Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

scoffed. “Like you would know. When was the last time you carried a baby?”

“Well…never, but that’s not the point.”

“That’s exactly the point! And…I’m holding this baby hostage until my demands are met.”

I frowned at her, but she just shrugged. The other women seemed to think it was a great idea.

“That’s right. We have demands and we’re not coming out until you give us what we want,” Kat shouted through the door.

There was arguing on the other side and then the manager spoke again. “I’m going to negotiate on behalf of the men. I think we can all get what we want if we just calmly talk this out.”

“Well, we have Lorelei here to talk on our behalf. She’s our negotiator.”

My eyes widened and I was suddenly yanked forward to speak for them.

“Uh…Hi. My name is Lorelei and I’m an innocent bystander in all this.”

“Hi, Lorelei,” the manager said. “Now, what exactly are their demands?”

“Give me a minute.”

I spun around to face the ladies. “What are your demands?”

“We want them to stop carting us around everywhere like we’re eggs.”

“Eggs?”

Anna sighed. “Yeah, you know, fragile.”

“And I want to walk upstairs by myself,” Kat said.

“And I want to choose what food I eat,” Sofia added.

I nodded and turned back to the door. “Okay, I have a list of demands here.”

“Alright, I’m listening.”

“Um…they want to be able to walk around by themselves.”

Anna slapped me. “Tell him about the egg thing.”

“And they want to not be treated like eggs.”

“Like eggs?” the manager asked in confusion.

“Right…um…fragile. And they want to walk up the stairs by themselves.”

“And down!” Kat shouted. “I can damn well walk up and down the stairs by myself!”

I placed a hand on her arm to calm her. “Right, and also…down the stairs.” This was by far the weirdest thing I had ever done.

“Um…I’m confused. What exactly…” The manager sighed, then whispered, “I thought you said they were dangerous?”

“Oh, they’re dangerous alright. You just haven’t seen them when they don’t have chocolate,” one of the men said.

“Then maybe you should let us have it!” Anna shouted.

“Calm down,” I whispered, trying to ease her.

“Any other demands?” the manager asked.

“Um…yes, they also want to be able to choose their own foods.”

“Lorelei?” I heard Andrew’s voice from the other side.

“Yeah?”

“What are you doing in there?”

“Um…negotiating a hostage situation?”

There was a moment of silence. “What exactly is being held hostage?”

I huffed out an irritated breath. “I’m not sure. The babies? But eventually we have to get out of here. I’m freezing. Kat has my coat.”

“Why does Kat have your coat?”

“Because she was trying to disguise herself to hide from your brothers.”

“Can we get back to the point here?” Kat snapped.

“What is the point?” Andrew asked.

“We’re tired of having our rights stripped of us. We want our freedoms back, and for the whole damn town to stop following us around!”

“They follow you around?” I asked Kat.

She nodded. “And worse, when one of them can’t take us someplace, there’s a volunteer sheet that people can fill out to take turns driving us around. But first, they have to pass a special driving test.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Seriously?”

“Are you sure you want to be part of this family?” Anna asked. “They’re all crazy.”

“Hey, who locked themselves in a cooler,” one of the men shouted.

Anna got right up against the door and slammed her palm against it. “Hey, you’d better watch it, buddy, or you’re not getting any tonight.”

“Yeah, like I get it any other night,” he muttered.

“Maybe if you weren’t such an ass—“

“Alright,” I interrupted. “I can see this is getting us nowhere. Can we agree on terms?”

“We’ll concede to not taking you shopping,” one of them said.

“No, it’s all or nothing,” Sofia snapped. “No more carrying me around. No more asking my belly if it’s okay. No more cutting up my food for me because you’re afraid my knife might slip and cut me!”

I chuckled next to her. Now I understood the mad dash through the grocery store. These guys really were crazy.

“Look, it’s not like you can just sit in there all day. You’ll eventually get too cold and need to come out.”

Yeah, like right now. I was shivering and in desperate need of a coat, but I wasn’t crazy enough to take my coat back from the insane woman beside me.

“Did someone call the police?”

“Jack!” Kat shouted. “Arrest them!”

“For what?” he asked, sounding a little thrilled by the prospect.

“For…”

Kat turned to me, a pleading look on her face. I scrambled to think of something.

“False imprisonment!” I shouted through the door.

Kat’s shoulders sagged as she shot me a look that said Really?

“You locked yourselves in there,” one of them said.

“But you…falsely imprisoned them…in their daily lives,” I said. “And…forced them to…abide by laws…um…”

“Alright, I think we got the gist,” Jack said. “I think we can all see that the only way to get the ladies out of the cooler is to take the men down to the station.”

“Or we could just open the damn door,” one of them muttered.

“Not until our demands are met!” Anna shouted.

“Fine. Do you boys agree to their demands?”

I heard grumbling on the other side and finally one of them relented. “For now, but one sign of you slipping or getting heartburn or even getting too tired and your ass is back on twenty-four/seven watch.”

I turned to the ladies, hopeful that this was enough. They didn’t really seem too excited about this. “You guys, this is a good concession. Is this really the hill you want to die on?”

After a few grumbled no’s, I turned back to the door. “Okay, I’m opening the door and we’re coming out.”

“Back up,” the manager shouted. Why was he shouting? I slowly pushed on the handle, feeling the rush of warm air hit me like a furnace. It was amazing. And then I looked around to see what looked like a good percentage of the town staring at us, filming us, and pointing at us like a circus attraction.

I held the door open for the ladies, who