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She gripped my shoulder, shaking me a little. “I’ll be fine, Mari. I promise.”
That wasn’t a promise she could rightly make and we all knew it, but I let it slide. Ash smiled and clapped her hands with a wicked grin.
“Let’s get Gretchen back in here.”
We finished the fitting in record time, with only a little sniping and a few drops of blood to season the air. With Aislynn’s reiteration that the dress would be ready for opening night come hell or high water, Greyson and I left.
Moore and Tennessee surrounded us on the street, eyes peeled for any threats while we waited for the car. I didn’t like moving with a whole host of security, preferring the most trustworthy of my enforcers to act as bodyguards. It wasn’t the most strategic move, especially with an active threat on my head, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t the type to keep just anyone around me.
Basking in the fresh spring air as long as I could, I inhaled with greedy lungs. We’d been under strict lockdown since Rey died, and even my walks around the Marcosa compound were restricted. Sure, I could change the rules for myself, but then the rest of my crew would think that we were safe when we obviously weren’t. If I wanted them to listen, I had to follow directives too.
Sometimes it sucked being the boss.
To my dismay, Geneva pulled the car up less than thirty seconds after we stepped outside. I slid into the back seat, grumbling and wishing I could roll down the window for one more minute of air.
Sighing, I turned as Grey closed the door behind him. “Anywhere else we need to go?”
I wasn’t interested in stopping at the club until it was ready for guests. Otherwise, I was bound to lose my shit.
He pulled out his tablet and swiped through it. His brows furrowed as he swiped back and forth a few times before his shoulders stiffened. Finally, he put the tablet away and answered shortly. “No, we can head home.”
Right, because that didn’t sound ominous at all. “What is it, Greyson?”
He glanced over at me, that cold mask perfectly on display. “Your brother is home.”
Chapter Four
Mari
Your brother is home.
On instinct, my heart beat faster. Antoni. My twin. The other half of my soul. For a split second, the grief I warred with constantly was gone. The pressure behind my breastbone eased. Joy and light and hope thrummed through me.
Then reality crept over me once again, and it all washed away on the air-conditioned breeze. Antoni was long gone. Dead and buried in a city that never loved him like it should have, in a world that he wasn’t built to rule but had been forced to anyway. Just like me.
So, who was Grey talking about?
“Grey?”
“We’ll be home soon.”
Cryptic bastard. He loved making me work for things, forcing my brain to fight to follow his as it twisted and turned at all times. I didn’t know how he lived with it day in and day out. It was exhausting just being near him sometimes. But this felt like something else. Less like a game and more like something he didn’t want me to know.
Not good.
I racked my brain the entire drive home. I had no other siblings, and trust me, I’d looked. My father had been a known manwhore in his prime. That no bastard Marcosa children were running around was a blessing and a shock at the same time. I thought about my cousin Cameron, who was practically a second brother, but Grey would’ve just said his name instead of torturing me. Besides, he was out scouting a new opening-night act.
By the time we pulled into the Marcosa estate, I was two seconds away from throttling him.
Twisting in my seat, I glared. “Greyson, I don’t have time for games. Who is?—”
It was the frustrated smile that gave me my answer. The angry tightness in his jaw that spoke of grinding molars to dust. It hit me like a mallet to the head.
Once, I’d had another sort of brother. A temporary brother. One whom Antoni had loved and Greyson hated.
A boy who’d never felt like a brother at all.
Fuck.
