“Your mind ain’t here tonight, young lady,” Gran remarks when she finishes her soup and sits back to regard me with those silver-blue eyes. My dad had the same eyes, but I look more like my mother. Everyone used to tell me I was the spitting image of her.
“I’m just tired. I think,” I tell her.
“No cute boys at the party?” She grins, waggling her eyebrows.
Shaking my head, I laugh at her attempt to interrogate me. “Gran, I’m not having boy talk with you.”
“Why not? I was young once.” She chuckles, holding her glass of wine and tipping it toward me before taking a mouthful.
“Well… I mean there was Tarian, but I don’t know his last name.”
“Calvert,” she responds.
“You know him?” This has my attention, and she smiles fondly as if she knows him well.
Gran nods. “I do. Known that boy since before he could walk. The Calvert’s are one of the original families in Tynewood. If he was there, then you’d have met Ares and Etienne as well.”
“Mmm.” I furrow my brows, thinking about the name of the guy who was all over Rukaiya. “Yes, Etienne was trying to get Rukaiya to go out with him. But I don’t recall an Ares.”
She considers my answer then shakes her head once more. “Ares is difficult. He’s been in trouble more times than I can count.”
“Why?” Something tells me this is the stranger in the doorway, and now more than ever, I want to meet this troublemaker.
“He’s a bad boy, and you steer clear of him.” She waggles her finger at me as if I were a child getting into trouble. “Our families don’t get along well,” Gran tells me, with a hint of sadness in her tone. “There’s an old family war, which hasn’t been settled.”
My ears perk up at this information, and I’m on the edge of my seat, wanting to know more. “What kind of war?”
Gran shakes her head. “A cruel one. That’s all you need to know. Stay away from him.” She rises, grabbing both bowls to place in the dishwasher, and with her back turned, I figure that this is the last I’ll hear of it from her.
Perhaps I should get the story from the source.
From Ares himself.
Now I just need to find him.
5
Ares
A fist slams into my midsection, causing a groan to fall from my lips. The asshole in front of me thinks he’s got me beat, but this time, it’s me who’s about to pummel him. Tarian and Etienne are shouting my name as the rest of the crowd screams for the man I’m fighting.
Blood drips onto my tongue, and I turn rabid. My fists make contact with his face, his jaw, and then his forehead, taking the fucker down in five easy punches. The metallic stench hangs heavily in my nostrils when I inhale deeply. It’s the fragrance of winning. It’s what I do, and I revel in it.
I’m pushed and pulled, being gripped and hugged, but when I meet Billy’s stare, he offers a nod. I’ve just won him a lot of money. Not that he needs it. He takes the money from the rich, drunk motherfuckers who bet on two men beating each other to a pulp on a worn-out floor mat and donates it all to charities across the country.
When the crowd thins, I head to Billy, who’s leaning against the makeshift bar, and grab the beer he’s offering. Tarian and Etienne join us, settling on the stools along the counter.
“Good fight,” B grins, waving a wad of cash in his face. He plays the role of a struggling gym owner well. Most of the men here don’t really know he lives on the outskirts of town in a mansion, a few hectares of land, and owns at least five sports cars and three SUVs.
“Yeah, he wasn’t too much hassle.” Swiping the sweat from my brow with the towel, I glance at my best friends. “Ready for tomorrow?”
They know what I mean, the party that’s being hosted at my house needs to be planned in fine detail. Mainly because every time I have a party, my father returns and finds the place in disarray.
This time, however, I know he’ll be away until Monday, which gives us until Sunday night to perfectly polish the mansion from top to bottom.
“All good. No changes in our party schedule.” Etienne’s grin is contagious, and my mouth tilts into a smile as well.
“You gotta be careful. You father isn’t a man to mess with,” Billy warns me again. He’s always been there for me. Each time I walk into his gym and the back room where we’re now standing, it’s given me the confidence that I lacked due to a father who only doted on his eldest son.
But now that I’ll be named as one of the Crowns, soon, I’ll be at the table alongside Philipe, and there’s nothing my father can do to stop it. The Sovereign is in my blood, in my very DNA. I was born a Lancaster — the founding family of the town and of the society.