I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Don’t even get me started with that woman again. I don’t tell her shit and she tries to kill me. I fill her in and she tells me to do whatever I think is best. Either she wants to drive me insane or she has lost her mind, maybe both.”
“So what you’re saying is you’re even crazier about her than you were when you first met?” Declan teased, a smug grin on his face.
“Do you hear that Neal?” I leaned forward with a finger on my ear. “Coraline broke a nail, shouldn’t you be off running to buy her a goddamn spa to add to your collection? There is already the Coraline Restaurant on Main.”
“And the Coraline flower shop on 37th and Stonewall,” Neal jumped in.
“The Little Coraline Boutique on Madison and Richard—”
“Both of you shut the fuck up,” he grumbled, a little bit embarrassed.
“Aww brother, are you blushing—”
“Neal don’t even fucking come for me after buying Mina a star,” he snapped at him and almost I died—no really, I couldn’t stop laughing. I had completely forgotten about that.
“She’s into romantic shit like that.”
“A fucking star. At least my wife can visit the places I bought for her,” Declan added. Meanwhile, I tried to calm myself down.
“Oh, laugh your ass off at us, but at least our women allow us to buy them gifts,” Neal stated.
I shrugged. “She has the best gift of all: me. Just look at this face.”
They both groaned.
“What? I’m like Christmas, the gift that keeps on giving. Besides, my Mel doesn’t want stars or boutiques…she wants power, and I gave it to her. She’s the ruler of the state and next she’ll be president. What tops that?”
“Was it you who gave her all of those things?” The door opened as my mother entered, now dressed in casual black pants and a button-down shirt. She always wore black unless we were going out; she’d never stop mourning our father. Her brownish-copper hair was now highlighted with gray hairs. “I’m pretty sure Mel would argue it was a team effort.”
“Ma? You eavesdropping on us now?” I said, putting the drink down to go to her.
“It’s hardly eavesdropping when you all are so loud. I never thought I’d see the day where all my boys would be sitting around drinking and talking about women.” She kissed both of my cheeks.
“Correction, we were drinking before we started our conversation…kinda.” Neal smiled, hugging her as well, along with Declan.
“Don’t stop on my account. I just wanted to let you know I’ll be screening new nannies for the children tomorrow along with Coraline.”
Remembering the morning made me tense again. She patted my arm. “Don’t worry, no one will harm my grandbabies.”
“Thank you, Ma.”
Nodding, she moved back to the door. “Oh, and as good as all your gifts are…they will never top your father’s, even if Mel becomes president.”
We all just stood there for a moment, letting her words sink in before I turned to face them. “What did Father give her that we don’t know about?”
“Maybe she’s bluffing?” Neal said, and I rolled my eyes.
“Maybe she’s being just as cocky as Liam here and means we are the best gifts she ever got?” Declan said; it was plausible, but I wasn’t sure.
Damn it, now I really want to know.
“Anyway.” I sighed, sitting on the edge of my desk. “We will not sell Blphine. Our father, his father, our great-grandfather, all of our family has stuck to the classics; I won’t be the one to diverge from that path.”
Declan ran his fingers through his hair. “You do know this means the triad will have a hold here. And once that happens—”
“They’ll try and fight us out…if they are dumb. I don’t give a damn how popular their shit is, it took us decades to get to this point and there is no way in hell they can tear us down so easily.” Empires weren’t built in a day. I was not ignorant to what this meant, I just wasn’t going to lower myself to sit with dogs. “When the Tàiyáng family starts to walk on two legs instead of four, we’ll kill them.”
“All right—” Neal started to say when there was a knock at the door.