Keela (Slater Brothers #2.5) (9 page)

“Hey, what's that look for?” Alec asked me, jarring me from my thoughts.

I stood up and flushed the toilet, smiling as I moved to the sink so I could wash my hands.

“Nothing, just wonderin' how much shite we're goin' to get when we go outside.”

Alec regarded me for a moment then chuckled. “It'll be fine, my brothers will keep the taunting to a minimum. I'll kick their asses otherwise... Can't speak for the girls though.”

I snorted. “They'll high-five me.”

Whoops.

“Why?” Alec asked, his eyebrow raised.

I smirked. “Because I got some in a bathroom.”

Alec watched me for a moment then shook his head. “Women.”

I laughed and began to re-fold the towels that Alec took off the towel rack and out of the small cupboard next to the mirror on the wall. When that was done, I re-organised the towels he'd just stacked. I threw out the half empty bottles of products and kept only the full and unopened ones. I explained I didn't want any of the opened bottles to open and spill in the van. The new ones had seals on them so they wouldn't cause any damage if they tipped over inside the van.

Alec nodded his head then opened the door when I had everything organised. I asked him to go get me two boxes and he was on his way out the door to do so, but froze at the last second. I swallowed when he turned to face me. I was sure he figured out what I did from the look he was giving me, but I relaxed when he said, “Those boxes are mine.”

I rolled my eyes. “No, they're mine.”

Alec stood his ground. “I stacked them
all
on that counter.”

I placed my hands on my hips. “I re-stacked them and re-folded the towels. I also threw out the rubbish you wanted to keep. They're part of
my
haul.”

Alec glared at me. “I'm not letting you past me with a single item from that pile.”

Oh, really?

“Don't make me hurt you, because I will,” I threatened.

Alec snorted. “What are you going to do? Jump up to try and slap me.”

Dickhead!

“Don't be makin' fun of me height. I'm tall for a girl,
you're
the one who is freakishly lanky!”

Alec's laughter ticked me off so I decided to use other options to get him out of my way.

“Bronagh!” I shouted.

Alec froze.

“Yeah?” she called out.

“Alec said you should be have been cast in
The Hobbit
!”

Alec gasped. “You evil bitch!”

Seconds later a wild Bronagh appeared and jumped on Alec from behind.

“
The Hobbit
?” she growled. “I'll show you a hobbit!”

Alec screamed and reached up to his ears, the ears Bronagh had in her vice like grip.

I laughed as she pulled and steered him away from the bathroom and down the hall where he stumbled into our bedroom and onto our bed from the sound of Bronagh's cheer.

She was twisted.

She even said 'weeeeeee' at one point.

I was about to exit the bathroom but halted when Nico ran by me. “Let him go... Damn it, Bronagh, you're going to undo months of anger management classes. I'll tickle you if you don't let him go. Stop! You'll pull his ears off!”

I snorted as I casually walked out of the bathroom and grabbed two empty boxes from the stack of boxes next to the front door. I whistled as I walked back into the bathroom and carefully placed the towels and toilet rolls into one box, then everything else into the other box.

“Aideen, have you got a marker and tape?” I shouted.

Aideen came into the bathroom armed with both.

We wrapped up the boxes then marked 'Bathroom' on both boxes as well as my name just so Alec couldn't try and pawn them off as being his later. Aideen picked up the box of towels and tissues while I grabbed the heavier box. We both exited the bathroom then walked out of my apartment and down the stairs until we were outside the apartment complex. I picked the right side of the moving van as the side where I wanted all my boxes to go.

Alec could have the left side.

“Two down. God knows how many more to go,” Aideen commented and wiped sweat off her brow.

I snorted and tied my hair up into a bun on top of my head. “So far so good.”

Aideen chuckled as we walked side-by-side back into my apartment complex.

“Using sex against the big lad was genius.”

I cackled, “Right? Worked like a charm. How is disarmin' the other lads goin'?”

Aideen burst into laughter. “Dominic is strugglin', Ryder is tryin' his hardest to avoid Branna, and Kane doesn't understand any of what's happenin'. He is so confused by me sudden behaviour, but hasn't mentioned a word since I grazed my arse against him. You should have seen his face, it was like a virgin lad touchin' his first boob. He was all wide eyed and freaked out.”

I was in tears of laughter by the time we walked up the stairs to my floor.

I bumped fists with Aideen and said, “Let's keep it up.”

“You got it, boss.” Aideen winked.

The wide smile that was on my face dropped when Alec bellowed out my name from inside our apartment.

“KEELA!”

Uh-oh.

I swallowed and looked to a grinning Aideen.

“I'm in trouble.”

“Yes, baby?” I sweetly called out as I stepped inside my domain.

I looked to my right as Alec stormed down the hallway holding onto his ears. I looked past him and saw Nico pinning Bronagh down on my bed with one arm while he used the other to tickle her.

Poor lass, she was taking one for the team.

“Don't you 'Yes baby' me!” Alec snarled as he came to a stop in front of me. “You cheated me out of—”

“I didn't cheat you out of anythin', you abandoned your post so the bathroom items were fair game,” I cut Alec off and strolled by him as I walked into the kitchen.

Ryder and Branna were in there. She was on all fours cleaning out my lower presses, and Ryder was standing behind her just watching. From the look of things he wanted to do anything but pack right at that moment. I forgot about Ryder and Branna when my love grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. I held onto Alec's arms so I wouldn't fall because I got a tiny bit dizzy from his sudden move.

Alec glared down at me. “You set Bronagh on me so you could smuggle my boxes out of the apartment!”

Smuggle. Ha!

“Oh, get over it you big baby,” I said and chuckled.

Alec continued to glare at me as he said, “Fine.”

I snorted, “Fine.”

“
Fine
.”

Alec turned and stormed out of the kitchen while I watched him go with a smile on my face.

He was too easy to wind up.

“Trouble in paradise?”

I turned to face Ryder who spoke to me.

I shook my head. “Nope.”

Ryder snorted as he glanced back at Branna, who was still on her hands and knees, and sighed. “I'm going to pack in the living room instead,” he mumbled

He walked into the sitting room, but couldn't escape Branna because she was hot on his heels and it made me snicker. The lads truly didn't stand a chance.

I got to work on clearing out the kitchen. Thirty minutes passed by before I knew it and I had all the contents of the kitchen presses packed into four large boxes. Two of the boxes consisted of our large pots and pans, and the other two were filled with all the smaller items like cups, bowls, plates and the mountain of cutlery we had.

“Aideen?” I shouted.

Aideen entered the kitchen from the hallway and glanced at my boxes. “Nice.”

I grinned and got to work at taping them closed and writing my name on the boxes then the contents because I forgot to do it while they were flattened. We called Branna and Bronagh in and we each carried a box down to the moving van. We loaded the boxes on my side, which brought the total to six.

When we were out of the van and standing on the path I turned to the girls.

“Status report?”

Bronagh grinned. “We've got the kitchen and the bathroom done. I'm nearly finished with the bedroom and Branna is gettin' there with the sittin' room.”

I looked to Alec's empty side of the van and looked back to the girls. “Well... the plan is workin', they haven't got a single box packed yet.”

We all high-fived one another and laughed as we re-entered the building and headed back up to my apartment. We cut the laughter and stayed silent as we entered my building. I froze slightly when I entered the kitchen and found all the lads sitting down and glaring at us.

Every single one of us.

Shite.

“What's with you lot?” I asked.

Alec growled at me, “Like you don't know.”

Oh, bollocks.

“I've no clue,” I said, feigning innocence.

Nico scoffed. “Cut the crap, we're onto you four.”

Us girls shared a look then in unison we said, “What did we do?”

“That was creepy,” Ryder mumbled.

Kane ignored his brother and said, “You're seducing us.”

We all scratched our necks.

“That is ridiculous,” I said, waving Kane off.

“No,” Nico snarled, “It's not. I
know
you Bronagh. You're constantly touching me, bending over in front of me and drawing as much attention to your ass and body as possible. You know damn well what you're doing to me.”

Bronagh remained silent, as did the rest of us.

“You seduced me in the bathroom, Keela,” Alec hissed at me. “Then you stole my boxes right out from under me.”

I wanted to laugh so I bowed my head and cast my eyes to the floor to avoid doing so. I glanced at Kane when he crossed his arms across his chest and stared at Aideen.

“You grazed your ass against me five times. Five. Times. You evil bitch.”

I lifted my hand to my mouth and covered it when a snicker escaped.

“You think this is funny!” Ryder bellowed. “My cock was so hard for you Branna and you were all 'Stop it, we have to pack boxes.'“

I erupted into laughter at Ryder's impression of Branna, and so did the other girls.

“You four are unreal!” Nico shouted over our laughter.

I couldn't stop laughing, not even when Alec shot over to me and got into my personal space.

“This game you're playing stops now,” he growled down at me.

I looked up at him, and smiled. “What game?”

“Don't pretend you don't know what we're talking about, we figured out what you four are doing.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Which is what?”

We were going to quarrel over this—I could feel it.

“You're using your bodies to distract us so you four can pack and we can't,” Alec stated.

My lip quirked. “No, we're not.”

“Liar,” Alec hissed.

The four lads then moved to the multiple boxes that were stacked over at the door. I frowned, and leaned over to look at them. I counted eight, and Alec's name was on them all.

“When did you do this?” I asked.

Alec smirked. “You four took ten minutes bringing your boxes downstairs. When we realised what you were doing to us and why, we knuckled down and speed-packed. It worked as you can tell.”

Each lad grabbed two boxes and headed out of the apartment, not looking at us as they walked. I spun to face the girls.

“What the hell are we gonna do? They packed the entire fuckin' sittin' room!”

Bronagh sighed, “Relax, we still have the bedroom.”

The four of us turned and walked down to my bedroom. I lead the way and opened the door then gasped when I entered the room and found five boxes stacked next to the doorway. Everything in the room was bare.

“How the fuck did they pack so fuckin' fast?” Branna snapped.

I looked to Storm who was lying on my bed and let out a whine. “Why didn't you stop them?”

“Because he is a lazy fat—”

“Not now, Aideen!” I cut her off with a growl.

She grunted and folded her arms across her chest. “He is on
their
team, remember? He is against us, just like those four fuckers downstairs.”

I agreed with her as I glanced around my room.

“I'm gonna be stuck cookin' for an entire month!” I groaned.

This was bullshit.

“Alec sucks. Him and Dominic, and their stupid bleedin' bets,” Branna huffed.

I agreed with that wholeheartedly.

“What if we just nick these boxes? What can Alec do?” Aideen asked.

“He can take them back.”

We all screamed as Alec's voice spoke from behind us.

Male laughter erupted, and female growls were let loose.

“Don't do that!” Aideen shouted at Alec. “You just took ten years off me life.”

Alec seemed pleased with himself then nodded his head to the right. “Step aside.”

I stayed put. “Can't we at least talk about this—”

“Not a chance,” Alec cut me off.

He was being so unreasonable.

“But Alec—”

“I said no, Keela,” he cut me off again.

I screeched and balled my hands into fists.

“It's not fair!”

To become the toddler I was acting like, all I had to do was throw a tantrum.

“Not fair is distracting us for your own personal gain,” Alec said as I stepped aside with the girls so he and his brothers could enter the room.

“You got somethin' out of it,” I snapped.