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For a while, I just stand there, even after his car has disappeared from view. Warm morning air smelling of stone and pine trees fill my lungs as I draw in a deep breath.
Because maybe, just maybe, I might have at last managed to fool that beautiful mafia prince for good.
14
RICO
The door to my bedroom is yanked open. It produces a bang that almost rattles the windows as it slams into the wall out in the hallway. I shoot upright, my hand already halfway to my gun before I realize that I know exactly who it is.
“Alright, get up,” Jace orders as he saunters into my room with Kaden behind him.
“Fuck off,” I reply, as I lie back down again.
The orange and red light from the setting sun shines in through the windows. Admittedly, it’s far too early to go to bed. But I was up most of the night, kidnapping Isabella and then sitting in a forest watching her for hours, so I haven’t exactly slept much since yesterday. And I also needed space to think.
Pain flares through my shoulder as something hard suddenly smacks into it. I sit up again, grabbing the object that slammed into me.
Raising my eyebrows, I lock incredulous eyes on Jace while holding up the long hard item. “Did you just throw a bat at me?”
“Yes.” He snatches it from my hand, spins it expertly, and then levels it at my chest. “That’s what you get for moping around.”
“I’m not moping.”
Kaden shoots me a look while nonchalantly dropping into one of the armchairs by the wall. “You’re moping.”
“See?” Jace says, still pointing the bat at me.
“Get that bat out of my face,” I mutter.
That damn troublemaker grin spreads across Jace’s mouth as he keeps the bat right where it is.
I snatch up the gun from my nightstand and flick my wrist, motioning expectantly with the weapon. “I said, get that bat out of my face.”
From his place in the armchair, Kaden snickers. Jace just rolls his eyes at me, but he does lower his damn bat.
My mattress bounces as he instead flops down at the foot of the bed, stretching his arms out above his head and letting the bat dangle off the side. His massive frame takes up nearly half of the fucking space, so I kick him in the side. He raises his head and narrows his eyes at me. With slow and menacing movements, he lifts his bat and points it at me in warning. I chuckle.
He grins at me and then lies back down on the bed.
I move so that I’m sitting with my back against the dark wooden headboard, and then look expectantly between the two of them. “So, did you want something or are you just here to annoy the crap out of me?”
“You’ve hit a wall with Isabella, haven’t you?” Kaden says, not unkindly. But it’s more of a statement than a question.
Damn those eyes of his that always see too much.
Drawing my legs up, I rest my elbows on my knees and heave a deep sigh. “Yeah.”
Silence descends on the room. It keeps stretching. At one point, Jace looks like he’s about to say something. But Kaden shoots him a sharp look, and he closes his mouth again. I don’t know whether to laugh or curse.
Kaden has many ways of making people talk. This is one of them. He asks a question that someone doesn’t really want to answer, and then just sits there quietly and watches them with those dark eyes of his until his victim can’t take it anymore and starts filling the silence even though they didn’t want to.
I know exactly what he’s doing. But somehow it still works. Damn merciless bastard.
“Threatening her doesn’t work,” I say, drawing my fingers through my hair before raising my head again. “Humiliating her doesn’t work. Surprising her doesn’t work.” I force out a harsh breath. “Nothing fucking works.”
“You know that thing about the flies and the alcohol?” Jace says from where he’s still sprawled along the foot of my bed.
I frown at him. “What?”
