“See you later,” I tell him, looking beyond him at the door to where Killian stands leaning against the side of his sleek, blacked out Audi R8 and lift my hand to say goodbye.
But he turns his back to me, throwing the door open to slip inside without ever looking back.
Chapter Two
Isit in the chair at the table in Malakai’s office, a set of cards in my hands and scattered poker chips on the table ahead of me, but I am not focused on the game. I don’t even give a shit that I’ve lost almost fifty grand tonight, not when all I can see inside my head is the way Savannah moved to the music in that shithole she’s decided to make her home.
I’ve seen her dance hundreds of times but there was something raw and hypnotic about the way she moved to the music today, dressed in her light summer dress that clung to every curve of her body and flowed around her legs, her eyes closed, platinum blonde hair whipping around her face.
“Killian,” Sebastian, one of my oldest friends, and Savannah’s older brother, snaps in my direction. “You playing or daydreaming?”
“Shit,” I grumble, “Sorry, what are we doing?”
“You need to place a bet,” His green eyes narrow.
“Right,” I agree and look down at the cards in my hands, already forgetting the hand even though I looked at it only minutes ago. A king of hearts, a nine of clubs and a seven of hearts, in other words, fuck all to the cards laid on the table.
“Fold.” I slap my cards face down and lean back in my chair, lifting my glass to my lips only to find I’ve already drained it. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me. I haven’t had my head straight for the past six fucking months.
Placing the glass down, I reach for the bottle and fill it back up, almost to the top and continue to watch the rest of the game. I’m not out yet but I doubt I’ll make it to the end.
I don’t give a shit about the money, nor do I care if I win or lose.
Not when my mind is haunted by my best friend’s little sister.
It’s wrong. It’s forbidden. It’s damn right criminal.
There are very few lines I am not willing to cross, Ican kill and maim, spill blood and take lives. I don’t ask questions, I don’t show mercy, if it needs to be done, I will do it. But dreaming about my friend’s sister? Yeah, I’m not willing to fuck with that.
I can’t even remember when it started, and I don’t know what changed. One minute she was the girl we protected as she grew, the girl who went off to college to chase her dreams and nothing more, then she came back and the whole fucking world came to a standstill.
I’ve never questioned my morals until the moment she breezed back in with her long blonde hair and smile that could start a war. Never questioned my sanity until she turned that smile on me, and ever since, I have been putting up a wall between us, brick by brick but it’s going to take a little more than stone, it’s going to take steel and barbed wire to keep her out.
And I’m not even sure that’ll be enough after watching her dance the way she did today.
I’m out on the next round and for the rest of the game, I pretend to watch the guys. My oldest friends, my family, the people that gave me purpose and a place in this fucked up world, but they know something is up, no matter how much I deny it.
They always know.
I polish off my glass of whiskey and the next and I’m almost through my third, maybe even fourth by the time they call it a night, Bast, the fucker, winning. He always wins.
“Right,” He says, slapping his knee, “I expect the money in my account by the time I wake up but I’m out, I have a wife and a baby I need to get back to.”
Malakai grunts in agreement. These poker nights happen once or twice a month, a habit none of us can break even if at the end of them we all pretend we hated every minute of it. As we hit the door, Dean snatches the keys to my R8 out my hand and heads to the car, climbing behind the wheel but before I can get in, Sebastian grasps my arm.
“You good?” He asks, not for the first time.
“Fine,” I say, “Why?”
The thing about our friendship is that it goes further than just a brotherhood, we’re part of an organization, a deadly, bloody organization that deals with death daily. We all have to depend on one another to survive. Malakai currently sits on the throne, and the three of us, me, Dean and Sebastian sit in his inner circle. Secrets don’t sit well here, they fester and rot, spreading like a disease.
“You’ve been off, man,” He says, releasing me.
“I’m good,” I lie.
I know he doesn’t believe me but what the hell else am I supposed to say. He’d murder me if he knew the kind of thoughts I’d had about Savannah, fuck they all would, and I wouldn’t blame them either.
“Say hi to Willow for me,” I tell him as I yank the door open and get into the car, shutting it before he can say anything else. Dean’s eyes bore into the side of my face, but I pretend not to notice as I pull out my cell and start scrolling. Eventually he puts the car in drive and peels away from the estate, back toward the city where both our homes are.
