Page 188 of Damsel in Disguise

“How?”

“If you’re going to lose your mind over a man, at least choose one who’s ordinary.”

I deadpan stare at him.

Adrian looks genuinely thoughtful. “He’s got a point there too.”

“Oh my God.”

“What?” Adrian laughs. “The man looks like he’d apologize to a corpse with a smile after committing murder.”

“That’s because he’s polite.”

“That’s because he’s British.”

“Same shit,” Asher mutters.

I bury my face in my hands. They’re impossible. Completely impossible.

When I look up again, the amusement is still there, but something softer has settled underneath it—real concern. The kind they try to disguise as annoyance.

“You know we’re only teasing you because we worry, right?” Adrian says quietly.

Suddenly, this isn’t funny anymore.

“I know.”

They study me. Not as the men half the city fears. Just as my elder brothers.

“You’ve always loved too hard, Ari,” Asher says.

The words land far gentler than I expected.

“When you care about something, you throw yourself at it headfirst. And sometimes… people don’t deserve that.”

It isn’t really Alistair he’s talking about. It’s everyone.

The dead friends.

The family fractures.

The years we spent separated.

All of it.

Before I can answer, a shrill alarm explodes through the room.

Asher moves before the sound goes off.

What surprises me is that it’s not a phone call but an alert. It makes both his and Adrian’s expressions harden instantly.

The shift is so fast it almost feels violent.

One second, he’s my annoying brother.

The next, he’s the man who runs empires.

Suddenly, I don’t buy the excuse of a business meeting at the CynoTech branch here in England, and that they dropped by my place just to surprise me in the meantime.