“It’s not that simple. There’s more to this marriage than just signing the papers.”
“Oh?”
I bit my lip, arguing with myself over how to explain our predicament, how to tell this gorgeous woman who we truly were and what we did to afford everything we had.
“Fuck sake.” Lucas interrupted. “What Levi is trying to say is that you have a test coming up—very fucking soon, I might add.”
“A test?” Her face scrunched as if this were a joke, and we were trying to get another rise out of her. “O-kay…” Tessa pouted, her brows knitting before rolling her lips together in thought. “Care to elaborate a little further? Because this doesn’t sound as devastating as the look on your faces when I entered the kitchen…”
Alright, here we fucking go…
“Luke and I are, essentially, contract killers. We’re members of a secret society that owns and runs this city. Similar to what you’d imagine the mafia would do, except that isn’t what we are. Now and again, we’re assigned tasks to take the lives of those who get in the organization’s way or are deemed…problematic, and can’t be allowed to roam free on the streets.” I spoke faster than usual, anxious and unsure of what to say next.
To no fucking surprise, Tessa’s jaw fell to the floor, gaping at the two of us. She’d fallen completely silent from the overload of information, and I couldn’t blame her. I had a similar reaction when Lucas brought it up over six years ago.
“ I-uh… You—You’re—You do—Mother of fucking god…” She stammered before muttering the last few words to herself. “Is there more that youhaven’ttold me?”
“No… That’s pretty much it.” I winced, looking for additional assistance from Lucas, who just sighed and palmed his forehead as ifI were a total idiot. I may be the oldest, I may be more mature, but for the fucking life of me I couldn’t figure out the best way to tell Tessa everything she needed to know.
“Okay, fine, so when’s my test?”
“That’s it? ‘Okay, fine?’That’s all you have to say after hearing that terrible half-assed explanation from Levi?” Lucas mocked, laughing like he had just lost his damn mind. We were so fucked.
“Well, by the sound of it, I only have one option, right? I have to go through with my test, because I’m assuming the only alternative is death? Why would I want to choose the latter?” She was so calm and unbothered after learning that her husbands were, well, murderers.Maybe the devil does wear Prada, and occasionally a pink fucking wig.
“Let me just make sure we areallon the same fucking page here… None of what I just said puts you off? Scares you?” I was questioning my own damn sanity at this point.
“I grew up in Hollywood… I’ve seen and experienced far worse than any secret society could throw at me. And if it means staying alive and keeping both of you, then… I guess I’m all in.” Tessa was so perky about all of this. She made it seem so fucking easy. “And now that we’ve cleared the air and you’re both aware of my stance on the matter, are you going to answer my question? When is it?”
“We don’t know.” Lucas and I echoed.
“Tasks are assigned through text message or email roughly twenty-four hours prior—”
“And based on a tentative timeline we had initially been given, I’d expect to have the information within the next day orso…”
Tessa shook her head and rolled her eyes, treating this as no more than a minor inconvenience.
“You two sure know how to leave something important until the very last minute, don’t you?”
“We didn’t want to scare you off, princess…”
“You’re too important to us, now more than ever…” I added after my brother, taking her left hand in mine, I rolled her ring between my fingers—the symbol of our eternal love and unbreakable vow to her.
Tessa was everything and more.
The sun, the moon, the stars—the entire fucking galaxy…
She was ours.
