FELIX
SOMEWHERE OFF-GRID
“I’ll takewhat he’s having.” My entire body stiffened at the familiar voice. “You should really be spending Christmas at home with your family, Felix.” I sat up straight and looked over at the man standing next to me. He was dressed in all black, his dark brown hair slicked back as he thanked the bartender for his drink. His eyes met mine, and the man smiled.
Kief.
I instantly fucking regretted being here. “What the hell are you doing here? This club is protected by Charlotte’s Web. Northern Lights isn’t allowed in our domain, not without?—”
“Breaking the truce? Oh, we both know it’s a bit too late for that.” My cousin grinned with eagerness at my obvious discomfort.
“So, you know.”
Fucking great.
Kief’s voice trickled through my mind, repeating the very phrase he had spoken to me that Christmas night. “Oh, I know everything, Felix.” His words slithered like a snake, wrappingaround my brain and constricting it tightly as the memory replayed itself to me. “You and your hotheaded brother killed my rat. The very one I happened to have tailing your sister.” His smug face tilted, those eyes burrowing into my corneas while he silently toyed with the gold signet ring on his finger. “You didn’t think that would just slip past me now, did you?” He shook his head. My eyes remained fixated on the ring, a sickness churning in my gut knowing damn well whose it once was, and how he’d come to possess it. “You know, genetics aside, your little ill-tempered brother reminds me so much of your father. He has that same pent-up anger and lack of decorum my uncle was so famously known for.” His dark brown eyes narrowed as his grin grew.
My fists clenched along the bar top as I grappled with my own temper. “Family or not, you should really watch how you speak about my father.” My gaze remained low as I slowly rose from the barstool and stood. “And as for decorum, well—” I exhaled a silent laugh as the edges of my lips curled into a snarky grin, and I glared down at him. “You’re really one to talk. Remind me, howdidyou become the head of Northern Lights?” My focus flicked to the golden ring before returning to his face. Kief’s arrogance slipped as that cowardly temper peeked through, sparking a morsel of joy within my chest. “Do you not remember what our grandfather used to say?” My brow raised and I glared down at him. “It’s bad luck to speak ill of the dead.” I reached out and carefully raised the drink I ordered, stopping before it could hit my lip. Hesitating, I stared down at the amber-colored liquid sloshing around in the clear glass. “I suggest you leave before anyone else from Charlotte’s Web notices your ass sitting here. Family or not, you said it yourself…our little peace alliance is broken. And you know what that means.” I tossed the drink back, feeling it burn down my throat before settling into my empty stomach.
Kief exhaled. “Ease up, cousin, we’re family. And as your family, I’m here to give you a simple warning.” He looked away and I observed him closely. He had grown since the last time we spoke, resembling his own father while leaving little to no genetic trace of his mother—my father’s sister. At first glance, a total stranger wouldn’t piece together that we were related, but the longer they looked, the more they’d see that Kief was just as ill-tempered and deadly as the rest of the Osvaldo family, if not more. He was a killer, just like myself, and just like Haze. And our father was no different. I guess you could say it was a genetic trait we were all cursed with, each of us stained by the blood on our hands. It rooted from the tip of the Osvaldo family tree, dripping down its extended branches and landing deep into all our tainted hearts, sealing our fates. And no matter how much we each tried to outrun the decades-long curse, life would bring us right back into it. Whether we liked it or not.
I cursed under my breath and tousled my hair back from my eyes.
What a sick, psychotic joke of a family we all are.
My hand slammed the empty drink glass down onto the bar, the club’s music drowning out the loud clanking sound it made. I leaned closer toward Kief, my brows furrowed, and my voice deepening with exasperation. “You want a war? Fine. I’ll give it to you, but you leave my siblings out of this. Haze and Indigo havenothingto do with this. They don’t even know the truth of our family?—”
Before I could even finish spitting out the words, Kief interrupted me with a booming laugh. “Oh, Felix! My dear cousin!” He chuckled loudly. “You truly have no say in this war. You never did.” He tossed his own drink back and released a gasping breath. “No, you gave that power up when you ran off and joined the military.” He rolled his eyes and made a taunting face. “Much good that did you.” He pushed the empty glass awaybefore turning back to me, crossing his arms along his chest. I noticed the faintest bit of movement from behind him within the crowded room, telling me that Kief hadn’t come to The Red Eye alone. From what I could see, he had at least five of his over-doped, steroid-jacked men nearby ready to pounce.
Of course.
I laughed internally to myself, amused.
Kief doesn’t have the balls to step foot in our territory without some kind of muscle behind him. Even when we were kids, he always had someone bigger and stronger fight his battles for him. Pathetic.
A threatening smile stretched across my maskless face as I leaned in even closer to my older cousin, effortlessly pressing the tip of my knife against his abdomen while whispering into his ear, “I’m curious…do you think they’re fast enough to stop me from gutting you like a pig and slamming your pretty little skull into this bar?” My free hand slapped along his shoulder, squeezing so tight I had nearly gripped his collarbone as I tried not to enjoy the moment too much. “But I’m no threat, am I? I mean, you said it yourself, cousin.” I pushed the tip deeper, cutting through his dark shirt as the tip slid faintly into his flesh. “Must I remind youwhatI did while I was in the military? Spill all the wonderful things I learned—the way I was trained to be a killer—or should I skip to the good part and tell youwhyI was discharged.” The meatheads around us all flinched, stepping closer as if their presence would scare me. “Tell your dogs to heel,” I demanded with a grin. My cousin’s face hardened into a look of both fear, and annoyance. He stared back at me, almost daring me to continue, before reluctantly raising his hand and motioning to his men to stay back.
I smiled at his obedience. “Good. Now, listen closely.” I tightened my grip along the hilt. “Your fight is with me and Charlotte’s Web. Haze and Indigo havenothingto do with anyof this.” Kief opened his mouth to speak, but I only pushed the knife deeper, piercing through the thin layers of his skin and further into his abdomen, listening to the beautiful squelching sounds his body made while he groaned and struggled. “Careful, cousin.” My smile sharpened. “Wiggle too much and my blade might just slip into your intestines.” He continued to glare at me, his pupils burning with such hatred. “Not so tough now, are you?” My head tilted as I restrained myself from killing him on the spot. “Leave the twins alone. And I suggest you keep your mouth shut when it comes to my father.”
Kief’s eyes bore into mine. He remained still for a few moments before finally speaking up. “What’s your plan, Felix? You going to kill me? Here? Out in the open for all these witnesses to see?” His hand motioned around the club. “I don’t think so. Charlotte’s Web wouldn’t like that, now, would they?”
My brows furrowed at his statement, knowing he was right.
My cousin let out a faint huff and he gripped my wrist, pushing my arm back. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he gritted as I pulled my knife from his body and returned it to its sheath, hidden amongst my person.
I sat back down on the barstool, bitter I couldn’t kill him. “You’re lucky I’m a reasonable person.”
Kief scoffed at my words. “If you're so reasonable—” He winced, patting his small wound with a tiny cocktail napkin from the bar. “Then stop fighting your family’s fate.”
I sat there and watched as he adjusted his jacket. “I already told you, this is between us. So just leave them alone.”
His expression darkened. “No can do, Felix. Whether you like it or not, the twins are just as involved in this as you and I. Knowing or not, they chose a side, didn’t they?” he asked with a raised brow, and I kept quiet. “My younger cousins are in this tangled family feud the same as you and me, which means—” He rose from the barstool, his goons encroaching on us as he inchedcloser. “I’ll speak about them, and my uncle, however the fuck I want.” He pressed his hand against his abdomen and toyed with the ring some more, a small trail of his blood rolling over the golden signet, catching my gaze. My cousin scoffed and with his free hand, pulled out his wallet and tossed a hundred-dollar bill onto the bar. “You broke the rules, Felix. YouandHaze.” I bit my tongue, knowing there was no reasoning with him. “But, seeing as we’re family, I felt it was only fair that I warn you about the consequences...in person.” Kief stood inches away from me, just staring as he clutched his gut. “Consider this my last act of kindness.”
I stared up at my cousin, the neon lights strobing along the dark club as I really looked at him for the first time in so long. Kief was close to me in age, but I still dominated him in both size and strength. There was no doubt he was smart, but he was always weaker than me. And he fucking hated it, almost as much as he hated my dad and the rest of us. But the more I looked at the fucker before me, the more my rage ignited and surged through my veins. My entire body tightened as I grappled with the urge to just beat the ever-living shit out of him. The muscles in my limbs and neck swelled as I restrained myself. As much as I wanted to do so, I knew violence wasn’t the answer. At least, not at this exact moment. But I fucking hated him. Cousin or not, Kief was the head of Northern Lights…the sworn enemy of Charlotte’s Web. Which meant, even with the treaty broken, I couldn’t do shit to him. Not withoutreallyfucking things up.
How fucking annoying.
Kief grinned, his usual annoying persona snapping back. He smacked my arm, his bloodied hand leaving a stain on my leather jacket. “You know, I never realized how much you favor him.” He reached out to touch my bare face, smearing his blood along my cheek before I slapped his hand away, taken aback by the entire interaction. Kief laughed, the sound of his cacklerippling over itself, echoing and repeating through my mind as it filled my ears and surrounded my brain. “It’s as if Ignacio himself were standing before me, in his prime.”
