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“Explain to me how he’s so tricky to understand. So far, he’s a big jackass who’s grumpy all the fucking time. He doesn’t know how to communicate unless it’s to answer a professor’s question or to reply to Coach’s demands. He talks more to those groupie boys who wear those ugly, stinky uniforms than to our group,and he drives like a ruthless maniac!” she summarizes, then points to Zander. “Though he’s better at driving than you.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Zander hums.
“Is it because I’m present that he doesn’t defend you?” she questions Zander. I can tell she’s really mad about this topic.
“Does it upset you that much?” I ask.
She looks over her shoulder, our eyes meeting while I very lightly squeeze her thigh. She lets out a low breath before she mutters, “Aren’t you supposed to be like family? Brothers who have each other’s backs?”
When Zander and I don’t answer, she looks away, but her body relaxes against me.
“You know, I always wanted to have a group of female friends I could rely on. Who gives a shit if there’s only one or two? Just someone I know that no matter rain or shine, they would walk by my side and have my back,” she reveals as she looks at the plentiful passing trees and buildings.
“When I look at you three, I can only assume Domino is the leader of this royal pack of brothers. He’s supposed to take the lead. To express a sense of dominance. That has to be strong enough that one look at your group and they know not to mess with any of you. Not just him.”
She wiggles in my lap again, so she can shift her position by lifting her legs up and stretching them out until they’re lying across Zander’s legs, just next to the steering wheel.
Since he doesn’t say shit, she further relaxes while I’m fixing the seatbelt to accommodate her shift in position. When I’m sure she’s secured, she gives me a quiet thanks and continues.
“Domino’s the head leader. The one who should make a clear decision that doesn’t simply benefit him. It has to benefit everyone in the den, which is essentially you,” she points to me first, then moves her designated finger to Zander. “And you.”
“What about you?” I inquire.
“I’m special,” she says with a wink. “Back there, Domino shouldn’t have let you two walk off without ensuring you weren’t getting into some sort of fistfight or something. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me thinking there’s supposed to be a boy code of some kind. Surely, you guys have one. You know, bros before hoes moral code.”
“You’re right,” I acknowledge. “But… Domino is rather complex in his mindset.”
“That’s only an excuse,” she argues and shakes her head for added measure. “I don’t give a shit if a few screws are missing in his big, empty head. This should be automatic. If not, why the hell are you both loyal to him?”
To be honest, she’s absolutely right.
When did I start being loyal to Domino? Following his commands and being just fine having the three of us in this one big mansion, we worked toward building from the ground up.
“We made a promise to one another,” Zander quietly confesses.
Our eyes are locked on him as he focuses on the road ahead, the car slowing as we approach a red light.
“That mansion we’re in, our little paradise. It was but crumbles before. We’d all made bids on that property, and when we realized another group was going to steal it from us, we decided to make an alliance and combine our bids to claim the property and the leftover assets,” he reveals, triggering my memory from way back then.
A few years ago…
“When we got there, it was pretty laughable,” Zander admits with a low chuckle. “We’d been played.”
“Huh?” She looks shocked at his commentary before she arches an eyebrow his way. “What do you mean, you were played? The property was the wrong one?”
“Oh no, it was there,” I admit and even smile at it because it’s amusing now that the madness of rebuilding it is long over. “Only because we won our competitors decided we didn’t need an ancient mansion with immense worth and history.”
Watching her be so invested in our story motivates us to share.
“They bombed it that night. We didn’t even know until we got the keys that morning and went to claim the place,” Zander sighs. “Should have seen how pale the damn real estate agent became. Just watching her go as white as a fucking ghost while we stared at the crumbles of infrastructure. Heck, there was smoke still rising into the sky. Fucking wild.”
“And you didn’t do anything? Call the police? Report them?” she gasps.
“They wouldn’t do shit,” I calmly admit and even shrug when those beautiful eyes of hers meet my softened ones. “They were in on it. Heck, I’m sure all the old fuckers of Leighton were in on it. Leighton hasn’t favored the young royals until recently. Now, with that Matteo douche making big player moves, matched with us and Domino being either current heirs of our empires or about to claim those spots, is why these old geezers are changing their mindsets.”
“So they set you guys up for failure, hoping you’d say fuck this shit?” she summarizes. “What old bastards!”
“You can say that,” I agree with her. “So, we decided if we’re in on this chaos together, we’d show them just how serious we are in making our mark in this society.”
