Deadly Secrets Read Free Page B

and motioning with his tumbler of whiskey.
    “An intervention?” Quinlan just looked at them all. An intervention of what? He didn’t drink anymore, half the time didn’t take the pain pills he was supposed to take, and God knew his leg hurt like a freaking bitch half the time. He didn’t gamble. The last time he’d gotten laid had almost killed him, so sex had been a no go for some time as well. He didn’t do much of anything. Hell, he’d even cut back on his hours at the family hotel in D.C.
    Gavin, one of his twin brothers, nodded. “Yeah, an intervention, and I have to say I think it’s a freaking great idea. I was really needing to get away.”
    Brayden, the other twin, sighed. “You might have been, but I wasn’t. I didn’t want to leave Christian for this long.”
    The two were identical, built like linebackers and with the inherited Kinncaid dark hair and cobalt eyes. Gavin had always been the jokester, Brayden the more serious.
    Gavin waved his hand. “All the women are staying at the hotel doing the spa thing with Mom, and Dad’s got Ryan to keep him busy with golf. Grandkids, grandparents and women. She’ll be fine. Trust me, I’m a doctor, I know what I’m talking about.”
    “You’re not my wife’s doctor,” Brayden said, taking a sip of his own drink. Vodka, if he went with habit.
    “Well, no, that would just be weird, Bray. I deliver babies, and if I had to I’d deliver my niece or nephew, but I’d rather enjoy familial births rather than be the one delivering them if it’s all the same to you. Your doc is Strong, right? Good ob-gyn.”
    Quinlan rolled his eyes and let the two talk babies and wives and birthing plans—whatever the hell those were. All his brothers were married. All had kids. All were living that happy family picket fence Little League bullshit.
    Okay, maybe his brothers’ lives weren’t exactly bullshit. They were happy and he was happy for them and he loved all his nieces and nephews. Really, he did. But he’d always figured that life wasn’t for him. He’d never actually thought it was for him, even if his mother was forever complaining that she just might not live to see the day he married, let alone gave her a grandbaby.
    Now, even if he did think the picket fence, big diamond ring, home every night was for him, who would he trust with that? That thought was too damned deep for now and he was more concerned with what his brothers had planned than whether he might get married. Ever.
    “Dad will probably write us all out of his will for leaving him with them all,” Aiden, the oldest, volunteered as he sprawled in his chair, tucking his cell phone back into his pocket.
    “Nah, he’ll love every minute of it,” Gavin added.
    “So again, why are we all on the plane heading south?” Quinlan asked.
    Ian, the second oldest and often most silent of the family, tossed him a water bottle. “We are all here because I told them we were going. I didn’t take no from them any more than I took it from you.”
    “You mean I’m not the only one lucky enough to be threatened to come along?”
    “Threaten is such a dirty word,” Ian said, grinning and leaning back. “I prefer persuaded.”
    Quinlan looked at each of his older brothers. “Waterboarding is frowned upon, you know.”
    “Personally,” Ian continued, “I found it generally got me the results I wanted, if the time allowed.”
    “You know, we could just be happy we’re taking a small break. Away from the kids, the women and the grandparents—Lord love them all,” Gavin muttered.
    “You’re the one that moved closer to home,” Ian told his brother.
    Gavin shrugged. “And you didn’t?”
    “Not that close.” Ian shifted and sighed. “Besides, how long has it been since we’ve done this?”
    No one said anything for a long time.
    “Never,” Quinlan said, looking at each of his brothers. He chuckled. “I was still in school when you went AWOL.”
    “I didn’t go AWOL. I was exploring my