Rebecca brushed her lesser-half off, pivoting to face me and Demitri. “So, why are you in Vegas again? Demitri only gave us a Cliff Notes version.”
“My dad got pissed at me for getting arrested again and tried to get one of his goonies to take me back to Quantico with him.”
Rebecca wrinkled her perfectly straight nose. She had a targeted hatred towards my father as well—and it was one well deserved. “It’s a wonder Bruce ever lets you out of the house with how much he still treats you like a child.”
A child.
That was the second time today someone referred to me as a child, and maybe my behavior was childish to them. Maybe they all thought what I did and how I behaved was bred from nothing more than a little immaturity. Which really just confirmed that no one still living on this planet knew me at all.
If they really knew what was in my head, they wouldn’t call me a child. They’d call me a fucking therapist to help sort that shit out.
“I know. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he put a tracker in my neck at birth.”
“Careful, Scar-Jo.” Rebecca wound her manicured fingers around Alec’s lonely drink, pumping her eyebrows in his direction. “Can’t say that kind of stuff around Alec. He’s paranoid enough.” Then, she threw his scotch back.
Alec twisted his neck to us, eyes oblivious. “Huh?”
I sputtered. “Yeah, seems real paranoid to me.”
She sighed, touching her finger beneath Alec’s chin. “What good are you if I can’t use you to make a point, babe?”
”What?” Alec pillowed his partner’s hand in his own, pecking a kiss atop her knuckles. “I love you, but between the two of us, you’re the one always checking over your shoulder worried your old life is gonna come creepin’ up from behind and grab that sweet ass of yours.”
“Yeah? And what would you do to save me if that happened?”
A sly smile slid across Alec’s face at Rebecca’s test, and he pulled her in by her waist. “We both know you don’t need me saving you, woman.”
Her eyes sparkled in the low lighting of the casino, falling on her lover’s.
“You’re goddamn right.” She erased the space between them for only a split second, leaving Alec to chase her mouth again with his when she pulled back. I shifted in my seat, watching the pair, and waited to see if I felt anything. The heat of jealousy for their love. A twisting of hope in my gut that I could have that kind of love.
I waited to feel anything. Literally anything.
But all I felt was cold as the air conditioner kicked on above my head.
“So,” Rebecca gave me her attention again, perching herself on Alec’s knee. “What were you arrested for this time?”
“Arson. Burned down a government official's house.”
She barked out a laugh. “Why?”
“Because he fucking deserved it,” Demitri grumbled, brushing his lips over the bare skin of my shoulder. The protection in his voice rippled up through my neck, making me shiver against him.
Demitri was the only person aside from my parents who knew the story. Who knew why Governor Ricks deserved to have his life burned from the ground up.
“Sounds like he deserved a lot more than that,” Alec observed, eyes curious on Demitri's safe-guarding hold around my shoulders.
“Trust me, I offered.” The deep notes of Demitri’s voice vibrated against my back as he spoke, the presence of him hovering above my ear. “But she wasn’t interested.”
Craning my head back, I locked eyes with him, my voice a careful whisper. “Nah, murder’s not my game.”
Demitri’s eyes ran away from his well-rehearsed logic as they drifted between mine, burdening themselves with an affection he knew better against.
“You know I would have done it for you.”
Nodding gently, I murmured, “I know.”
And I did. I didn’t question his promise to lay waste to any number of the men along the course of my life who’d done wrong by me. It wasn’t clear just how many people might have died at Demitri’s hands, but I knew the number existed.