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I continued to ignore him as I plowed on. “Despite that remarkably idiotic decision, you were doing it for a good reason.” I met my brother’s hopeful gaze and promptly smacked him upside the head. Edmund yelped and jerked back, hand flying up to rub the abused spot. “Do not ever lie to me again.”
Still rubbing and working hard not to appear disgruntled, he nodded. “I swear.”
I shook my head and shoved up to my feet. “What happened to the girl?”
Edmund followed me. His shoulders moved up in a shrug. “She vanished as soon as Ivan and I got into it.”
“She probably saw it as the distraction she needed to get away from him,” I mused. “She was most likely one of the street girls they keep around.”
Edmund was shaking his head even before I finished my sentence. “No, she wasn’t. I can’t explain it, Darius, but she wasn’t like any girl I’d ever seen.”
So, my little brother was love-struck by some girl he met once in a night club that ended in murder. I wasn’t going to argue with him.
“Do me a favor,” I said instead.
“Anything,” he said immediately.
I bit back the grin threatening to darken my face. “Keep this to yourself. No one else needs to know any of this. It won’t change anything.”
Edmund hesitated. “But Mom and Dad—”
“What?” I challenged. “What will they do? Ivan is still dead. The damage was done. The rest is merely semantics. Keep it to yourself.”
He seemed to struggle with the decision, but he agreed reluctantly.
“Good.” I pulled him in for a hug and was relieved when he returned it with a hard squeeze. “There is one other thing you could do to make me feel better.” I pulled back to grin into his puzzled expression. “You can name your first born after me.”
Edmund groaned and shoved me back. “I am not naming my kid Darius. It’s a dumb name.”
I gasped, hand flying to my chest. “How dare you. You’re dumb.”
For the first time since I got home, Edmund laughed and punched my shoulder. “Your face is dumb.”
Hooking my arm around his neck, I yanked him in a choke hold that had him sputtering and flailing.
“Not the hair. Not the hair!” he exclaimed, trying to shove me off.
“Dumb face, huh?” I dug my knuckles into his scalp and rubbed, sending him cursing and punching my sides.
I let him go just as he heaved, and the momentum nearly landed him on his ass.
“You fucker!” he cried, struggling to push down his tussled hair.
Snickering, I strolled to the door. “Love you, too.”
Not waiting for a response, I stepped back into the chaos. I found my parents standing by the open terrace doors. Mom spotted me first and beamed.
“Hello sweetheart,” she said when I joined them. “How are you enjoying yourself so far?”
I met my father’s raised eyebrow from over her head and gave a slight nod. “It’s fine.”
Feeling like something useful had been accomplished that night, I turned my attention to the party, searching the blur of faces for the only one that mattered, but there were too many and they were everywhere. If Kami was somewhere in that mess, I wasn’t going to find her without doing multiple laps through all that tangled mess.
“She’s not here yet,” Mom said softly.
I glanced down at her, and she gave me a teasing smirk. “Who?”
She arched a brow as if to say,really? That’s the game you want to play?
