Deslen showed up at the top of the stairs, holding his hand out to her, beckoning her to meet him. She walked past Zeth and me without a word, only that hollow smile.
The moment Nova disappeared upstairs, Zeth moved.
“Kitchen,” he said, jerking his chin toward it before looking up the stairs longingly.
We didn’t need to talk about why. The air between us carried the same thought.Comfort her.
He rifled through cabinets, pulling out chips, fruit, chocolate, whatever he could find. I grabbed a tray and started arranging it like it was a damn peace offering. He tossed me a bag of popcorn and grunted, “Movie night.”
“Yeah.” We all needed to take a break for the night.
By the time Nova came back down, hair damp, eyes still swollen from everything she’d held in, the living room glowed a soft golden hue from the fireplace Zeth had turned on. Blankets. Snacks. A stack of movies that had nothing to do with heartbreak. We didn’t mention Nick. None of us did.
That night was quiet. Sweet, even. No heat, no tension, no undercurrent of lust tugging at the bond between us. Just her soft laughter slipping through the silence like a spark in the dark. Every time her lips twitched into a real smile, my chest eased a little.
The golden thread that tied me to her pulsed stronger that night. I could feel it hum in my bones. But still, something inside her kept a wall up.
That was fine. I’d wait—forever if I had to. She was worth it.
The sound of my office door clicking open brought me back to the present, and I looked up to see Zeth stepping in, sunglasses pushed up into his hair. He nodded at me, then his gaze caught the stack of papers on my desk.
“What’s that?”
“Contract,” I said, tapping the folder. “Deslen’s manager put it together. Thought I’d look it over before anyone starts throwing money around.”
Zeth slid into the chair across from me, arms crossed, the hint of a smirk tugging at his mouth. “Good call. Better you than our lawyers. They’ll try to bleed him dry. Plus, you got the head for that kind of shit.”
For a second, I just stared at him. Compliments weren’t exactly Zeth’s language. The guy was all street edges and sarcasm, while I played the polished businessman. Oil and water, most days. Still, the respect in his voice felt real.
Or maybe he was still seething about Nick and was giving me a break. Could’ve gone either way.
He stretched, glancing toward the window. “Nova’s got her boss meeting today. Gotta check in after, make sure things went smoothly.”
Deslen grinned, bright and easy. “Good. Family’s important right now.”
At that, Zeth flinched. It wasn’t much, but enough to notice. His jaw tightened, eyes flicking away like the wordfamilycarried too much weight.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Just… keep in mind, Nova’s the sane one in that bunch. The rest of the bosses? Think ‘genius’ with a touch of homicidal. Or maybe the other way around.”
He tried to make it sound like a joke, but the faint tremor in his voice said otherwise.
His words hung in the air like smoke because, hell, he wasn’t wrong. The Syndicate ran on loyalty, blood, history, and shared violence. My own men? They’d sell me out the second a better deal came along, but that was the difference between running a business and belonging to a family.
Zeth leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eyes hard. “If you’re gonna last in this family, listen close. Don’t cross Ezra.Ever.”
Deslen straightened in his seat, taking his advice to heart. Zeth didn’t blink. “You can negotiate with most of the bosses. They’ve all got their twisted sense of balance. Ezra doesn’t. She’ll burn a city to ash if it means protecting what’s theirs.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, the movement tight, weary. “And she won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.”
Deslen frowned, a crease forming between his brows. “But… we’re her sister’s mates. She wouldn’t?—”
Zeth barked a laugh so sharp it cut through the tension. I smothered mine behind a stack of papers, keeping my eyes down to hide the grin tugging at my lips.
Everyone knew Ezra Desmond. Every fucking one. Even the ones who’d never met her had stories—friends who vanished overnight, rivals whose entire legacies were erased. She was a storm in heels, and you either moved with her wind or got torn apart.
“It’s cute,” Zeth said, wiping a tear from his eye. “You thinking that protects you.”
Deslen’s expression shifted from hope to confusion, then the slow, dawning dread of someone realizing he’d just stepped into deep water. He slumped in his chair, silent.
The buzz of three phones broke the moment. I glanced down.
