“Go, get in something other than my brother’s tee,” Chen told me, and my eyes went again to him to see him grinning. “You don’t, I’ll start havin’ impure thoughts that may lead to me becoming a victim of fratricide.”

“We wouldn’t want that,” I noted.

“No, we would not,” Chen agreed.

I smiled at him.

He smiled back, then jerked his head toward the hall.

I took his direction and headed that way.

Chapter Five

The Miracle and The Monster

Abel

Abel heard him long before he got to the door and knew by the familiarity of the sound who was coming.

So he didn’t stop drilling the screw into the hinge that would eventually be attached to a door to the toilet as the footsteps approached and the steel door opened.

“Yo!” Wei called over the drill. “Soup’s on and Ma wants your ass upstairs.”

Abel stopped drilling and looked to his brother. “Gonna get this done.”

Wei looked to the hinge, then back to Abel. “You can finish it after. Food’s on the table and Ma’s getting shitty.”

“I’ll be up when this is done,” Abel reiterated.

Wei’s brows went up. “You gonna court the wrath of Jian-Li?”

Normally, he would not do this. He was older than her, helped raise her, was stronger than her by far, but the woman had a temper. She was also the matriarch, a matriarch with four sons, all of whom were unruly in one way or another (including him). So no matter that Abel had one hundred and forty years on her; when needed, Jian-Li had an iron fist, even with Abel.

Still, he was not dragging his ass up there.

Not until he had a handle on it.

And knowing Delilah was up there, he was not close to having a handle on it. Not after he woke up hearing her make noises in her sleep that told him exactly what she was dreaming. Not after hearing her say “Abel, baby” like she was just about ready to come.

It had nearly torn him out of his skin, staying seated in that chair and not going to the bed, positioning her and mounting her, even in her sleep.

But it was definitely more. Something in him he didn’t understand was driving him to connect with Delilah in such a way, he was losing the struggle to fight it. In a way so powerful, he feared he’d harm her while doing it. But if he did, he knew at the very least he’d scare the shit out of her.