“Listen here.” Celia crossed and uncrossed her arms. She began speaking, stopped, sighed and crossed her arms again. “You want to give your stepsiblings a chance?” The assassin’s even voice tilted. “Thesamestepsiblings who used you, abused you, and enabled your stepmother to torture you? And then they watched you get taken away without even trying to defend you.”
“They’re even younger than me.”
“They’re not children. They know better.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Your brother was happy to abandon them.”
Her words stopped him short. However, his heart remained calm. He looked down at himself in surprise, at not only the lack of pain hitting his heart, but the calm acceptance of the fact spoken from her lips.
“I’m not my brother.” He rolled the orange peels together. “And what I want is to save my stepsiblings. I’m not abandoning them to Infinite’s downfall.”
Celia crossed her arms. Her eyes flittered down to the ring still hanging from the necklace clasped loyally around her neck. He stared at the precious jewel—the last gift his brother left behind. The hexagonal shape of the gem, the curves of the band, and the promise contained in an item bought in blood. Celia toyed with it between her fingers before reaching over to grab his finished dishes and washing them in the sink. “What are you going to do about Prince Charming?”
“I…don’t know.” The bravado in his argument before evaporated into the air. Doubt washed over him in dark, heavy waves. He squeezed his arms. “I want to stay with him, but there’s a part of me that screams it’d be selfish. Even if Infinite gets taken down…”
“Not if—when. Tonight.”
“Even when Infinite gets taken down, the chaos that’ll ensue won’t be fair for him.” He traced the rim of the coffee cup. His reflection shimmered back against the porcelain. A purple bruise stood out against his skin, and the cuts on his lips still bled when he accidentally bit them during his ravenous eating. “What about you and my brother? Did you ever regret it?”
“I’m not helping you with your romantic relationship. My relationship with your brother was very physical and knowingly temporary. You shouldn’t base your relationship off of mine, and you shouldn’t base your relationship off of anyone except yourself and what you want.”
“But youdidlove him, right?” Aiden’s heart ached to hear the answer. “Or was he just something fun for you?”
“Those two are synonymous to me,” she replied and glanced elsewhere.
Aiden turned around to see Brendan finally leaving the bedroom with eye bags already growing longer.
“Real life’s pretty annoying, huh?” Celia raised an eyebrow as Brendan took his place beside Aiden.
“I can’t blame them—any parent and friend would freak out if a dead body was found outside your complex,” Brendan mumbled and scratched his head. He swept his blond bangs to the side to glance at Aiden with an easygoing smile that conjured flowers from thin air.
Aiden turned his face away. He tried to shake the heat from his face, but the movement of his hand only fueled the warmth.
Celia crossed her arms. “You know, we could bring him with us.”
Both boys looked up in confusion.
“I’m just saying—it wouldn’t hurt to have a white boy. Especially one from a prestigious background like his.”
“Even the families wouldn’t want him dead inside their houses…” Aiden realized.
She nodded. “He’s a good shield for us.”
The two turned expectantly toward Brendan who shoveled food into his mouth. Blinking, he placed the utensils down and shrugged. “Sure. Whatever the plan is, I’ll follow along. I’m not about to question people who know more about a matter than me.”
“We’ll be taking you inside one of the mafia family’s homes,” Aiden blurted. He tightly grasped Brendan’s arm. Brendan’s unbothered expression continued staring back, so he reiterated, “It’s going to be dangerous. There'll be guns. People will get shot and might die.” His fingers dug into Brendan’s arm.
Brendan covered Aiden’s hand with his own. “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. I could do more than just come along as insurance. Do you have anything to record conversations? Dad’s always talking about evidence, so I do have enough knowledge to guess we’d need some of that.”
That’s it?His hand fell from Brendan’s arm. Brendan turned toward Celia, asking for more details only for Celia to respond bluntly. Despite the fear simmering underneath Brendan’s eyes, the blue blazed like a sunny day. The two continued conversing, and Brendan leaned forward with more questions.
“Really?” Aiden whispered.
Brendan turned back around toward Aiden. He nodded. An easygoing smile bloomed on his face. Brendan nudged Aiden with his shoulder. “Anything you want, I’ll do. We can do this.”
This is what I want.Aiden smiled.This is exactly what I want.He grasped both of Brendan’s hands firmly in his own, and he looked to Celia. “What’s the full plan?”
