“Hurry up!” the woman replies.
Alfie turns to leave the room. “Wait here,” he says and then runs out.
Yeah, because that’s going to happen.I’m just going to sit here while he does whatever with some woman who just let herself into his house.I don’t bring woman to my home, my ass.
Picking up my clutch and shoes, I follow him out of the room. I can hear yelling as I make my way down the stairs. There are more voices and someone’s grunting. I stop short when I reach the bottom step. The once-pristine white marble floors are painted with red. Blood pools in one spot before there’s a trail of it across the floor.
Following both the blood and the loud voices, I find Alfie in a living room. His brother and cousins are all standing around while a woman is screaming at them hysterically. Alfie, though? He’s bent over a guy on the ground. As I get closer, I recognize him. CJ, one of the cousins. His skin is pale.
Blood… there’s so much blood.
Alfie’s hands are covering CJ’s abdomen. “Where’s the doc?” he asks Hudson.
“On his way. Another three minutes.”
“Fuck. What the fuck happened?” Alfie yells at the woman, who has gone from screaming at the guys to standing still with tears running down her face.
“I… He jumped in front of me,” she says.
“Of course he fucking did. Fucking idiot,” Alfie grunts.
“Worth it,” CJ says through gritted teeth.
Alfie’s eyes connect with mine. “Fuck,” he curses and looks to his brother.
Something silent passes between them before Hudson makes his way over to me. Wrapping his arm around my shoulder, he starts leading me out of the room.
“I’m starving. Let me show you where Alfie hides the good stuff. He thinks no one knows where his stash is, but we all know,” Hudson whispers as if he’s sharing a secret.
I look back over my shoulder. Alfie is staring at me. I want to tell Hudson that I don’t need to see where Alfie keeps the “good stuff,” whatever that even means. What I need to do is get the hell out of dodge.
Instead, I find myself letting Hudson take me through the house into the kitchen.
Dropping his arm from around me, he walks over to a door. “You see, he thought he was smart with this,” he says as he knocks on a plain wall in some weird pattern. “Alfie likes tech and gadgets. And between you and me, I think thathe thinkshe’s some kind of top secret spy with the hidden rooms and shit he has around this house. Although I’ve never been able to find his armory.”
“Armory?” I ask.
“Yeah, he’s got a safe somewhere with all the fun toys.” Hudson shrugs as the wall opens. Literally opens.
Okay, that is kind of cool.
I walk up behind Hudson and find a small pantry stocked up with every kind of sugary snack you can think of.
“Told you, the good stuff.” Hudson smirks as he walks in. “What’s your poison?”
“Mmm, I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth,” I admit. I also don’t have an appetite after seeing all that blood.
“Makes sense.” Hudson chuckles.
“How so?”
“Well, you’re dating my brother and he’s about as sour as they come.” He laughs at his own joke.
“Is he going to be okay?” I lean back against the doorway.
“Alfie? He’s always okay. And if he’s not, no one would ever know it.”
“No, your cousin?”
