Arranged love

APRIL

I watch the man exit the front door and then I turn to the cooler door and barge in. “Just what do you think you were doing?” I bark at my little brother.

He stands behind the small table, trying to make an arrangement for the Blitz wedding this weekend. Stopping, he looks up at me and releases a sigh. His blue eyes are heavy, and he has bags under them. His band T-shirt and ripped jeans look like he picked them up off his bedroom floor this morning.

“What time did you get in last night?” I ask him. I went to bed at midnight, and he wasn’t home yet.

“Late.” Comes his clipped answer.

“Where were you?” I pry.

“At a party.”

He’s lying. “Ethan …” My younger brother is my responsibility. I have to protect him, but he fights me every step of the way. I’m only three years older than him. Since he still lives with me, he thinks he’s the man of the house and that he can do whatever he wants.

“Just stop, April. I don’t need you going all mom on me. It’s too early, and I’m too tired.”

I refrain from rolling my eyes at him. “I’m gonna cook spaghetti tonight. Your favorite.” I try changing the subject.

“I won’t be home until late.”

“Where are you going?” I ask through thin lips.

“Out,” he says.

“Ethan, you need to get some sleep.”

He just ignores me.

I run my hands over my jeans and close my eyes. “Are you in trouble?” I ask. It’s been my biggest fear for a while now. He didn’t always hang with the best crowd. Between getting thrown out of school on multiple occasions and his run-ins with the law, he’s already on a dangerous path. He snorts, and my eyes spring open.

“No.”

“I’m serious, Ethan. I’m worried about you. You’re never home. You’re sleeping at work …”

He slams down the glass vase onto the table. “You wanted to keep this fucking store!” he roars. “Not me!”

I swallow nervously. “It’s all we had left of Mom,” I whisper, and my chest tightens. How could he not want to keep a part of her? This was all she had to leave us. Every time I walk into Roses, I think of her. I see her. I smell her. In a way, she lives on as long as I’m here. This was her life. Her dream. I couldn’t sell it to someone else who would most likely close it and turn it into another coffee shop.

He places his hands on the table and bows his head. “I know.” He growls, pushing off the table. “You wanted this, April. I didn’t.” Then he shoves past me and out the cooler door.

I follow him back through the flower shop and into the office. “Where are you going?” I ask when he yanks his jacket off the back of the chair.

“Out.” Comes his clipped answer. “And don’t wait up for me tonight.”

It’s seven in the morning. “Ethan?” I call out as he makes his way to the front door.

He doesn’t respond or stop before he shoves the front door open and storms out. I walk back into the office and plop down into the chair. I rip both of my buns out and run my hands through the back of my hair to undo the braids, allowing my hair to fall over my shoulders and down my back. It was giving me a headache. Looking down at the floor, I see what looks like a key card to a hotel room of some sort. A black circle is in the middle with a gold K in the center. Then below that it says Kingdom Members Only.

It must have fallen out of his jacket pocket. I fist it in my hand and sigh.

GRAVE

I PULL INTO the private parking garage at Kingdom and bring my car to a stop. Walking up to our elevator, I scan my card and step inside. I make my way up to the thirteenth floor and walk off the elevator, stepping onto the white marble floor. The receptionist looks up at me, but I ignore her and head straight down the hall to the back. The four of us each have our own office, but I’m headed to my brother’s. He hates it when he has to hunt me down, so I might as well get this over with.

Shoving his door open, I refrain from sighing. My brother sits behind his desk. The black curtains behind him are pulled tight since it’s a nice day outside. He has a problem with sunshine. Anything that has life to it, he likes to black it out. Just like our father did.

Titan leans up against the wall to his left. Arms crossed over his chest and ankles crossed. He wears a pair of jeans, plain black T-shirt, and a scowl on his face.

Cross sits in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Holding a Zippo in his hand, he flips it open and closed.

They all look at me as I shut the door, but no one says a word. “I didn’t know we were having a meeting today.” I fall into the seat next to Cross.

My brother leans back, the oversized black leather chair squeaking at his movement. “We need to talk.”

“If it’s about Dad, you can save it.” I dismiss him. I have nothing to say on the matter.

“It’s about you,” Titan growls.

I turn to look at him, wondering what’s up his ass. Ever since he got with Emilee, he’s been much more pleasurable to be around. “What about me?” I ask, not caring.

“We need to talk about the incident last week,” my brother answers.

“What incident?” I ask, but I already know what it’s regarding. Do they think they can corner me and expect me to talk because of their half-assed attempt at an intervention? They don’t know me very well if that’s what they think.

Titan pushes off the wall, eyes narrowed down on me. “Emilee thought you were dead.”

I run my hands down my shirt and jeans to where I grab my cock. It’s still hard from seeing the woman with the purple hair at the flower shop. I never did get her name, but I’ve decided I’m going to call her Petal. She’s as delicate as a petal. “As you can see, I’m very much alive.”

“Goddammit, Grave!” My brother slams his hand down on the black desk. “This is a serious matter.”

It’s one of his favorite lines to yell at me.

“You terrified her,” Titan adds, and I snort.

Cross and I sit in the living room of the Royal Suite-the suite the Kings and I share here at Kingdom.

Titan is working, of course, and Bones left earlier today to go to New York for whatever reason. He never tells me shit.

I throw back the glass of bourbon and stand. Swaying on my feet, my vision blurs. “Fuck …” I slur.

“Yeah,” Cross agrees, falling off the couch and onto the floor. We both laugh. “This shit is good.”

I take a step toward the open kitchen, but trip and fall on my face. My heavy eyes close, and I let out a long breath.

I woke up to Emilee kneeling beside me, shaking my body while screaming in my face. She called Titan, and he called Bones. I had passed out. It wasn’t something new or life threatening, but she freaked the fuck out and tattled.

I lean back, crossing my arms over my chest. “Cross was just as fucked up as I was.” I rat my best friend out like the child I am.

“Hey, don’t bring me into this.” Cross places his hands up in the air, surrendering immediately.

“Emilee didn’t find Cross passed out on the floor. She found you,” Titan growls.

I smile up at him. “Does she have feelings for me, T?” His nostrils flare. “Better make sure to keep her in check, or before you know it, she’ll be asking me to join in while you fuck her.” I wink at my brother. “Bones shouldn’t get all the fun.”

Titan lunges for me. His hands hit my chest so hard my chair falls back. We crash to the floor, and I roll to my right as Cross yanks Titan off me.

I sit on the floor staring up at an infuriated Titan. His chest rises and falls fast, and a growl comes from deep in his chest. His hands fist, and when I think he’s about to hit me, he turns and storms out without another word, yanking the door open so hard it hits the interior wall with a thud before it slams itself shut.

I reach up to see if my nose is bleeding. I’m surprised when I see no blood. I think it was his elbow that connected with it.

“Give us a minute,” my brother tells Cross.

He exits, and I pick myself up off the floor. I tilt my head back, still waiting for the blood to come oozing out. Bones comes around the desk and leans his ass against it, crossing his arms over his chest. His black button-down strains against his muscular, inked arms. “Why do you do that?” he asks.

I don’t answer.

He sighs. “Why do you take a serious situation and ruin it by opening your mouth?”This is property © of NôvelDrama.Org.

I snort. “How did you think that conversation was going to go?”

He bows his head and runs his hand through his dark hair. “You have a drug problem.”

My palms begin to sweat. He’s never said it out loud before. We both ignore it. “Well, I’m sorry but not all of us can turn everything off.”

“Is that what you think I do?” he asks, frowning.

“It doesn’t matter what you do.” I shake my head, not caring. “You deal with you, and I’ll deal with me.” I go to exit, but his next words stop me.

“You’re all I have left, Grave.”

I swallow and close my eyes. He and I were always close. Him and the Kings are only one year older than me, but he’s always been my big brother. When our father wouldn’t teach me to play baseball because he wanted Dillan to be the star, Dillan taught me. When it came time for me to drive, Dillan taught me how to in his car. He gave me my first beer. First cigarette. He was the one who showed me how to be a man.

“I want you to get help,” he adds, filling the silence.

I straighten my shoulders, not bothering to turn to face him. “And I want you to stay out of my business.”

“Kyle?” He sighs, and I swallow the lump that forms in my throat. “Mom’s been gone for eight years.”

My entire body goes rigid. He never mentions her. “Your point?” I snap.

“Now Dad is gone.”

I spin around on him with my face scrunched in anger. “So you didn’t feel shit when Mom passed, but now that that son of a bitch is dead, you’re gonna feel something?”

“That’s not what this is,” he growls, his blue eyes narrowing on me.

“Then what the fuck is it? ‘Cause that’s how it sounds.”

He looks away from me, and I see the tic in his jawline right where his neck tattoo comes to a stop. He took me to get my first tattoo when I turned eighteen. It was actually on my birthday. He already had his first one. I remember the next day when I saw Dad, and he was pissed at me. Said I was trying to be like Dillan and he didn’t raise sheep. I shouldn’t do something just because my brother did. I told him to go to hell and immediately went and got another one.

“You’re going to hurt yourself if you don’t stop,” he finally says, avoiding my previous question about our parents.

I snort. “Yeah, because you’re so cautious with your life.”

“It’s different,” he growls.

“How is it any fucking different?”

“I’m not feeding myself full of drugs,” he snaps, pushing off the desk.

“No. Instead, you’re too busy killing people and fucking your best friend’s woman.” I turn toward the door.

“Grave?” he demands.