Aspen’s mouth fell open, but she hurried out, “We all did. We thought it was a barn dance, that’s all. Who are these guys?”

I smothered another growl because I was betting they were the only ones who got the invite, and fuck Blaise for not being honest with his girl about his enemies. I glanced down, making sure my phone was still turned on and that Cross was hearing this. I tried to pull it out, so it wasn’t too smothered against my jeans.

Aspen’s phone started ringing, but Harper was on us.

“Monroe. I don’t believe you were on the guest list.”

The girls all went still.

Veronica was measuring the guys behind Harper, and yeah…it wasn’t looking good.

They were all built thick, looking like they ate bricks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Then maybe snacked on little boulders for a late-night snack.

I stepped around and positioned myself slightly in front of Veronica. “What was the play here? What were you going to do?”

“Were?” He smirked at me, his head moving to the side so he could look Aspen up and down. “Nothing past tense about that. I still plan on getting to know Mrs. Blaise DeVroe.” He jerked his chin up. “What’s up, kid? You’re Aspen Monson, huh?”

“My boyfriend doesn’t like you?”

I was surprised at how chilly her tone was, and looked back. She wasn’t hiding. She looked pissed, livid even. Angeline had a hand on her shirt, and I noted that was to keep Aspen back. That was a nice sort of surprise. An enraged girl could do damage, and Aspen was fast looking enraged.

Harper’s smirk only deepened. “You know, I had a family function recently and talked to some of my cousins. They’re past brothers, too. One of them knew your brother. Nate Monson.”

“Yeah?” A nice little snarl from Aspen.

“Yeah.” Harper was loving it. “He said to show his thanks to you. Said it was because of your brother that we got a brand-new house. Guess the other one was burned down.”

Whoa.

I had new respect for Aspen’s brother, and even though I’d met him a few times, we never really interacted. Cross still had a problem remembering meeting him. He tuned out anyone who wasn’t us, so that meant anyone older.

“Are these your brothers?” I asked, scanning the rest of the guys and moving to the group behind sitting by a campfire near their two trucks. Coolers were pulled out. They looked like they were grilling. I was counting maybe ten other guys.

Shit. I was so not getting a good feeling here.

Then I saw a mattress on the floor, and that whole shit feeling was fast turning into a nuclear feeling.

“Were you going to rape them?”

I was seeing red.

I felt the air sizzling.