“A pact?” Soren laughs. “You watch too many movies, man.”
“Swearing it in blood makes it real.”
“My word makes it real,” I insist while holding out my palm. “We don’t need to trade fluids. That’s fucking gross.”
Tomas sighs in defeat as he procures a flask from his pocket. “Fine. How about a shot for it?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Each of us takes a swig and states our allegiance to each other as brothers. Our oath will remain strong as long as we remain loyal.
That means not allowing a cute little brat like Alex to come between us.
I settle back into my spot while folding my hands together. “What next?”
“Financing the project shouldn’t take much time with Alex taking over the accounts,” Soren explains. “Once we have her back under us, she’ll give us what we need.”
“We’ll have to come up with a plan to keep her under us,” I point out.
Tomas strokes his chin. “We’ll tag team. As long as one of us is watching her, she’ll stay in line. We can always threaten to discipline her together again.”
“We can embarrass her,” I recommend.
Soren raises his eyebrows. “How do you want to do that? The boathouse?”
“No, at the party. We can expose her as the slut she is.”
“I suppose a little broadcast should show her exactly what we think of her.”
Tomas snorts. “That she’s a fucking cockteaser? Yeah, basically.”
“That should knock her down a peg or two,” I agree. “We’ll confront her and then discipline her.”
The guys are quiet for a moment, with Soren looking particularly pensive. I give him a curious expression, which inspires him to shrug. “There’s still the matter of your father’s disappearance.”
Aggravation mixes with betrayal and makes a nice little nest inside my stomach. “That asshole left us to die.”
“Has your mother found anything?”
“No, but she’s been searching for him.”
Tomas grunts. “Sounds pointless if you ask me.”
“Luckily, nobody fucking asked you,” I snap. “It’s a huge goddamn mess, and I’m the one who has to clean it up.”
“Could be a bright side here,” Soren says.
The glare I fix on him doesn’t intimidate him—or he simply doesn’t care. “How the fuck can there be a bright side? His selfish actions disappoint me. Not much bright there.”
“You’re finally free to take over the Somerville empire,” Tomas points out. “I think that’s what Soren means.”
My hurt dampens as I chew on the insinuation. “You’re not wrong about that.”
“Maybe this is a grand opportunity for you, brother,” Soren suggests while stepping forward. “And we will help you however we can. We just swore an oath, right?”
“With my empire and hers, we could take the Persian down while running this town,” I realize with a nod. “She won’t be able to deny us with my empire growing.”
Tomas grins. “And then we’ll have plenty of support to do whatever the fuck we want.”