Arranged love

APRIL

It’s been a week since I found out my brother owed the Mason brothers. I feel bad about how I yelled at Ethan the morning after. I had become a mom to him, no longer a sister, but I feel like he’s making poor life choices that are going to get him killed. If that means being his enemy, I can live with myself.

So far, he’s held up to his word. He’s at the shop helping me get it back up and running. And home every night. He doesn’t speak much to me, but he can hate me all he wants as long as he follows the rules.

I exit my shower and wrap a towel around my chest, tucking it into itself and see Grave at my sink brushing his teeth. I don’t get to see him very much. Kingdom takes up most of his time. At least, I hope that’s where he is and not with Lucy. The question is always there on the tip of my tongue, but I’m too chicken to ask. I lean up against the counter and look at him. “This is my fault,” I admit. Shame washes over me. It reminds me that I’ve failed Ethan. I could have been better. It’s my fault that we’re in the mess we’re in anyway.

He rinses out his mouth and sets the toothbrush down. “Well, if you weren’t so tempting, I could get to work on time.” He yanks the towel free of my body. His blue eyes instantly dropping to my legs.

“No.” I slap his chest. “The fact that Ethan is in trouble.”

He sighs, running a hand through his dark hair. He doesn’t like to talk about it. Every time I bring it up, he changes the subject. As if he’s taken care of it, and it’s over. But it’s not.

“He wanted to move back home when our mother passed, but I wanted to stay. I shouldn’t have been so selfish.” There was nothing there for us. Seattle was depressing. I thought a life in Vegas would be better, but I was wrong. “Too many things are readily available, making it easy for him to get in trouble. They don’t call it Sin City for nothing.” And he’s still two years away from being twenty-one. What will happen in years to come when he realizes he doesn’t need me and my strict rules?

“Listen.” He grips my hips, then spins us around to where he’s leaning up against the countertop, and I’m standing between his legs. “I have it under control. He’s not going to get into any more trouble. Not while I’m around,” he adds with a smirk.

I’ve noticed that Grave doesn’t take much seriously. When the situation starts to head that way, he makes jokes. “And how long is that for?” I ask, biting my lip nervously. I owe him so much already. How can I ask him for more? He’s quickly becoming someone that I like having around.

His eyes scan my face as he reaches up and places a few strands of wet hair behind my ear. “However long you want me to be.”

I wrap my arms around his neck and lean up on my tiptoes to press my lips to his. He’s right about one thing-I’m always making him late. It has been so long since I’ve had any sexual release that I crave it from him. Need it. He’s so fucking good at it.

“Are you coming back over tonight?” I ask when I pull away.

“No. I’ll be at the Airport tonight.” He frowns at that thought, running his finger down my chest bone.

Why would he be there? “Doing what?”

His cell starts to vibrate next to him where it sits on the countertop. Bones flashes across his screen, and I step back so he can walk out of the bathroom to answer it.

I haven’t brought up his mother or the fact that he ordered her flowers. His reasons aren’t any of my business. I just hope that whatever he needed from those flowers, he got. Everyone grieves differently. And there is no timeframe on how long you can mourn a loved one.

I start my morning after-shower ritual when he comes back into the bathroom.

“What were we talking about?” he asks, walking up behind me.

“You blowing me off tonight.”

He pulls my wet hair off my shoulder, and his eyes meet mine in the mirror. “It’ll be late.”

“You can wake me up.” I offer.

He spins me around, grips my hips, and sets my ass on the cold counter. “How would you like me to do that?” he asks.

“Surprise me.”

He steps between my legs, pressing mine apart, and grips my wet hair, pulling my head back. Then his lips are on mine, letting me know we’re both going to be late today. The only difference is he has a job to get to and all I have is an empty shop.

GRAVE

“WHAT CAN I get you?” I ask the guy who stands at the bar inside of Crown. I run it most of the time. Bones didn’t want it. Titan was too busy running the Queens and Cross wanted to open up his own tattoo parlor, so I took our exclusive night club at Kingdom.

“Two shots of Patron and two Miller Lites,” he answers, pulling his card out of his wallet.

I turn my back to him and start to pop the tops on the beers when I feel my cell vibrate in my back pocket.

“Hey, get him two shots of Patron,” I holler at one of my bartenders as I step away to answer my phone in the office. “What’s up?”

“Hey, man. Just wanted to let you know that Randy has been booked.”

Fucking finally. “What are the charges?”

“Well, your plan worked. Not only did the bastard decide to fuck up, he did a royal job at it.” I smile. “He ran his car right into a tree. He was drunk and had pills on him. When we went to arrest him, he punched my partner in the face.”

“Yes.” I chuckle.All content is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

“Yep, it definitely worked in our favor,” he adds. “But it gets better.”

“Go on.”

“Found out that he did have a warrant. But it’s out of Florida. And they want to extradite him. He’s looking at fifteen to twenty years there.”

“That’s good enough for me. Thanks, man.” I hang up the phone and walk back out into the club. First thing in the morning I’ll go and tell Natalie the good news.

APRIL

I walk into Roses, and people are already here working on the shop. This week has been intense, to say the least. I accepted Grave’s money to fix the shop, not like he was going to give me an option. And I hate to admit it, but it looks better than it did before.