It was a surreal feeling getting something she had worked for since she was seventeen only to have it not mean anything to her anymore.
Now new things were important to her. Like the three men she loved, carrying her color on their necks.
A tap on her shoulder, and Adria looked up to see Bryson, offering her some tea. She took it, the warmth in the Styrofoam heating her fingers.
“You should sleep,” he said softly.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “So should you.”
He seemed to consider for a second before putting his hand out, saying, “Come with me. I want to show you something.”
Adria’s eyes flicked over Seth, but her hand wrapped around Bryson’s without question.
Kaydon would be there.
Bryson wound her through deserted corridors and into a side staircase.
Ascending the stairs, the two of them went up a level. And then another. Until they came to a dead end.
Bryson pulled a keycard out of his pocket, with the name Tilly Romano.
“You are terrible,” Adria said.
The door beeped as Bryson pressed the card to it, and the two of them stepped out onto the hospital’s rooftop.
The cold night breeze hit them, carrying with it the distant hum of Rome below. Adria’s breath caught as she took in the panorama: the softly glowing dome of St. Peter’s Basilica rising above the flashing lights of traffic. The crumbling arches of the Colosseum ghosted in the moonlight. Adria had been to Rome many times, but she had never been treated to a view like this.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
“It’s nothing compared to you,” he said.
Adria wanted to roll her eyes but instead she felt that familiar desire to be near him.
As if Bryson felt it too, his hand slipped into hers, pulling her in close.
She allowed herself to melt into him, allowing him to hold her at the top of the world.
Adria said, “How do you feel about not being the family head?”
Everything had happened so quickly, she hadn’t gotten a chance to fully ask him about it.
He laughed. “Truthfully, I’m relieved. Don’t tell El I said this, but she’ll do a much better job. Plus—” His fingers brushed a stray hair out of her face. “I’ll be too preoccupied to do my job.”
Adria felt her cheeks blush.
“How does it feel, being a founding member of the Nine?” he said.
Adria sighed. She had told the three of them and Eric as soon as she had gotten back. “We are going to have a larger target on our backs.”
He shrugged. “Maybe not. You are a major player in the game now, gorgeous. You get the chance to make it into something new. Something better.”
“The Nine has a complicated history. Do I really want to be tangled up in that?”
Bryson shrugged. “Whether you want to or not, you’re tangled Dri. As far as your mother goes, can’t say I’m surprised.”
Adria gave him a soft shove. “Yeah right. I don’t think anyone could have guessed this.”
Bryson tucked his hands in his pockets. “Not all of it. But I know revenge when I see it. And once I remembered that I had seen her family symbol on the cavern wall, it was the only thingthat made sense. Families kill to get a seat. It’s not too much of a leap to imagine the lengths they would go to if they lost one.”
