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No change.
Kat sat on one side of the bed, one hand on top of Sadie’s as she stared at Virgil on the other side of the bed. Tears swam in Kat’s eyes, but she was tough and never let them fall.
The automatic sliding door hissed as it opened, drawing attention away from Sadie and over to me. Virgil looked over his shoulder and nodded before his gaze went back to Sadie’s still form. So many thoughts and emotions swam in his eyes, but Virgil was the strong, silent type. Emphasis on silent.
“Nice of you to stop by, big brother.” Kat’s snarling welcome pissed me off. She had no idea what the fuck I had on my plate, namely the whole Ashby Organization, and it was none of her fucking business.
I took a step inside the room and waited until the door slid shut behind me. “I don’t have time for your shit, Kat.”
She stood and folded her arms, blue eyes staring daggers at me. “There’s a lot you don’t seem to have time for, especially now that you’re forced to take charge of everything without Ma’s help.”
Kat’s brows arched upward, her lips tipped into a sneering smile, the same expression she wore as a kid when she managed to get away with everything.
“Yeah, Kat, this is exactly how I wanted to finally control everything. With Sadie in a fucking coma. Go back to work and actually earn your salary for once.”
She winced as if my words were fists, gasping in shock at my words.
“Fuck you, Jas. You may be in charge, but we both know that without me, you’d have no place to clean all that cash.” Kat put a hand to her chest and looked at Virgil and then back to me. “Unless, I’m sorry, did Lucky Lopez suddenly become a business pulling in hundreds of millions a year?”
She rolled her eyes and let out a huff of disgust.
“You think you can do a better fucking job, Kat? Be my guest. You wouldn’t last one fucking day in my shoes, guaran-fucking-teed.”
Everyone thought it was so easy to be the head of the snake, but along with the benefit of making all the decisions came the risk, not just to myself but to every employee and family member.
“Just stick to what you do best and leave the real work to me.”
She sucked in another breath, blue eyes blazing with fire. Before she could come at me again with that viper tongue of hers, I moved up close to her face, sick of everyone getting on my ass.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? I’m busting my ass for this family, for all of you, and all I get is grief. What more do you want?”
Her eyes blazing, she spat back at me. “How about finding the fucks who did this to Ma instead of shitting all over the rest of us. Or drinking yourself into a coma day in or day out.”
I growled, “Oh, you think I have an attitude problem, sugarplum? You with that acid tongue of yours? Or Cal, who can’t get his head out of his ass to pay attention to any of us? There isn’t one of you pulling the load I have since Ma’s been in the hospital.”
With one final shake of her head and a kiss for Sadie, she snarled, “Fuck you, Jasper. Asshole.” And walked out of the room, leaving just me and Virgil.
“Real smooth,” Virgil laughed and shook his head.
I shrugged. “Fuck her. She was out of line, and I’m sick of her shit. You think I don’t want to be here, checking on Sadie every damn day? I do, but somebody has to make sure the machine keeps churning.”
Virgil stood and wandered to the other side of the room, just staring out the window for a minute, nodding thoughtfully.
Kat was the master of spouting her mouth off and then playing the victim when her feelings were hurt. If anyone outside the family hurt her, I would make them hurt ten times worse, but it was my job as her older brother, her boss, to toughen her up.
My thoughts ran along that line for a long minute and then I had a picture of our family. How we were before Sadie’s shooting and how we were now.
Yeah, we were a contentious bunch, but not like now. These days I worried we were coming apart at the seams. Without Sadie at the helm, we might not hold it together. Instead of uniting in our grief and our fear, we were eating each other alive. These fucks had better get it together, I said to myself, meaning my family. I needed a shot of Velvet Fire to cool down my own fever pitch of anxiety, but then I caught Virgil giving me an all-knowing look.
