“Go to bed.” I walked to the door and got as far as one step into the hallway.
“Don’t leave me in here alone.”
The needy tone in her voice had me glancing over my shoulder. Her blue eyes were wide open, staring at my back.
“It’s lonely in here. Stay with me.”
I was almost one hundred percent fucking positive this was her crazy ass mind talking for her, but she patted the empty space bed beside her and that was that.
I kicked the door back shut with my boot, pulled my shirt off, and stretched out beside her. She immediately rolled over and threw her leg over mine.
I waited until I was certain she was asleep before climbing back off the bed, pausing at the door to double check. I scanned over her tiny body and was struck with how surreal it was that she was materialized in the flesh—the ghostI’d thought about off and on over the years.
Slipping out of the room, I made my way downstairs and found Cobra and Grimm at the table.
“She’s down for the count.” Grimm answered my silent question about Arlen, who was no longer sleeping on the couch.
“So, are we on for tomorrow night?” Cobra asked me.
Thinking it over, I nodded my head. “Yeah, that gives us an extra day to set up for everything else.”
“Okay, now that all that’s out the way, does anyone wanna discuss the elephant in the room?” He looked between us and waited, but neither of us spoke.
“You haven’t seen your sister since you two were kids, and you don’t have anything to say?” Cobra questioned him.
“Mysister,” Grimm repeated, adding extra enunciation. “You two are more my family than she is. I don’t know her and she doesn’t even know I exist. She has zero recollection of me and I don’t feel the need to let her know becauseIdon’t know if I can trust her.”
He gave him a flat look, which was him saying he no longer wanted to discuss it.
“And what about you?” he asked me next.
“I agree with him. I don’t know if I can trust her, but she’s mine regardless.”
“Yeah, I know what that means. Means you two fucksticks have your heads up your asses,” he grumbled.
“Maybe you should go take a shower.” I was more telling than suggesting. He was half drunk so I was going to give him a small pass instead of wiping the floor with his ass.
“Don’t fuck shit up.” He stood up and fixed us with a pubescent glare before stumbling off.
“That shit is exactly why we don’t let him drink,” Grimm said as he stood up. “I’m going to shower and pretend to sleep.” He clasped my shoulder on his way past.
I knew he was irritated because Grimm was like me, whereas Cobra still had a bit of good left in him.
If someone were on fire, he’d be more inclined to put it out while we would use their burning body to light up a smoke.
This was the unplanned part of bullshit I didn’t have the patience to deal with. I didn’t need the two of them at odds over something we had no control over.
Cali was the last thing I needed to deal with right now. She was an unstable hurricane threatening to destroy everything in her path. Any sane man would have run for cover, but I had never fucking been sane and I’d always had a thing for storms.
I sat at the table half-assed, reading the ledger, thinking about how many things had changed so drastically and how fast they were going to continue changing in the extremely near future.
Shit was about to hit the fan.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Iwoke up with a raging headache and Romero in my face.
“Do you always fucking sleep this heavy? I was about to drown your ass in the shower.”
