AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I pulled up to the gate and hit a button on the call box. A man’s voice blared through the speaker, and I gave him my name. The gate buzzed, then moved inward, so I could drive onto the property.
I swallowed hard, clearing the lump forming at the back of my throat. We couldn’t bring our brothers with us. And we definitely couldn’t let Alex tag along for the ride. My grandfather was cautious and calculated, planned every moment of his life down to the second. Bringing our entire family to The Hamptons without an invitation would have set off red flags.
I brought bullshit paperwork for Atlantic Airlines with me. Documents Luca had The Serpents forge to make them look like the real thing. That was their specialty. The Serpents could make anything fake look real. Everything from famous paintings and works of art to bank checks.
The documents would get us in the door without a guard putting a bullet in our skulls. No doubt my grandfather would be on high alert after his plan fell through. We still didn’t know what he wanted from Carl Wellington’s black book. He must have dirt on him even his money couldn’t erase.
I parked in the circular driveway and tapped Damian on the shoulder. “D, you gotta get your head in the game. I can’t do this without you.”
He shifted in the seat and staredthroughme.
“Say something.”
“I’m good,” he muttered, and then opened his door.
Damian was more traumatized by our one-month stay with my grandfather than me. I was too busy trying to console him to worry about myself. For most of my life, I felt like his keeper. Even my brothers relied on me to control Damian. Sometimes it was fucking exhausting. Like I had a grown child.
As we walked toward the house, the front doors swung open. Two guards held them open as my grandfather strolled into the foyer. The old bastard was nearing his eightieth birthday and still looked like he was in his late fifties.
When I was a kid, I wondered if he was a warlock, or had some kind of magic, so he wouldn’t age. And then I realized he was pure fucking evil. The Devil incarnate. He never seemed human to me, like he wasn’t even from this world.
“Fitzy,” I said as I passed by the guards, mentally preparing myself for a battle. “You look well.”
He didn’t like being called grandfather or any variation of the name because it made him feel old.
The old man smirked as our eyes met. “And you look tired. Busy running after the Wellington girl, I see.” He shook his head, disgust scrolling across his face. “Carl is weak for not putting a stop to that.”
He’d already voiced his opinion about my relationship with Alex. People his age couldn’t wrap their heads around a polyamorous relationship, especially one that involved my brothers. I couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t something I had considered until Alex entered our lives.
Luca hated her too much to touch her, let alone marry her. So he tasked Damian and me with tormenting her, all because he couldn’t get over his anger. If he hadn’t hated her so much, none of us would have ever gotten involved. We would have let him have her.
His initial loss was our gain.
“Busy with Atlantic Airlines,” I shot back, ignoring his statement about Alex.
She was none of his business.
He tipped his head at the folder in my hand. “Is that for me?”
I nodded.
His gaze drifted to Damian. He eyed him with the same evil glint in his eyes as the first time we walked into his home. Damian refused to look him directly in the eyes. Fitzy was the only person who had ever gotten under his skin. Made him uncomfortable.
He surveyed Damian for a few more seconds, then spun on his heels. “Come with me.”
We walked in complete silence down the long marble hallway, decorated in various works of art from the Renaissance. Alex would have loved his collection. She was obsessed with da Vinci, Raphael, Botticelli, and all the greats. This house looked like a museum, with its white walls and floors, expensive but tasteful art. Most of the guards on the property were here to protect the rare collectibles.
We had accounted for the guards before we arrived. Marcello cut the live feeds and replaced them with a static image that would loop until we were off the estate.
Once inside his office on the second floor, I sat on a worn leather couch beside Damian. The room didn’t match the rest of the house. It looked like a saloon from an old Western movie. A long wooden bar stretched across the right side of the space. The furniture was old and smelled of cigars. He even had dead animal heads mounted in various places on the walls, with the largest one hanging over the fireplace.
I hated this house.
Hated this room.
And I hated him.
Just being in this room turned my stomach. Damian shifted awkwardly beside me, his thigh brushing mine. I wanted to put my hand on his knee to calm him down. But I knew my grandfather would see that as a weakness.
