I had full-on goose bumps.
This was his grandma. How the hell else would she know my last name?
“I met your grandfather once.”
The fear suddenly left me, and I sat up straight. “You did?”
“Oh, yes. When he was young.” She smiled big, and I had to tell myself not to pee. “I lived in Limón for a time. You smell just like him, and he smelled just like his mother and grandmother.”
He had always smelled great, like almonds or something sweet. “He passed away a few years ago,” I said, even though I had a feeling….
She didn’t look surprised. “He had a long life. It’s the best end any of us could ask for.” Her gaze moved over mine again before her eyes flicked creepy quick toward the door, a moment before I heard a knock, then Alex’s careful voice as he called out, “Gracie?” There was a loud clearing of his throat before he spoke again, his voice stiff. “Greetings, Grandmother.”
“It’s about time you came to see me, Alexander,” the older woman said. “I had to get Asami to borrow your Gracie to get you to come.”
His Gracie?
“Don’t be angry with me,” she continued on, not asking, but telling him. “I assisted you as much as I could.”
Absolutely nothing registered on his stoic features. “I’m not. I understand.”
Understand what? And what did he have to be angry over?
“Hi, Uncle Lexi. I picked up Uncle Leon’s tractor yesterday. Can we playTroublenow?” Asami’s sweet, little voice asked. “Please?”
She’d picked up a fucking tractor?
I heard Alex’s steps, but my mind had already stuck on to what she had said.
Luck was one thing.
And this… this definitely didn’t feel like that at all.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
“Bye, Gracie!”
“Bye, Asami!” I called out over my shoulder as I followed Alex out of the game room an hour and a long—and eerie—game ofTroublelater.
Seeing Alex sitting beside me at the table in a beautiful tux, pressing the little bubble in the middle and moving his pieces around the board, smiling occasionally at the ruthless girl sitting between me and who I was sure was her great-grandmother had been something else.
He called her “stinky,” and she’d hooted, and I’d almost fainted. But that was beside the point.
On the other hand, watching said grandmother sitting at the table, her back totally straight, her long fingers plucking at pieces as well, while the most primal, raw power radiated from her in invisible waves was probably also going to be stuck in my head and body for a long time.
In my nightmares more like it.
I felt nauseous.
I was pretty sure I’d seen her mouth the number that appeared every time the dice was rolled a second before it settled.
She had nodded often, and her expressions were pleasant, but when her gaze landed on you… it was like being spotted by a shark in the middle of the ocean with no way of escaping. Like being in the middle of a field during a lightning storm. Honestly, she scared theshitout of me, and I had no real reason why she had that effect on me, but she did.
And that’s exactly what I told Alex when we were reentering the ballroom.
“So, your grandma is terrifying,” I whispered. “I thought your mom was intimidating, but she took it to a whole new level.”
His attention was up and forward, but I watched him huff. He’d seemed distracted throughout the game, and I had a feeling it had to do with the tension none of us had been able to ignore between him and his grandmother. I’d noticed Asami, the tractor-carrying child, peeking back and forth between them. There had also been that weird comment about him being mad at her. It hadn’t been an angry type of tension, but I had seen a smug smile cross her features when they’d made eye contact once or twice.
