His eyes narrow and drop to mine.
“Are you in the city? Good. Yeah, we’ll be there shortly.”
I watch as he shoves his phone back in his pocket.
“Do I get to know what’s going on?”
“Julian asked us to meet with him at his place here in town,” he replies. “So we should head that way.”
His face is almost pensive.
“Are you okay?”
“There will always be things that come up that interrupt these quiet moments with you. It just is what it is. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be times that I resent the fuck out of it.”
“We’ll have lots of quiet moments, Mateo.”
He nods once and kisses my forehead again. “Let’s go.”
Twenty-Six
MATEO
After parking in the underground lot at Julian’s building, Violet and I take our helmets off and leave them with the bike. With a nod to Julian’s guards, I lead her to the elevator and press my palm on the plate for the penthouse.
“All of you have penthouses,” she muses. “That screams organized crime. You know that, right?”
“It screams wealth, Savage.” I smirk and kiss her head as the doors open and we step inside. Once again, I press my hand to the screen, and then we’re ascending to the top floor.
The doors open right into Julian’s home. He and his wife recently renovated this entire floor, taking it down to the studs and starting over again. It’s only been livable for a few weeks. Most of the time, Julian and Natasha live at their mansion outside of town, but Julian likes to keep this place so they have somewhere convenient to go when business runs late.
Music fills the air as we walk inside, and Violet grins from ear to ear as the piano comes into view and we see Natasha and Julian sitting on the bench together, their fingers flying over the keys.
“Wow,” Violet whispers as we hang back and watch. I know that Julian is aware that we’re here. He caught my eye in thereflection of their windows, but they don’t miss a note as they finish the song.
When the last note echoes through the room, Violet applauds, making Natasha giggle and Julian smirk.
“That wasbeautiful,” Violet says. “What else can you play?”
She walks over to stand beside the baby grand piano, and I join her.
“We can play pretty much anything,” Natasha says with a shrug, and then glances up at her husband. With a grin she starts to play an Adele song, and Julian joins her, and with her jaw hanging open, Violet watches intently.
I knew that Julian could play, but I had no idea that they played together. It’s a side to my brother than no one gets to see, and the only reason he’s showing us now is because his wife wants him with her.
We’ve all become a bunch of big softies for our girls.
Who would have thought?
When the song is over, Violet applauds again, and Julian leans over to kiss Natasha’s hair before he stands.
“Well, that was fun,” Violet says with a grin. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
My brother laughs and shakes his head. “Who gives a fuck if people know that I enjoy spending time with my wife. I dare them to say a word to me about it. Now, we need to talk.”
“Oh, I’ll go—” Natasha begins, but Julian reaches for her hand and squeezes.
“You’ll stay,” he replies simply. “I like having you with me.”
