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“We can’t get too plastered this early; we have a clinic to swing by,” Eliza reminded us, but we would be fine. This wasn’t our first brunch. Even though I did start off a bit intense, I slowed down and dug into the appetizer that Theon brought out.
Sienna’s phone buzzed, and she swiped a finger before holding it up with a grin. “Did you like our mimosas?”
“Cheers!” Teagan called out to us. Sienna shifted the phone so we could see that she was, in fact, sprawled out in the sand with a drink in hand. “I’m having one with you! What are we celebrating?”
“That I don’t do second dates even when first dates go well?” I summarized and raised my drink. She barked out a laugh at the words, knowing exactly where I was coming from. They’d heard plenty about my dating rules. She disapproved of it almost as much as she hated my need to stay off of social media.
“Well, cheers to that because I had a terrible date with an alpha last night. Do you know how to properly change spark plugs? I don’t either because I tuned him out, but he sure as hell told me. He even made me wipe my feet before getting in his precious car. It was a top ten worst,” she said before I heard her dad’s voice cut in. “Ugh, duty calls. Bye, love you guys, live a little, Hazel!” She hung up before I could say anything back.
“You know… she’s kind of right,” Eliza said. It was a much more gentle delivery, but my glare shut her right up. I knew she was right, we all did, but that didn’t change the facts. My past hadn’t let go of me yet, and I’d never put the guys through that.
The buzzof the tattoo gun does nothing to pull me into the zone this time. I’m so on edge today that I feel like I could fight Maximo and win.Maybe.
“Okay, I can’t take this. Stop,” my twin begged from the tattoo table. I hadn’t even started yet, but he knew me better than he knew himself.
“Sorry,” I mumbled as I started cleaning up everything I’d just meticulously set up. He gave me that moment before speaking up again.
“It’s Hazel, isn’t it?” he asked as I stood up. I brushed nonexistent dust from my shirt, avoiding his eyes, before answering. It was too hard to keep my thoughts to myself when I was with him, and sometimes it was infuriating. The downside of your best friend being your twin was that they always called you on your shit.
“Yes,” I admitted with a frustrated sigh. “I don’t get why she ghosted. Sutton said she’s been icy at work—professional and almost robotic. Something happened, but I don’t get what.”
“You’re a fixer,” he said after a beat of silence, the weight of his stare heavy. “We both are. Let’s crash our brother’s meeting and figure out what to do.”
He didn’t wait for my answer before walking out. I closed up the shop since we were the only ones in there this early and followed him out. His obnoxiously nice car sat at the curb, and I climbed in the passenger side. There was no point driving since Alessandro had his car. He wouldn’t hear of it, and if I insisted on driving myself, he’d just get all huffy about it later. It irritated him to no end that I drove an old beat-up pickup truck that I didn’t give a fuck about. All I cared about was that it ran, but my twin had much pricier standards.
The house was far too quiet when we entered. Between Maximo’s pack and Valentina, things wereneverquiet.What is going on?
“Hello?” I called out. There was a click of a door before Valentina’s light footsteps made it down the hall toward us. She looked more frazzled than usual, and her voice was hushed.
“Thank fuck you two are here. Maximo is in a mood, and I’m about ready to lose my damn mind,” she admitted. “Did the date go that badly?”
My eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. “No. They didn’t tell you how it went?”
“Nothing,” she said bitterly, throwing up her hands. “I present you with this amazing omega, and I get not a damn word in return.”
“It went fantastic. That’s the issue,” Alessandro answered.
Now it was Valentina who was lost. “Explain.”
“She ghosted us. It was the best date of our lives, and now she won’t even talk to Sutton at work,” he continued on before walking into the sitting room and collapsing. We followed him in, and she delicately sat in the empty chair beside him.
“She really ghosted you? Wow, she didn’t seem the type,” she said quietly. Her mind was already spinning with a way to fix this. As much as she played the fun aunt, she cared about us all too much to sit by when we were this upset. “Something had to have happened.”
“I think it’s personal.” Zaven walked right in and sat next to me on the couch. He was observant, intensely so, meaning if anyone had real insight as to where things went south, it would be him. “She had a great time. But I did notice this slight shift in her demeanor every so often. She’d catch herself laughing, and something like panic would dim those bright eyes and smile.”
“Rough ex?” I wondered aloud as my hands curled into fists. Just the idea of someone hurting that sassy, sweet omega had me ready to murder them. And I was the black sheep of our mafia family! I didn’t do the murder and torture around here.
“Maybe. Or she’s on the run,” Alessandro mused like it was the most exciting idea of all time. “A fugitive, perhaps?”
“I checked,” Maximo’s voice added in. He and Sutton strode in, and the tension in the room rose significantly. Valentina was right; my brother was in a mood. Maximo’s shoulders were tense. Every damn fiber of his being radiated violence for the next person who crossed him. Sutton just looked fucking miserable. “When she didn’t call back and Sutton mentioned her attitude at work, I looked her up. As far as social media and google searching goes, she’s a ghost.”
“The plot thickens,” Alessandro added as he wiggled his eyebrows. “That makes hersomuch sexier.”
“Nowadays, it’s almost impossible to be a ghost. Pictures, videos,somethingalways ends up on the internet, which means it’s on purpose,” Valentina observed, her keen stare bouncing between all of us.
“Who’s going to intervene?” I asked pointedly. “Obviously, we liked her enough to have this bullshit conversation. She’s not a fucking fugitive, and who cares if she’s got secrets? We’re the fucking mob, so do we! Someone needs to figure out why she’s avoiding a second date. She’s not even giving us a reason, just the cold shoulder.”
“We’re out. I’ve had my chance, and Maximo is anything but subtle,” Sutton said as soon as I finished speaking. Maximo grunted in response, which was the equivalent of an agreement when he was stuck in angry caveman mode.
