And how she will never, ever be able to give it back.
CHAPTER 1
Leo
No good love story starts with a funeral. But a dark one does.
My brothers and I watch grimly as our youngest brother is prepared to be lowered into the ground. It’s a cold fall day, and leaves are blowing their way into the maw in the earth, dancing over his coffin with the indifference nature likes to display to all tragedies.
It rained overnight, and again this morning. The area around the grave shimmers with gray puddles reflecting the dismal sky.
I have flashes of memory of stamping in puddles like the ones around the grave when we were small. Teddy loved it the most. I can hear his laugh, innocent and small. It is hard to believe that so many years have passed and now we are all grown. There is little innocence left in any of us now. We are adults, and the best of us has been taken too soon.
“Dearly beloved…”
The priest endeavors to start a small graveside service. It is ill-fated indeed.
“Don’t.”
Luke cuts him off with one rough word. Luke is built like a pit bull, all muscle and rage. He’s never been angrier than he is today. I wonder if he’s taken something to wear the edge off. He’s supposed to be sober. Then again, Theodore is supposed to be alive, so I suppose we’re all letting one another down in various ways.
The priest looks at him in surprise.
“Don’t give us that funeral bullshit,” Luke says. “It doesn’t belong to us. We’re not that kind of people. Just say he’s dead and put him in the fucking ground.”
The priest looks at Aiden for confirmation. People do that. He is the eldest of us, and he has a natural demeanor of authority.
Aiden nods. None of us are much for pretty words, and even less for ceremony. Luke is blunt, but right. Theodore is gone, and no amount of pretty morbid words and religious pageantry is going to bring him back, or assuage our grief. Funerals are supposed to be for the living, but we will deal with this loss in our own way. On this day, we are here because you have to put the body in the ground sooner rather than later.
I never imagined Teddy would go first, though maybe I should have. He was always the sweetest of us, the most innocent. He never wanted to be involved in any of our dealings. He wanted to live a simple, easy life. We indulged him. We allowed him to stray from the family business, to strike out on his own and to enjoy himself.
He was the one the bastards went for. He didn’t protect himself because he didn’t think he had to.
I look around at our little familial grouping. Once upon a time there were six of us. Now there are only three. Fate and bad men have taken half of us. Luke is right; the response to that really shouldn’t be standing around dressed in stiff clothing listening to even stiffer words.
Aiden and I are in black suits, black ties. White shirts. The simple attire of mourning. It’s also the attire of dining, and of business. There’s probably something to that. Luke is wearing an emulation of our attire. Black jeans. Leather jacket. Black t-shirt with a design on it that would probably be inappropriate if I could be bothered looking at it properly.
To a casual observer, we might not even look all that much like brothers save for the fact we are all tall. Other than that, the three of us threw to different parts of our heritage. Aiden is lithe, with a natural elegance. He can be underestimated at times, if he chooses to hide his charisma. Aiden’s eyes are a reddish brown, and his dark hair curls riotously if it is left to grow. He mostly slicks it to the side to give the semblance of orderliness. Today it is slicked down hard all the way.
Luke is built like a bull. His face is chiseled. When he takes care of himself, he looks not unlike Captain America. Luke is the one most likely to be mistaken for being wholesome, though I think he struggles with his demons the most. He is blond, and his hair currently looks like he was dragged out of a bar after a hard night. Which is accurate. Today isn’t a day to police Luke’s fashion, or force him to brush his hair. It’s a day to mourn Teddy, though I think we all know we are going to mourn him forever.
I am somewhere in the middle in terms of appearance. Somewhat elegant, but built powerfully. A dancer’s body, I’ve heard it called. My features have some refinement, but are strong. I am the second eldest of the three of us, and I have very specific recreational tastes that make me useful to Aiden and that will make me exceptionally useful in the avenging of Theodore’s death.
The priest starts the crank that lowers the coffin into the ground, and the three of us watch Teddy’s last journey.
“He deserved better than this,” Aiden says, breaking his silence.
I know he is blaming himself. He’s the eldest, and he has been taking responsibility for the rest of us pretty much since the day he was born. Our parents were both killed when Teddy was just a few months old. It was an assassin who took our parents, and it is another who has taken Teddy, we can be sure of that.
At the time of our parents’ death, other extended family members and various business partners seemed to be poised to take over the family’s businesses. It was likely to be a complete seizure of all our family had achieved and attained. But Aiden got himself emancipated at the age of sixteen, and used our funds to engage lawyers. He was just a boy, but he fought with skill and documents and legal prowess. To this day, there is nothing that man cannot do with a contract.
Aiden ensured we all got to grow up in the same house together. He is the reason we are who we are, and have what we have. At the time our parents died, I was just twelve years old. Luke was four, and Teddy was less than a year old.
It was challenging, but we made do. We had a nursemaid for Teddy, and a butler to run the house, but even as ateenager, Aiden was firmly in control and he had no qualms about enforcing his will. He made it clear to anybody who underestimated him because of his age that it was a mistake to do so.
Because of Aiden, the four of us were a family for the last twenty years. Teddy had only just turned twenty-one when he was killed. He had his whole life ahead of him. He was innocent.
Aiden is thirty-six now, and I am thirty-two. Luke is twenty-four. The difference in age also contributes to how we can seem almost unrelated at times. The gap between Aiden and Teddy was especially stark. I think Aiden related more to Theodore as a son than brother.
