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“What’s wrong, Grey? Are you mad because I knew something about mariposa you didn’t or because I was the first to have her?”
Antagonizing Grey was a mistake, one I knew well. The man never forgot anything, and he could hold a grudge like no one else. But I couldn’t help myself. I was gratified when I saw it, the jaw clenching. He hated that I’d been Mari’s first.
You could have been her only. I shoved the thought away. The past didn’t matter, only the future. I had to stay focused.
“Why did you come back?”
I’d expected him to snap back, so his question caught me off guard. “Why, did you miss me?”
My deflection didn’t work. “Dominic.”
“Because I had unfinished business.” It was the closest thing to the truth I could say, but Grey knew what I meant. Despite our mutual dislike, we’d always understood each other on a fundamental level. If we’d been friends, we could’ve taken on the world. Instead, we were destined to burn it down around us.
“Mari,” he guessed.
“Yes.” I didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to know my plans. My hopes and dreams were mine and hers alone.
“I don’t like having you here.”
Shocker. “Because she has feelings for me?”
Grey scoffed. “Because she doesn’t need this right now. Not when she’s on the verge of getting everything she’s ever wanted, and not when an unknown player is making moves to take her out. You’re a distraction and a risk to her life and her safety. If we were sure you’d stay, maybe it would be different, but that isn’t the case. You’re an unpinned grenade waiting to blow, and I can see you putting her right in the kill zone.”
I tried not to take that personally. It was Grey’s fear talking, but it stung, nonetheless.
It had always been easy to see how much Mari mattered to him. Grey’s devotion was legendary and bone-deep. As kids, he was the first to check on her if he thought something was wrong, the one who kissed her scraped knees and held her together when no one else realized she was hurting. I had no doubt that in the years I’d been gone, that need to protect her had only gotten stronger. Hell, he’d probably done more to keep her safe from his place in the shadows than I ever would.
Whatever I felt for Greyson, I knew he’d kept Mari safe when there was no one else to do it. That had to be acknowledged. But I wasn’t going to let him walk all over me because of it.
“You’ve put a lot of energy into keeping Mari alive, Grey. Don’t think I don’t see that.” The compliment grated on its way out, like I was scraping my throat with glass, but it needed to be said. My feelings about him as a person didn’t negate that truth. “But things are changing. I’m home now. For good. I know you don’t believe me and neither does she, but I’m going to prove it to you both. This is where I should have been, where I’m meant to be. So, we can be allies, or we can be enemies. It doesn’t matter to me because I’m not going anywhere.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care.” I shrugged. “Your opinion isn’t the one that matters to me.”
“We’re never going to be allies, but I’ll happily watch you try to fit into her life. When you finally run off to wherever the fuck you go, I’ll be the one piecing her back together like I always do.”
It was what I expected. Grey and I had been competitors for Mari’s heart from the moment we met, and I doubted anything would change that now. The reminder of Grey’s not-so-secret feelings poked at me, and I decided to take advantage of his unusual honesty. The worst he could do was not answer my question.
“Why haven’t you made a move on her?” He scoffed, but I kept going. “You’ve been in love with Mari since we met. Was it Antoni? He didn’t seem like the type to keep people from being happy.”
“It didn’t have anything to do with Antoni.”
“Then what? Why walk away from a connection like that?” I wasn’t blind. I saw what Grey and Mari were like; I’d always just chosen to look the other way. For the short time I’d had her, she’d been mine, not his. That was enough.
“Because it’s not my job to be her boyfriend. It’s my job to keep her safe.”
I raised a brow. “I wasn’t aware you couldn’t do both at the same time. You don’t think the fact that you love her—and she loves you back—matters?”
Grey’s sharp laugh echoed through the hall. “Christ, you’ve been gone a long time. Have you forgotten the world we live in? Love doesn’t have a place here. Just look at your mom. She’s been married how many times now?”
Five, but I wasn’t going to say that. My mother’s marriage to my father had been an arranged marriage turned love match. After his death, she had been nothing more than a pawn. I understood what he meant, what the traditional role of a woman in our world was, but I still didn’t get it. Mari was a queen, and maybe it was the romantic in me, but I thought love always mattered most. “You could’ve made something work if you really wanted to.”
“What do you think I should have done, Dominic? Be with her, have her all to myself, fall even deeper in love with her than I already am, just to watch her marry someone else?” I opened my mouth, and he laughed again. That caustic, harsh sound. “No, you think she should’ve married me. That if I’d have made my move years ago when her empire was still in shambles, I could’ve ruled at her side, am I right?
“The truth is, love’s a fairy tale neither of us can afford. No matter what I do or how high I rise, my place will never be at her side. Even when she was just Mario’s daughter, Mari was always meant for someone else. I’ve had to accept that and take the pieces of her that I can. Can you say you wouldn’t do the same in my shoes?”
Even knowing he was right, I couldn’t back down. “So, how does this work? You just watch her get with other guys and let it happen? You can’t be serious. I can’t do that. I won’t.” Mari was mine. She’d always been mine, and now that I was home, like fuck was I going to let her be with someone else.
