Riot let Aniyah pull her exactly three steps from the edge of the crowd before she stopped, hovering there, stiff as a guard dog. Her eyes scanned the room like she expected something with teeth to come crawling out from behind the bar or the speakers.
Nova, bless her, didn’t even fight it. She let Aniyah drag her straight into the chaos—spinning, laughing, hair whipping—like she’d been waiting all week for the excuse.
They disappeared into the bodies, but of course, Aniyah’s voice didn’t.
“I need birthday dick!” she yelled over the music, announcing like it was last call at a charity event.
I pinched the bridge of my nose.
That was now item number one hundred and thirteen on the list of things an older brother should never have to know about his little sister.
Aniyah always treated that list like a suggestion. Her pure enjoyment from torturing her older brother superseded any thoughts to take pity on me.Brat.
She was going to live in Mom’s shoes one day. I’d bet money on it. Same mouth. Same fire. Same way of turning a room into her stage without even trying.
Whoever ended up with her was going to need patience, stamina, and a death wish, but she’d be worth it.
All of them were.
I watched my sisters move through the club like they owned the place. Beautiful. Sharp. Dangerous in that effortless way that made other people orbit them without realizing.
It was one of the reasons I never bothered keeping a lot of guy friends. They always did the same thing.
They’d meet my sisters. Their eyes would light up. Then they’d hit me with theYo, can you set me up?
I wouldn't, but eventually they would catch one of my sister’s eyes and end up dating.
Then the relationship would crash and burn, because most men were idiots, and suddenly I’d be standing there, weighing how I was going to kill him for wasting my sister’s time.
It was all so exhausting.
A voice cut through the noise beside me.
“How’s the turbo project going?”
Ezra slid into the booth like she belonged there, calm, composed, already two steps ahead of whatever was happening. She set a shot down between us.
I took it without thinking, seeing her hand out with a shot in it.
Glass met glass, and we tossed them back like it was water.
Hellfire hit my throat, and I slowly exhaled through my nose as it burned its way down. The heat settled in my belly first before spreading though my body, the warmth easing my muscles.
“Good,” I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “Finished the carburetor. I just need to take it out for a test drive.”
Ezra nodded once, approval clean and simple, as her eyes scanned the club.
Aniyah and Nova flashed in and out between bodies, hands in the air, laughing. Nova’s head was thrown back while Aniyah was making eyes with every man and woman on the dance floor, loving the music and attention.
Ezra watched them like a hawk.
I did too.
It wasn’t even a choice. It was muscle memory. The oldest siblings didn’t get to relax. We got tomonitor.It was our job.
There was only a year and an a half gap between Ezra and Nova, but it had never mattered. The lines were drawn a long time ago.
Me and Ezra, then the rest of them. Our little sisters.
