“Hey, guys, I’ve been thinking,” Connor says.
When Endo looks like he might throw up from worry, Connor looks to me for solidarity. I shake my head. He can tell me what he’s been thinking about in private. My uncle’s already barely tolerating Connor’s behavioral issues, and now he’s cost him all our assets. Many lives were lost to save mine. For Connor, the price is worth paying. My brother would burn the world for me.
I wish he wasn’t that way.
If my uncle thinks Con is taking his meds and meditating, he’s more inclined to let Connor stay with us. But if he thinks Connor isn’t doing his part, meaning working on himself, Endo will make him leave the family. Connor is very bright and is brilliant with computers. His absence would not only hurt him but also the family business.
“I’ll tell you later, Dec,” Connor finally says, thankfully.
“Now that we’re not thinking as much,” Endo says, “let’s get going.” He stands and stretches, flexing his muscles. “Con,” he says. “I need you back on the Gregory pipeline.”
“I’m on it.”
“Now.”
“Five minutes.”
“Now.” Endo keeps the door open, and Connor slides out.
My brother will sneak back in here in five minutes.
The five-minute wait until Con returns seems like a century because I think about Dina. With our Selnoan assets dead, I retrace my tracks to make sure she isn’t connected to any of us in any way. Short of going into her apartment and swiping for DNA, there’s nothing. I was careful. I instructed her on what to do, and she followed through. She followed through, and that’s the only reason I’m alive.
Connor and I have an out that only we know about in each and every situation I could possibly think of. In a pinch, I know who to call and how to reach him. It’s why I never made contact from her phone or mine while in her apartment. I needed to make it to the bridge so that he would know it was safe to extract me.
But Connor lost his shit. When I jumped from the tower, slid the steep hill, and ended up under Dina’s tire, he thought they’d caught me. I bet he searched for me and didn’t find my body. Instead of lying low the same way I did, he went looking for me. Like a man obsessed.
And when it comes to my brother, obsession is not a joke.
Connor’s not diagnosed with anything because he manipulated and tricked every professional we brought him to. He reads social cues (but ignores them), and he’s highly intelligent. This allows him to manipulate people, even people who want to help put him on the right meds. The last incident where Connor felt he needed to intervene was with Scarlett, the woman Endo brought here as his collateral.
I caught Connor walking into her bedroom with a silencer on his weapon. He didn’t like that she got to sleep in a nice bed. He found it unjust and wanted to either scare her enough that she’d try to escape or silence her for good.
Since Endo runs this family, and his word is law, if my brother had hurt Scarlett or even scared her, he could’ve gotten exiled or worse, killed. Scarlett Pembroke fell under Endo’s protection. That was all we needed to know. It should’ve been enough.
Connor disagreed.
I walked in on him inside her bedroom. He punched me in the gut. I dragged him outside with a hand over his mouth and beat some sense into him. It’s how my brother and I learn best. The hard way.
“Endo has a stick up his hairy ass,” Connor says as he walks in.
“It’s because Doc’s not here.”
“She grew on me too. Not like cancer, though. More like a flower I watered until it bloomed. I’m sad someone picked off my flower.”
See? If I hadn’t stopped him that night and punched him in the face, he would have missed out on bonding with Scarlett. But also… “Make sure Endo doesn’t hear you call Scarlett a flower. He might take it the wrong way.”
“I know. I know.”
“Is Marquis still at the Keep?” Our head of security took a bullet for Endo and stayed here during his recovery.
“Endo sent him away when I brought you in.” Connor lies down on the bed and crosses his legs at the ankles.
We stare at the ceiling.
“Who called me?” he asks.
“A homeless woman I paid off.”
