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“My point is that Octavius is always on your side, but you screwed up, Florian. Big time.” Remi wipes his bleeding lip with his jacket’s collar. “I thought her unrequited love would stay just that, so imagine my surprise when I find out she’s pregnant with your kid.”
“If it helps, I was surprised too.”
Judging by his tone, I guess my humor missed the mark. “It doesn’t. You broke the code, Florian. You never touch your best friend’s little sister.”
“Is there such a rule? Really?” Octavius sets his bottle down and grabs a pack of chips, opening them up. “I had no idea, but as a brother, I don’t get it.” Remi and I share a long stare because Octavius has a tendency to have these weird-ass wisdoms he likes to share, so we turn to face him, letting him elaborate. “If I can’t trust my best friends to do right by the women they love…why would I be friends with them?” He shrugs. “When my sister picked her professor, I approved after testing him, of course.”
We just stare at him in silence, and Remi exhales a heavy breath, clearly fed up. “Okay, let’s focus here, please,” he snaps at Octavius and jabs a finger in my chest. “Being one of his friends is one thing. But you have a reputation, Florian. You fucked your way through Chicago.”
“I haven’t touched another woman since kissing Jimena almost years ago. No one exists for me but her. I have a past, but I won’t apologize for it.”
Shock flickers in his dark eyes, and he studies me for several seconds before muttering, “Fuck.” He wraps his hand around the third bottle, opening it and drinking its contents in several gulps. “You love her.” I nod. “You do understand it looks bad, right? You’ve known her since she was a baby. When this gets out, everyone will say you groomed her. Among other shitty things.” A beat passes. “After all, we all raised her as our little sister and—”
“I was never raising her.” Coldness and irritation lace my tone. “Nor did I ever consider her my little sister. I loved her because we were part of the same family, and I never looked at her differently until she kissed me. Groomed her? She moved to Spain and had all the opportunities in the world to find someone else. We haven’t seen each other that much through the years. You spent more time with her than I ever did. So you can say whatever the fuck you want about me and all this. But don’t ever say I treated her like a little sister and fell for her. It’s insulting, offensive, and disgusting for both of us. The only woman I treated as my little sister was Estella.”
I wouldn’t change anything about my Jimena because I was there to provide support for her, but a part of me hates the fact that we will have to defend our love and relationship from vile assumptions our whole life.
“Damn,” Remi whispers, sneaking a hand into Octavius’s chip bag to snag one. “Look at the protector in him coming out. I thought he felt like this only about you.”
“Yeah, something tells me he’ll be even worse with Jimena.”
“Keep the same energy for Uncle Lucian and Santiago because once they find out, they will kill you.” Remi munches on the chips, wincing, so his jaw must hurt him. Good because mine throbs like hell. “Or they will torture you, kill you, resurrect you, and kill you again. All their rage might produce some magic powers.” They both bark a laugh. “Either way, it will be tragic. Romeo and Juliet didn’t work out for a reason.”
“Our families don’t hate each other,” I remind him, glad he has his humorous self back and take out my own chips. My staff always leaves snacks lying around, and I’m finally putting them to good use.
“True. Hmm…” He taps on his chin. “Or she’s more like Helen of Troy.”
“Did you just compare me to Paris?” My least favorite character in the whole of the Iliad, or at least he was until I understood his motives.
Sometimes no matter how much destruction your love will cause, you can’t stay away and move on. You just accept all the consequences.
“He did kill Achilles,” he reminds me, and I grit my teeth as Achilles was always Santiago’s favorite. “Tell him now, Florian, before…”
“Before you tell him?”
His eyes narrow and he grips the bottle tighter, making it crack a little. Tension radiates between us, and even Zeus comes back, his ears standing up. “Contrary to what you believe, Florian, I do care about you. That’s why I’m here. If you two love each other and have a baby on the way, then go public with the relationship and give her the protection of your name.” He sighs. “It won’t save you from Santiago’s rage, but at least it will show them you’re serious.”
“My name doesn’t protect her. It endangers her.” They both still at the seriousness of my tone. “Until I catch him, this stays between us.”
“You have to be kidding me. She’s pregnant. How long do you think you guys will be able to hide it?” Remi asks in disbelief, pressing the bottle to his hip. “Not to mention, the longer you stall, the more unforgivable your behavior becomes in Santiago’s eyes.”
“My woman and child come first. Before anyone and anything, and that includes all of you.” I glance at Octavius. “No offense.”
“None taken.” He scrunches the empty chips packet. “We will help you catch the fucker, but meanwhile, we’ll have to do something we’ve never done.” A beat passes. “Lie to Santiago.”
“He won’t forgive us,” Remi says grimly, taking another swig from his bottle. “He’ll hate us, and he’s my best friend. He comes before you, Florian.”
I’d never ask Remi to be on our side. I would have preferred for him not to know anything. “You don’t have to pick my side. You can stay neutral and pretend you didn’t know.”
His hollow laughter echoes in the night, followed by thunder as fury shines in his gaze, and for a second, I think he’s going to punch me again, but he just hits the table with the bottle, the small glass pieces falling all around him. “There is no staying neutral in this conflict. It’s as personal for everyone as it can get.” He takes a deep breath. “I won’t say anything, but not for you. For her. My loyalty is to the Cortez family, and Jimena has a right to decide on her own when she wants to announce her pregnancy.”
“It’s settled, then,” Octavius concludes as rain pours on us and the whistling wind skirts around us, coldness nipping at our skin.
We don’t go inside, though, or try to hide from it.
No, we let it soak us.
Because we’ve just made a decision that will change everything.
