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“Because they’re too soft to do what needs doing!” Apollo snapped in perfect imitation of his father, then looked instantly apologetic. “Just... Leave the stuff you don’t understand, babe. Please.” He sighed and looked at Valen. “At least put the niece in the backseat,” he said resignedly, as though that would make me forgive him for his outburst.
“I’ll leave you to your night of petty crime,” I told them and made to walk out.
Apollo reached for me, but I kept my arm out of his grasp.
“Leave the stuff you don’t understand,” I repeated back to him as I headed out the door.
“Fuck!” I heard Apollo yell.
Before I reached the top of the cheeky service stairs, Valen was beside me.
“Does he think promoting you to babysitting duty is going to make me feel better about this?” I asked him.
“You’re fine with me killing people,” Valen said as we headed down the stairs, “but Apollo talking about kidnapping someone is appalling? You expect that little from the big, bad wolf but not your prince charming?”
I stopped and looked at him. “It’s thewayhe discussed it. Like it didn’t even matter. Like–”
“How do you think the Kincaids plan their assassinations, princess?” he asked quietly. “You think we sit around with our blankies and hot chocolate, crying about who gets to do it?”
“I...” didn’t know what to say. “No...?”
“Then, what?”
I blinked a few times. “I don’t know.”
“This is our lives, princess. We live this every day. People die. Kids are used as leverage. We run fights. We take bets on car races. We handle weapons, putting in thousands of hours of training to make sure we don’t kill the wrong people. This is our world. Your world. And no amount of wishing otherwise will make it so. I suggest you do as your forebears have done and look the other way.”
I glared at him. “So, you think I’m soft, too.”
He took a step towards me. Then another. On his third, I took a step back and hit the wall behind me.
“I think you can handle anything Apollo can, and more. But you don’t have to, so I’d rather you didn’t have to worry about it.”
“It was okay when I was worrying about what Ithoughtyou got up to. But now I know, it’s not okay?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Well then, what are you saying?”
He hit the wall beside my head with his open palm and beared down on me. “If I could change this world, I would,” he snarled.
The unsaid words lingered in the air between us.If I could change this world for you...
Then his voice lowered, but it was no less vehement. “But no amount of wishing it otherwise will make it so.”
His nose almost imperceptibly brushed mine, then my cheek, before his head hung over my shoulder.
“No amount of wishing, love.”
When it felt like my heart would crack, he pushed himself away.
“Come,” he commanded as he continued. “Vinnie’ll be out for blood when he hears what stunt God’s pulled now.”
I put my hand on his arm and he jerked away.
“Whose blood, Valen?”
“Whoever’s he can get.”
