Free Craving Lucy by Terri Anne Browning

taken me. He’d had to find out about my abduction on the eleven o’clock news—making him feel like shit after he’d gotten mad thinking I was just blowing him off.
    Raking my fingers through my crazy-curly hair, I grimaced when a few of my fingers got tangled and I had to tug them free. I hadn’t taken the time to straighten it tonight. I pushed myself to my feet and went back into the bedroom to once again check under my bed, in hopes that it actually had fallen under there and I’d just missed it the ten times I’d looked previously.
    Harris was waiting on me. I had to hurry or decide if I was just going to bail on dinner with him tonight—something I seriously didn’t want to do. But I didn’t want to hear a twenty-minute lecture from him about the importance of my phone when I was already mentally yelling at myself about it.
    There was a slight tap on my door and I lifted my head as the door swung open. My brothers came into the room almost hesitantly and I frowned at them. Those two only hesitated when something was wrong. Concerned because I didn’t know if I needed to help them hide a body or possibly even hide them , I got to my feet. I would do both because that was how much I loved them. Didn’t matter what their reasons were; I would always protect those two not-so-little beasts.
    “What’s up, you two?”
    Lyric took another hesitant step forward and pulled something from his jeans pocket. It took me a second to realize what he was offering me, but when it clicked in my head I glared from him to his twin. “You little monsters!” I yelled.
    Okay, so my vow of helping them only went so far. If they messed with my stuff, then all promises were over. Lyric gave me a sheepish look while his identical clone stood in my room with his arms crossed over what I knew would one day be an athletic chest and determined but ever-changing brown eyes.
    “Why would you take my phone?” I demanded as I glared from one to the other. “You both know you aren’t supposed to even be in my room, let alone take my stuff. How dare you snatch something that wasn’t yours?”
    Lyric opened his mouth to say something but Luca beat him to it. “We were mad at you. Last night you scared us. We thought something really bad had happened to you. Then you and Mom and Dad picked us up at Aunt Lana’s and you seemed fine except for a bandaged hand. We wanted to ground you from your phone so we took it.”
    “But we didn’t realize how important our phones are,” Lyric continued as soon as his brother had stopped. “Harris explained it, though. We’re really sorry. Please don’t be mad.”
    Some of my anger faded as fast as it had come. Sighing, I sat down on the edge of my bed. “Guys…” I shook my head. “I’m so sorry I upset you last night. I promise you it wasn’t my intention.”
    Lyric moved across the room until he was standing right in front of me. His arms wrapped around my neck and hugged me tight. “I love you, Lucy. I don’t ever want anything to happen to you.”
    Tears burned my eyes and I blinked hard and fast to keep them at bay, but a few spilled free anyway. “Ah, Ric.” I hugged him hard to me. “Its okay, baby boy. Nothing is going to happen. I swear.”
    Another set of arms wrapped around both Lyric and me and I lifted my head long enough to press a kiss to Luca’s forehead. “You forgive us?” he asked after a few moments.
    I hugged them both tighter. “Nope. Give me ten minutes, though, and I’m sure that will change.” Pulling away I winked at them and they grinned, knowing that I was still the pushoverthat I would always be where they were concerned. “Stay out of my room, boys. And if you take anything of mine again I’m going to start spilling all those secrets you both have to the world. Pretty sure there are things that neither one of you want Mom and Dad or say V i— ” The way Luca’s face went white as a sheet and then closed up tighter than a Venus flytrap told me