I growled. “You’re no family of mine.”
“DNA tests say otherwise. But potato, potato.”
My hackles rose. “Since when did you start saying that?”
“What? You’ve never heard it?” He chuckled. “It’s cute.”
He knew damn well I had. So, the only question was, when had he? How?
“Don’t fuck with me right now, asshole. What do you want?”
The snap of his fingers came through the line, like he’d forgotten. “Oh, yeah.” He toyed with me the way he always did, and fear crept up my spine. “I assumed you left the family group chat, so I figured I’d call with the news.”
My heart kicked up a thunderous beat in my chest.
“Time of death: 10:01 p.m. last night. Check your phone.”
A vibration alerted me to an incoming message, and I pulled up the app to open it. The image in the text thread shouldn’t have surprised me, but the familiar playing card stole the breath from my lungs.
Big brown eyes stared up at me from a picture pasted onto it. Golden-tan skin. A hint of a smirk on red-painted lips.
A warning.
His voice turned cold. “Thought you might need incentive to do your part, so I took the liberty of getting that for you...”
Nails sank into my neck before dragging down my back.
“Time to pay the piper, little brother.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I saw was Kingston.
Sleeping soundly in the bed, with his arm cradling my head as I rested on his chest. His face was free of tension and without a trace of worry. He looked peaceful, and, judging by the hint of a smile on his lips, happy.
He looked how I felt.
Aside from a little sore.
I stretched out along the length of his body, curling into his side. Suspecting I’d have to go back to my room before people started moving around the house, I used my time to examine the tattoo on his right shoulder. When I flipped over onto my stomach to get a better look, my breasts pressed against him, and I smiled at the soft moan that snuck past his lips.
Tempted as I was to wake him up for more, I wanted to look my fill first. I never would’ve pegged him as a tattoo guy.
Another surprise.
He’d conveniently left his shirt on during his appointment, and that night in the cabin when I woke up to find the threeof them there with me. Hiding it had to come naturally, and I hoped it was a tiny spark of rebellion he kept from his father.
I liked that thought, and it fit him. Fighting in secret, doing it quietly behind the scenes.
Carrying a weight so much heavier than I’d ever dreamed a person could bear alone. As my fingers traced over the design, I struggled to put my finger on why it felt familiar.
It was a kaleidoscope of color.
Undefined smudges that didn’t make sense.
Kingston woke up right as the answer came to me, his lips kissing my bare shoulder and drawing my eyes to his. “That’s the image in my charm.”
He nodded, eyes heavy with sleep but slowly brewing lust. Andlove. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to mine, but he pulled back before deepening the kiss. Out of respect for my preference to clean breath before making out, I realized, when he sat up and reached into his bedside table.
