No. I was dying. Seriously dying inside… How could I go on without her in my life? Knowing what it was like to wake up next to her? To hold her in my arms. The familiar pain streaked across my chest, weighed on me as if I’d just been buried under the ocean.
“Um, yeah, just tired. You snore, by the way.”
She scowled. “You sound like Nixon.”
The room fell silent. I didn’t know what to do to make it better, so I simply shrugged and laughed. “Well, we were more like brothers.”
And shit. It was like I hadn’t actually thought about that until now.
Hell. Cousins with some messed-up parentage that almost made us look like brothers. Both in love with the same girl. Weird, because it was like we shared parents, too, or they shared each other—however you wanted to look at it. There had to be some law about that, or something in the Bible that said you’d be condemned to Hell for coveting your cousin’s girlfriend. The same cousin who technically looked a hell of a lot more like your brother and who your real dad parented. Shit, it was messed up. On the bright side, at least Nixon and Trace weren’t married. Right, because that somehow made it less horrible.
“I’m just going to go shower, okay?” Trace interrupted my dark thoughts and walked over toward the bathroom. I grabbed my stuff and went to the hall bathroom. Within fifteen minutes I was ready to go. I threw on my Eagle Elite uniform, black slacks with a white button-up shirt, red sweater vest, and jacket—and made a beeline for the kitchen. The smell of sausage and eggs assaulted me.
“Hey, Harry Potter, glad you could make it,” Tex called from the table.
“You’ve been saving that one for four years, haven’t you.” I shook my head. “Lame, and this looks nothing like Harry Potter. Don’t be an ass just because you don’t have to go to class on Thursdays.”
He smirked.
I snatched a glass of orange juice and sat down.
Mil was reading the paper in the corner, still in her pj’s. “Your eye’s healing up,” she pointed out without actually looking up from the paper.
“No thanks to you.” I snatched a piece of toast. “I’m lucky I survived.”
“Survived what?” Mo asked from the kitchen and then looked at me. “Holy crap! What happened!”
“People really should learn not to drink and walk at the same time.” This from Tex.
Glaring at Tex, I answered Mo. “Apparently, I fall on tables and shit.”
“You should be more careful.” Mo put a plate of food in front of me.
“Right,” I answered. “I’ll be more careful next time I’m around tables named Mil.”
“Huh?” Mo asked.
“Nothing.” Mil smiled sweetly at my sister and then sent me a seething glare. I smiled and took another bite of toast.
“Oh my gosh, that smells amazing.” Trace walked into the kitchen and immediately I started choking.
“Dude, chew your food.” Tex patted my back and handed me a glass of water but I waved him off. Water wouldn’t help. I needed freaking CPR.
Beautiful. Damn, she was so incredibly beautiful that it hurt to look at her. Her soft brown hair was in a high ponytail and for the first time in two days her uniform looked ironed, clean, perfect on her body.
And the killer?
The part that had me ready to jump out of my chair and slam that perfect girl into the wall and kiss her senseless?
She was wearing the boots.
My boots.
The ones I gave her.
I smiled as she stuck out her leg for approval.
With a wink in my direction she grabbed a plate from Mo and took a seat next to me. The smell of coconut wafted off of her and into my airspace. I was starved for it. I leaned closer to her and placed my hand on her bare knee.
We ate with the rest of the group.
Things were almost normal.
Except they weren’t. Which I was reminded of the minute I opened the door to go outside, only to find every single one of the men I had placed to guard the house—gone.
“What the hell?” I dialed my father’s number. We needed those men to get us to school without anyone seeing Trace. My father would have been the only one who suspected she was dead and I was taking a huge risk by even allowing her to go about life.
We needed a driver. And we needed to be able to sneak her in and out of classes, not because a college education was that important but because Nixon had specifically said to go about life as did Luca. Besides, the last thing we needed was for Tony to show up at the house now that my men were missing. School was probably the only place he wouldn’t go snooping around.
The phone rang and rang.
Finally my father picked up. “Chase, I’m a bit busy right now.”
“My men,” I barked into the phone. “Where are they?”
“Son, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Right,” I snorted. “Let’s try this again. You work for me. I’m your boss. If I don’t have my men back within the hour I will personally drive my ass over to your house and slam my fist into your head. Got it?”
My father made a choking sound as if he was laughing at me. “To be young again.”
“Yes.” I hissed. “To be young and actually able to get shit done rather than staying at home being completely useless. I mean it. I did what you asked last night, but this is the final straw. You either want me in power or you don’t.”
He sighed heavily on the other end of the line. “It’s complicated, Chase. I’m not safe, not at the house, I needed extra security. Just in case.”
I was silent for a moment. “Did someone threaten you?”
No doubt Nixon was poking around.
“Not exactly.” He cleared his throat. “I just… you know what happens when you drink a lot and…”
“And?” I prompted.
“Nixon,” my dad laughed. “I could have sworn I saw Nixon, but instead it was the De Lange kid. He wants to make a deal.”
Things had just gotten interesting. “Oh?”
“I was going to speak to you—”
“It’s your lucky day. You’re speaking to me now. What does Phoenix want?”
“Money,” my father blurted. “He wants money and then he’s going to disappear for good. But the thing is, Chase… I don’t have access to the funds we use for bribery. I’m going to need you to make the withdrawal.”
Son of a bitch. My own father was going to betray me. Did he think I was that stupid? The boss never made the withdrawal. Not unless he wanted to get A) shot, or B) flagged by the Feds.
“Hmm.” I paused and mouthed to Tex to get the car. “You do have my permission. When does Phoenix need the money?”
“Tonight.”
“Of course he does,” I said. “Fine. I’ll get the money. We’ll put all of this behind us and live like one big defective family. Sound good?”
“I never did get your sense of humor.”
“I wasn’t being funny, Dad.”
“Fine. Tonight then?” Damn if he didn’t sound ridiculously pleased with himself.
“Sure. Oh, and remember.” I cleared my throat. “If anything goes wrong, if for one second I smell a rat, I’ll shoot you.”
“You’d shoot your own flesh and blood.”
“Of course not.” I hung up and threw the phone against the ground. It shattered into a million pieces.
Tex pulled up and got out of the car. “Shit. You didn’t have to take it out on your phone.”
“I need a new one.” I released Trace’s hand and flexed my fingers.
“I’m on it.” Mo ran back in the house. We always kept extra phones around. Mainly because we needed lots of lines open for business, but also because Nixon and I had always had a tendency to break phones when we got upset. Expensive habit.
I paced in front of everyone. “He wants us in the dark for a reason. Damn you, Nixon.” I realized I had slipped. Trace looked at me curiously, as did Tex and Mil. “Sorry, that was uncalled for.” I cleared my throat. “Normal. Everything has to go normal today. Trace, I’ll go to class with you; maybe we’ll find answers there. If not… Shit, I’ll have to get the money myself.”