Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Chapter Two
Con
Three Days Later
I was so focused on the ramshackle house in front of me that I didn't even notice the passenger door of my car opening. It wasn't until the car shifted slightly as the weight of my uninvited passenger settled in the seat next to mine that my brain finally managed to drag me back to the present. I jerked to my right and automatically threw my hands up to protect my face.
The confines of the driver’s seat meant I couldn't put my whole body into the punch I threw, but it didn't matter because I managed to stop myself when I saw who’d so casually planted himself in the Audi’s passenger seat.
“Jesus,” I growled as the adrenaline spiked in my system.
“Can't say any guy’s ever called me that, but most have compared me to a certain supreme deity.”
I rolled my eyes at my brother's comment as I tried to calm my breathing.
The car was doused in silence for several long seconds before King murmured, “Would've thought you'd follow through on that punch.”
His eyes scanned our surroundings.
My brother was always looking for danger, even when there was none to be found. It was something we’d both had to learn early on as kids growing up in New York City’s less than perfect foster system, but for the most part, I'd outgrown the habit. King hadn't. Even when we were with family in a place where there was no doubt about our safety, King was always waiting for the next threat.
Always waiting.
“Who's the kid?” King asked as his eyes shifted to the dilapidated house I'd been staring at for the better part of an hour now. It had been that way for the past three nights.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Lex,” was all King said.
I sighed as a wave of guilt washed over me. I'd been ignoring our younger brother’s calls and texts for the last several days. “Did he and Gideon leave yet?”
King merely nodded.
“Fuck,” I muttered.
I pulled my cell phone out and saw that I did in fact have multiple missed calls and texts. I couldn't even remember when I'd turned the phone to silent.
Hell, I couldn’t remember a lot of things since the afternoon that I'd stood before Micah Fox and acknowledged that not only had I stolen his brother’s life, I’d stolen Micah’s as well. I sent Lex a quick text letting him know I was fine and that I was sorry for having taken so long to get back to him. I promised to call him soon and then quickly scanned the other messages. Sure enough, there were several from my and King's other brothers, Vaughn and Luca. I sent them similar responses and then tossed my phone on the dashboard.
“How did you find me?” I asked King as I looked back at the house.
Now that the shock of my brother’s unexpected presence had worn off, all the rage I'd been feeling toward him returned and the events of the past several months came back with a vengeance.
Deep down, I understood why Lex had chosen to go to King when his health had started to decline in such a way that had meant he was on the fast track to going completely blind, but I'd never thought it possible that King would betray me by keeping that kind of information a secret from me, especially once he'd realized how worried I was about our younger brother.
King and I had spent almost our entire childhoods trying to protect Lex. The sickly little boy had ended up in one of the foster homes King and I had been living in for several months. It had been the worst place to put the little boy because the foster parents’ biological son had had a thing for weak little boys. Protecting Lex had been the best thing King and I had ever done in our lives. We’d worked together to make sure that no one could ever do to him what had been done to us when we’d been dumped into the system. So to learn that the pair had been keeping secrets from me had torn something open inside of me.
It was a wound I’d thought long ago healed.
King didn't answer my question. Instead, he said, “Who's the kid?”
I glanced at my brother. King was both taller and heavier than me and while he always joked that he was just the muscle of our group, we’d all known that wasn't true. King was as sharp as they came. He was a ruthless son of a bitch, but God, did you want him in your corner.
I studied his expression as he stared at the house. I watched him for a moment and then pulled my gaze from him and returned it to the house.
“Like you don’t already know,” I said on a sigh.