Page 184 of A Vicious Love

Aunt Solene tilted her head. “Has he said that directly?”

My fingers curled lightly around the napkin in my lap. “There’s no reception here.”

“That wasn’t my question, darling.”

A little heat rose to my cheeks.

Mother stopped discussing seating. I wished she hadn’t.

“No,” I said. “He hasn’t said anything directly.”

“So Jamison didn’t tell you anything before you left?”

The table became horribly still.

“No,” I said again.

Aunt Solene sighed softly.

“Shame.”

My brothers shared a look. Something unspoken, passed between them. My stomach twist at the same time.

“What?” I asked.

Adrian looked at me too quickly. “Nothing.”

I looked between them. “Did something happen?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with.” Mother spoke before either of them could.

Aunt Solene took another sip of coffee, watching me over the rim like she had meant to stir the whole table and was pleased with the result.

Sabine reached for my hand under the table. Her fingers squeezed mine once.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

JAMISON

Iwas learning how to suck up. That sentence alone should have been enough to get a man shot out of mercy. Unfortunately, no one in my house had offered.

Reeves had looked at the delivery room, then at me, then at the delivery room again, and said, “This is excessive.”

That was how I knew I had gone too far.

Reeves Calder had been raised beside me. His father had been my father’s second. His older brother was Marcel’s second. His younger brother was Harrison’s second. Calder blood existed for Crow blood in the same ugly way Crow blood existed for territory.

Second hand was bloodline. Paired so young that by the time you understood loyalty, it already lived in you. Reeves had been mine since we were six.

He had watched me break my first boy’s nose behind a riding stable because the little shit had shoved Marcel. He had been there when I first learned how to make a grown man afraid without raising my voice.

I had taken bullets for him. He had taken blades for me. We had carried each other through enough bad rooms that his opinion on my spending had weight.

Which was unfortunate.

Because his opinion was that I had lost my fucking mind.

“It’s not excessive,” I said.