“Will I ruin your fun if I toss this in?” I asked.
Ari turned on the exhaust over the fryers and waved a hand, and I lowered the computer into the bubbling oil. The laptop sparked in a way I didn’t expect, and the smell of burning plastic was immediate and acrid.
“This is going to be good,” Ari said with a grin. “Help me lift him up?”
I grabbed one of the man’s arms and Ari took the other, and then we heaved together, working in a flawless synchronization.
“Face-first?” he asked with a grin.
“Anything you want. You know I would give you the world, right, Ari?”
He blinked and cleared his throat, and I loved the little smile he shared with me. I didn’t think it was fake; he was simply happy. “I know. I love you, Master.”
“I love you, too.” Together we hoisted the man higher as his chest still rose and fell. This was going to be fucked-up, one to remember for a lifetime.
“Can we burn the place down after?” Ari asked, staring across the room at the gas stoves with a sparkle in his eye. “I’ve always wanted to see what would happen if you let a building fill with gas.”
I snorted and nodded. “Anything that makes you happy.”
He leaned closer, and we kissed. “Jump back as soon as you let him go.” I tapped him on the nose. “We don’t want you looking like Tyler.”
“Ugh, I hope he goes to the hospital.”
“Me too.” And I was surprised that I meant it, and doubly surprised Ari had said it.
“On the count of three?” Ari bounced on the balls of his feet, excited.
“One.... two....”
“Three!” he shouted like a kid, and he laughed, pushing the man toward the boiling oil as we both leaped away.
EPILOGUE
ARI
October
I sat backand glanced around the café, taking in the framed pictures of motorcycles that lined the walls, and the big, round red glass balls that hung from the ceiling, lighting up the steel-gray themed room. The tables were full, and Jules and I were lucky enough to have grabbed one when someone else vacated. This was the first time I’d been here, but Jules swore by the coffee, and I believed him. I’d invited my brothers to come to New Gothenburg, after calling them and telling them where I was, and I wanted to be at the very best place we could find.
Beach and Sparrow had been shocked to hear from me, even more so to hear I had a boyfriend and was about to attend college to be a lawyer, beginning in the spring semester, but they actually sounded relieved, too.
Maybe they had expected me to be dead.
“Tell me about your brothers,” Jules said, after a waiter brought us the coffees we’d ordered.
I took a sip of the drink and sighed in relief. I’d never had coffee before a few weeks ago, but Jules had introduced me to it and I couldn’t get enough. He’d told me I would need it a lot for college. “What do you want to know about them?”
Jules leaned forward on the table, placing his elbows down on the top and holding his steaming cup between his palms. “Anything. Everything. What should I know about them before they get here, so I can prepare?”
I snorted as I took another sip. “You can’t prepare for Beach. He’s always on the go, and nothing he says is what you expect. My parents mostly ignored his antics, unless it affected their revenue.”
“Why the names? Your parents were weird.” He grunted out a laugh, and I rolled my eyes.
“Sometimes I think they were on drugs when they named us. I know they chose Aramis because I was the third born and there were three musketeers.” I shrugged. There wasn’t much to say in regard to our names. Sparrow had asked our parents about their choices, and we got the standard answer of “because we could,” as though that was good enough. “Anyway, Beach is bi. He goes both ways and is a player. He might even try to flirt with you. I hope he doesn’t because then I’d have to kill him.”
If anyone heard me, they might have laughed and thought it was a joke, but I was serious. Jules knew, too, because he touched my hand to calm me.
“Sparrow is straight. He hasn’t done much dating at all, as far as I know. Or, at least, he hadn’t before I left. He’s more of the academic guy, wanted to make our parents proud. Too bad they’ll never see what he’ll end up being.” I grinned, and Jules chuckled, grabbing my hand to raise it and lay a kiss on my knuckles. “Anyway, they look like me—we’re identical—though they might have cut their hair by now. We always kept it around our shoulders, kind of a pact thing I just agreed to and did so I’d fit in.”
