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I bite my lip to hide the ridiculous grin trying to break free. “Finneas Fox, the romantic,” I tease while leaving.
“Tell anyone and I’ll kill ’em,” he shouts after me.
I laugh, and all I can think ishow the hell did we get here?
Who knew lunch with your family’s biggest enemies and rivals could be so pleasant?
Harlow and Stella are lovely and funny, and it feels good to not be the only girl in the room—or outside table.
Alfie has not shut up about the mac and cheese, and why didn’t they get macaroni salad instead so that he doesn’t “blow up the bathroom” later. While on the other hand, Roman hasn’t said more than three words.
And the Foxes…well, they almost seem like normal brothers. If you ignore the fact that when someone makes a joke about stabbing the other, they actually pull out a blade.
But there’s an air of camaraderie and equality that I never see between my brothers. Sure, my brothers are close, but there’s always the edge of competition and the need to prove one is more deserving of the Luciano name.
I find it fascinating. Observing them all together, picking up small character quirks. Cash is the clear leader, but he doesn’t act like he’s better than the other three. Roan is easy to read, wears his emotions on his sleeve and is the quickest to get upset. Lochlan, the baby of the group, seems to annoy everyone the most, yet makes everyone laugh the most.
Finn is just as quiet and brooding as ever, but there’s a lightness to the set of his shoulders, a loosening of his jaw. He brushes his hair out of his face, and his deep, green eyes lock with mine across the table. I feel a zap of energy crackle between us and settle in my core. His eyes darken subtly and the corner of his mouth ticks like he knows exactly what I’m feeling. His eyes drop to my lips while he licks his own and—
“What the fuck did you just say?”His head whips at Lochlan seated next to me, and anger twists his features.
Lochlan laughs it off. “I was commending Effie on a great home video.”
“You fucking watched it?” Finn growls. He stands and leans across the table, his fingers whiten on the table and his muscles are wound tight, ready to pounce.
“An Oscar-worthy performance.”
Humiliation lands like a fucking bomb in my stomach. I look down at my plate and wish I could evaporate into thin air.
“That’s mywife.”Finn reacts as fast as a viper, grabbing him by the collar and yanking him out of his chair. His other hand holds a switchblade right under Lochlan’s eye. “I should carve your fucking eyes out.”
No one else at the table has moved, looking, quite frankly, unbothered while I’m frozen from embarrassment.
“Chill dude, if it was gonna get your panties in such a twist, you shouldn’t have left it on the family cloud. Plus, I didn’t think you’d care after you sent it to half the city.” Another bomb detonates in my stomach.Half the city?
Finn’s face flashes from rage to hurt then back so quickly that I almost miss it. “It wasn’t half the city. It was one fucking person, and I’ll have to live with the knowledge that I almost killed the one fucking good thing in my life because of it.” He releases his brother with a shove. “Now sit the fuck down, and if you ever disrespect my wife again, it won’t matter that you’re my brother.”
The table is quiet as Finn takes his seat. A heavy silence hangs in the air until Alfie clears his throat and all heads turn to him. “Um, weren’t we gonna play badminton or something?”
The tension is cut as the table breaks into laughter, but I’m still stewing in the fact that the person sitting next to me has seen me in my most degrading moment. I look up at Finn and he’s already staring at me, apology rich in his eyes.
I know he regrets what he did, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Doesn’t mean I don’t feel violated all over again. As people move to the lawn, Finn and I are the only ones left at the table.
“Which parts?” I finally speak. “Which parts of the video did he see?”
Finn takes a deep breath before responding, “If he watched what I sent Hudson, then just enough to get the idea.”
“How much, Finn?”
“You unzip my pants and the first stroke, then I cut it to you cleaning up,” he says it so clinically, devoid of emotion. It hurts him to relive what he’s done. He’s no longer pleased with my humiliation or satisfied by taunting me.
“You warned me something like this would happen,” I say, remembering his last words as I left the kitchen the day I failed to hack his computer. He nods solemnly. “Do you still believe what happened is on me?”
We’ve been sitting across from each other like colleagues at a meeting, but now he gets up and comes to sit in the empty chair next to me. He spins me in my seat, hands on my thighs between his legs. “Listen to me, Effie, what happened isnotyour fault. We’ve both hurt each other, double crossed each other, but you almost getting killed? That’s on me and me alone.”
I sigh, a relief lifting in my chest because I know I’m not innocent in this, far from it, but hearing Finn acknowledge his role in the damage heals something inside me.
“And I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for it.” He cups my cheek and I lean into the warmth of his rough palm. “I’m not a good person, and I’ll never be able to atone for all my sins. But if there’s one sin I’ll pay penance for every fucking day, it’s ever putting you in danger.”
