I was being unfair, comparing them, but that was what you did when you’d already had love and lost it — there was a giant measuring stick that nobody could even stand next to because you knew, even before they did, that they’d come up short every time.
We pulled up to the house, I unbuckled my seatbelt but Nixon slammed a hand against my chest.
“Stay.” His teeth snapped into a tight clench that hinted at how pissed he was.
Everyone got out of the car except for Chase.
Nixon let out a groan. “Really, man? Don’t make me shoot you. Just go, I’ll give you details later.”
“Kill joy,” Chase muttered then slammed the door behind him leaving me and Nixon in a super fun tense silence.
I just loved being alone with him and his twitchy finger. Hell, he probably had three guns on him and, at least two of those, magically trained on me just for shits and giggles.
“Cousin?” I licked my lips. “Do we have a problem?”
“We?” His eyebrows shot up. “You’re a piece of shit, you know that right?”
“Fully aware but it’s always nice to hear compliments from family.”
“And a jackass.” He pounded my chest with his hand, shoving me against the seat.
“Noted.”
“And an idiot.”
“Yup.”
With a sigh, he released me and ran his tattooed hands through his unruly hair. “My wife’s pregnant. I don’t want to be here. Phoenix is one phone call away from needing to fly a red-eye back to Chicago because Bee’s in her last trimester, and I had to physically restrain Mil to keep her from hopping on a plane to kick you in the nuts.”
“We needed one boss to stay behind.”
“Right, you say that to her and see where it gets you.”
I smirked.
“None of this is funny. They’re initiated, fine, they’re in, the blood’s been spilled… but we need a decision, and we need to get them out of here, and we need to do it in a way that doesn’t seem like we’re putting them back in hiding. Add in your whole ‘Xavier wants to meet with Tex’ information you dropped on us this morning, not to mention the irritating fact that the very girl you’re supposed to be helping looks like she wants to put a bullet between your eyes, and well…” He leaned his head back against the seat. “Hell, Frank needs to stop keeping information from us.”
“More Phoenix than Frank.”
“Damn Phoenix.”
“Nixon, this job is mine, not yours.”
His mocking laugh wasn’t helpful. “And you think you’re doing a bang up job? A promise is a promise, you need to marry her.”
“I know that.”
“And the other part?”
I stared down at my hands.
“Sergio, you’ve told her the other part, right?”
I bit down on my lower lip and looked out the window at all the ignorant people who passed our car. If they only knew.
“She deserves to know what she’s getting into, Sergio.”
“And she does.”
“But does she know what else Luca said? What he demanded? For her protection?”
My chest was so tight it was hard to breathe. “No.”
“She thinks your marriage will be in name only.” Nixon said it like a statement. “Doesn’t she?”
“A simple business agreement.” I felt numb, from head to toe, numb.
“Aw, hell, Serg, your days are numbered, man.”
“I was going to tell her after we were married.”
“So she could kill you in your sleep?”
“She’s not violent.”
Something white fluttered out of the window and landed on our car.
I blinked, my mind struggling to make sense of what my eyes were seeing.
A wedding dress.
That had been shredded with scissors.
“Not violent, hmm?”
“Son of a bitch.” I punched the leather seat with my fist and reached for the door.
“Sergio, tell her before we leave.”
“Tonight?”
He nodded.
“And Xavier?”
“Tex means to poke the bear. We bow down now or later, he chooses later. We’ll deliver a message and gauge his response.”
“What kind of message?”
“Sorry, Frank already called dibs.”
“Nixon!” I groaned. “You know it would be helpful if I shot something.”
“Shoot Chase, he’s still a pain in my ass, but this demonstration is all Frank’s. Besides, it’s his mess. Let him clean it up.”
“Fine.” I opened the door just as a shoe box fell directly in front of my face colliding with my boots.
The heels popped out of the box.
I froze.
They were Andi’s
I’d recognize those shoes anywhere.
Barely noticeable grass stains marred the spiked heel, and a piece of blue fabric had been sewn across the open toe.
Without thinking, I gathered them in my hands and charged into the house, ready to toss Val over my knee if that’s what it took to get a confession.
Maybe I’d shoot something after all.
Her.
For wrecking yet another memory of my dead wife.
How can these things come to pass? O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! –A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Frank
SERGIO DAMN NEAR took off the door. His aggression was palpable, the air tinged with his bitterness, his anger. I let out a sigh as he rushed past me and took the stairs two at a time.
The rest of the men communed in the kitchen.
I stayed back.