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“I assumed you would come.”
“There’s something I need to take care of first. I’ll meet you there. You will ride back with me.”
“Okay.”
The line was quiet for a long moment. I waited, gave my brother the time to get whatever he needed off his chest. “Thank you for this, Elias.”
“I haven’t agreed yet.”
“No, but you’re here. So, thank you.”
The call ended and I lifted my eyes to the mirrored wall on the other side of my treadmill. Today I recognized the man staring back at me. He was sane, level. That wasn’t always the case. I prayed being here didn’t shift the person I could see now.
FOUR
cress
When I pulledup to my parents’ estate, I did a quick scan of the Maybach Pullman parked in the circular drive. It was sleek, new, and expensive.
Christian has company.
I should have called but he wouldn’t have entertained what I needed to say over the phone. One last attempt to convince my brother to find an alternative to Jona marrying Elias Omari was why I was back at my family’s estate for a second day in a row. I didn’t know very much about Elias but what I did know bothered me.
I was, however, familiar with his family because until the incident between our brothers, the Omari had been closely linked to the Devereauxs. Our fathers and brothers handled business together. When our families divided, a shift happened in Crescent Falls. No one outright spoke about what happened but they whispered amongst themselves. They also had quiet discussions about Elias after it was assumed that he had killed our brother Cole.
They didn’t hide their acceptance of those rumors considering Elias’s past. He was the wild one of the Omari brothers. Most called him crazy, others deemed him reckless, but none spoke either title to his face. He had a reputation. As a trained fighter he was lethal with his hands and as a son of Josiah Omari he had an in-depth understanding of business which rendered him equally skilled with destroying the lineage of those who crossed him or his family. The guy was scary. I’d only been in his presence a handful of times at mutually hosted events and as scary as the guy was, he was equal parts sexy.
Both Omari brothers were, however, Elias had that edge to him, whereas Ez was more refined and polished. Neither of them were men a normal father would be putting at the top of the “marry my daughter” list. My father could barely remember he had daughters and on a good day when he could, he remembered us as children not grown women who were of age to marry.
I climbed out of my Range prepared to offer one last argument for why it was insane of Christian to want Jona to marry Elias Omari but that would have to wait until he no longer had visitors. I glanced at my wrist before I keyed the code to enter my childhood home, realizing it was just after six. Hopefully his company wouldn’t be here long and if that was the intention then maybe I would get lucky and they would tolerate an interruption. Not that I cared. I would demand that my brother give me his time. That didn’t mean I would get it, right now at this very moment, but it was worth a shot. I had a performance in two days. Our last show before the off-season. Adequate care to my aching body and rest was imperative.
Please let the odds fall in my favor, so this can be quickly resolved and I can go home and tend to my aching muscles.
Once inside, I stood in the foyer, listening. The house was quiet, but that didn’t mean much. The estate was massive and my brother often did business in his office. That was my first stop. In and out.
“Cress, is that you?”
Damn it.
I tilted my head to the floor, forced a smile, then turned to face my brother’s wife. Another reminder that I didn’t want an arranged marriage for neither myself nor my sister. “Aja, hey.”
She cleared the arch that led to the corridor where the kitchen was positioned at the rear of the estate and made her way to me. “Christian has visitors. Was he expecting you?”
Her smile was soft but her eyes were curious, accusing almost. “He hadn’t mentioned you would be stopping by.”
“This is my parents’ home, Aja. I wasn’t aware I needed a reason to visit.”
Her eyes expanded just a bit before they settled back to their natural state. “I wasn’t insinuating that you did. Only that you’re rarely here and mostly only to see Christian.”
Not me…was the part she left off. If Christian had company, that only left her.
“No, he’s not expecting me.” I relaxed a little. “Do you know who he’s with?”
Her eyes darted to the corridor that led to my brother’s office and she quickly shook her head. “He doesn’t discuss business with me.”
“Right,” I huffed. “How are you? You look well.”
She looked like shit. Her clothes were neat, expensive, her hair flawless in long spirals layered over her shoulders but Aja looked stressed, tired, and weary. She was thinner than she had been the last time I saw her, a few months back at one of my performances. I was a dancer, had been all my life, yet I had more definition and curves on my body than Aja.
