Pleased with her ninja-like escape skills, Remi jumped the last three feet, landing in the flowerbed between a petite Japanese maple and a clump of ornamental grass. When she took a step back, she came up against something warm, hard, and leafless.

When two hands closed around her arms from behind, she spun around and assumed the ball-kicking position.

“Easy, trouble,” came a low, familiar chuckle.

“Holy Billie Holiday, Brick!” She stomped her foot in the mulch. “You scared the hell out of me. I thought the landscaping grew arms!”

Silhouetted by streetlights, he made quite the hulking shadow.

“Good,” he said. “Get back upstairs.”

“You have got to be kidding me. No! What are you even doing here?”

“Keeping you out of trouble,” he said, crossing his very large arms over his massive chest and peering down at her.

“Well, what’s the fun in that?” she scoffed, refusing to be intimidated.

In the year that she’d known him and his brother, Remi had learned his secret. The man might have been built like a sequoia and had the conversational skills of a brick wall, but Brick was a teddy bear underneath. An extra-large one.

“I’m serious. Get your ass back up to your room and stay there.”

“Maybe you’re in charge of Spencer, but you have no authority here, Brick Callan,” she said, drilling a finger into his chest.

“You have no business going to Round Island to party, Remi Ford.”

Even though she was busy spitting fire, she sure liked how he said her name.

“My business is none of your business. Besides, Spencer’s going! He’s waiting for me.”

“No, he’s not. He’s sitting in front of the TV pouting because he’s grounded. Just like you will be if you don’t get your ass back up into that room. Now.”

There was something positively delicious about the way he gave her orders. Not that she had any intention of following them. But still, some previously undiscovered part of her felt like it was waking up for the first time. “Or what?”

She could have imagined the growl she heard rumbling in his chest.

“You’re a smart girl, right?” he whispered finally.

Remi narrowed her eyes at the man. She smelled a set-up. “Get to the point.”

“What kind of ‘work thing’ do you think your mom has going on tonight? Do you think it’s a coincidence that she’s running logistics on some secret operation the same night Eleanora Reedbottom decides to trespass on federal property to host an underage drinking party?”

She gasped. “How did you find out about the party?”

“Because Eleanora Reedbottom has a big fucking mouth. And so does my stupid little brother. He also doesn’t have your skill with lies.”

She gave a little curtsy. “Thank you.”

“Not a compliment, Remi.”

“I’m taking it as one anyway,” she said with a shrug.

He pinched the bridge of his nose as if he were in the throes of a migraine.

“You ever get your head checked? Seems like you get an unnatural amount of headaches.”