sounded.

“She’s fine. We have her. I wanted to let you know because I knew you would worry. We convinced her to come back to Hawaii with us.”

“She doesn’t need to go there. Tell me where you are. I’ll come.”

Another beat of silence sounded over the phone as Alex frowned at him.

“No. We’re taking her. You know how crazy it will be here. She’ll be on every news program, they’ll tear her apart.”

The pain he heard in Eddie’s voice calmed him somewhat. Eddie and Sophia truly loved her, and now he knew they were only trying to protect their friend.

He sighed. “Okay. Tell her to call me. Anytime.”

“Sure. Could you talk to her father? She called him, but he talked of shooting off appendages she had damaged.”

He chuckled. “Nothing less than my brother deserves. We’ll calm him down.”

“We?”

“Alex and me.”

“Hmm. Okay.” She said nothing for a moment. “You know, if I didn’t think the media would be all over this, I would leave her in your care, yours and Alex’s. I know you both would take excellent care of her.”

Before he could respond, she clicked off the phone and left Aaron staring at his.

“What?”

He looked at Alex. “Eddie. She said they’re going to Hawaii.”

Alex frowned. “I don’t like that. But I can understand. There’s press, but it is easier to disappear in Hawaii than here in DC.”

His mind barely registered his friend’s comments. He kept going over the tone of Eddie’s voice when she had said they would take care of Mari. Both her friends had shown up with their new loves, two men for each woman. Was Eddie saying what he thought she was saying?

“Damon.”

“We were going to go on vacation, right?”

Alex nodded. They had been thinking of trying to run away after the wedding, trying their best to ignore the fact that the woman they both loved had married someone else.

“Well, if Mari isn’t back in a few days, get ready because we’re going to Hawaii to get her.”