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CHAPTER 1
MARCUS
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Leo? You were supposed to rescue Tia Monani,” I accused.
“And so I did,” claimed my brother in a bald-faced lie.
“No! You didn’t rescue her. Youkidnappedher,” I corrected angrily.
“Kidnapped is such an ugly word, Marcus. I mean, did I ask her for her express permission before I saved her from a bad situation? No. But we were running out of time,” argued Leo.
“Not to mention the fact that you’d actually have to talk to her like an adult for once, instead of hurling insults like you always do.”
“Look, you can call it whatever you like. All I know is that I did what I had to do, and she’s safe now. I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about it.”
“I’ll tell you why I’m making a big deal about it. It’s because if the idiot CEO of The Donovan Group ends up in jail for kidnapping the sister of his mortal enemy, it’s going to send our shares plummeting.”
“Again with the kidnapping?” he snapped.
“Well, you kinda crossed the line when you knocked her out and threw her into the back of your car without her consent,” I snarled, furious that I even had to say this aloud.
Leo should have known better, for fuck’s sake. Tia was within her rights to call the cops on him, and he’d go straight to jail. But my brother could never think straight when it came to Tia Monani. When he discovered that she was about to be pimped out to a mobster by her own brother, there was no way he could walk away. I understood that, but what I couldn’t understand was why he had to go to such extreme lengths to extract her from the situation. A simple conversation could have saved us a lot of trouble, I reflected as I prodded my twin, Luke, on the shoulder.
“Is it done already? Why is it taking so long?” I asked worriedly.
“If you don’t stop prodding me, I’m going to rip that finger out and stuff it where the sun don’t shine,” warned Luke, who could be a little…intensewhen he was working.
We were trying to erase the footage of every camera that was aimed at the alley from where Leo had kidnapped Tia. Okay, Luke was trying to erase the footage, while I stood behind him and railed at our older brother for putting us in this position. Hacking into traffic cameras had to be a federal crime, and the last thing we needed was for the FBI to bust down our doors right now.
I didn’t know why I was cursed with such brothers. It seemed as if I had spent my entire life putting out the fires they started. Leo lived up to his name. He was fearless and reckless - qualities that had served him well in the corporate world, but it seemed to be my lot in life to ensure that he didn’t suffer for that impetuousness. Case in point - the kidnapping of Tia Monani.
Meanwhile, Luke should have been named Lucifer, for all the troublehecaused. He was a tech genius a real prodigy according to his teachers at Caltech. He played as hard as he worked, and when he got into trouble doing both those things, guess who had to bail him out?
“Yo, Saint Marcus?” he called.
That’s right! Saint Marcus had to ride to rescue his sorry ass every single time. And was the idiot grateful at all? Not he! Look at the way he called me names! I should have let him fly off the roof of our house in the cardboard airplane he built at the age of three, instead of holding onto the seat of his Baby Dior pants until someone rescued us.
“I’ve erased it all. Tell Romeo he’s safe unless someone had a phone aimed in his direction, in which case, he’s going to jail,” said Luke laconically, stepping away from his machine.
“I’ve told you guys not to call me that,” snarled Leo in my ear.
“If the name fits…” I replied, with a grin. “So, does Aunt Fee know you have a hostage situation going on in the house?”
Our beloved aunt would boot him out of the house if she discovered what he’d done.
“She knows what she needs to know,” he replied grumpily. “Now, help me get Tia to a safe house before she gets too friendly with Aunt Fee.”
“Safe house? What are we? Special forces?” I scoffed.
“Marcus Finn Donovan, are you trying to tell me that of all the rental properties we have, not one of them can be used as a safe house?” he roared down the line, and I held the phone away from my ear.
Why was my brother trying to bust a blood vessel in my brain? Was this to be my reward for being a saint? Death by aneurysm?
“Leo, I will not be a party to holding Tia hostage,” I said firmly. “Tomorrow morning, I’m going to escort her wherever she wants to go.”
“As long as it’s not back to her brother,” he clarified.
“Wherever she wants,” I repeated.
