Reaching into my worn jean pocket, I pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting one while watching my cousin seemingly think something over. Finally, he let out a frustrated noise and shook his head.
“She’s not going to admit anything is wrong unless there is literal proof right in front of us. We know that. This is the same woman that wouldn’t even tell us when she sprained her ankle in grade school because she was concerned it would ruin our goddamn playtime at recess.”
Why did that bother me so much? I needed to watch out for shit like that. You know, just to make sure she was staying safe…notbecause I wanted to slowly integrate my life with hers until she had no choice but to accept my presence.
Bloody hell.I was so fucked.
“What the hell is going on?” I finally asked, because I was seconds away from losing my mind. Apparently, the concept of Dahlia getting hurt didn’t sit well with me.
Weird.
All three of them looked at me, then Sterling let out a small sigh. “He really should know. Also, someone needs to make sure Yates keeps his mouth shut tonight at their dinner. His head is too far up his ass to realize he has to be tactful instead of acting like a dumb fuck.”
I smirked slightly at the anger there. What? I had a bit of a temper. So did King—understatement of the century—so it made me feel a bit better that Sterling seemed to as well. I had met these men before when they’d come with King overseas a few times now… but even I had to admit they’d changed. I wasn’t positive exactly what was going on here, but it wasn’t normal, and oddly, that didn’t bother me.
“This spring,” King began, capturing my attention as he looked towards the house to make sure we were still alone, “and I have no idea how the hell we hadn’t caught onto this, but apparently she began being bullied online. Not in school, probably because we were there with her, but she began receiving these horrible anonymous messages and a bunch of other shit. It had started right after the holidays and got progressively worse, because instead of telling anyone, she kept trying to brush it off. Of course, we started to realize there was something wrong, but Dahlia is extremely good at deflecting situations and bringing it back to you. She always had some minor reason for why her mood was off, so I trusted she would fucking tell us if something was going on. I didn’t consider—”
King inhaled sharply, running his fingers through his hair, looking like he was going to absolutely lose his shit. I exhaled the smoke of my cigarette, wondering just how close we were to King having a complete rage blackout. I wish I was joking about that concern, but he’d been like that since we were young teens. Usually he was damn good at keeping his shit together, but there had been a few times when he absolutely lost it, and, well, last time had been this summer… that cleanup price tag had been actually rather expensive.
Luckily, the person that suffered his wrath had deserved it, so I couldn’t be all that upset. It wasn’t like his father would be surprised, and mine wasn’t around enough to notice.
Sterling eyed him with speculation, and I know they were concerned about the same thing I was. “The reason Dahlia didn’t tell us wasn’t because of a lack of trust, King. You know that. She didn’t tell us because she didn’t want to bother us with it. She will always do shit like that—it’s who she is. That is never going to change.”
Sterling fixed his gaze on mine as my cousin nodded, staying silent. “I found her sobbing after one of our classes, and one thing led to another until I essentially took her fucking phone from her. It was pretty damn easy to see what had worked her up since the messages were actively coming in—” He inhaled, a dark flash crossing his face. “They were bad. Really fucking bad.”
“We still don’t know who was doing it,” Lincoln admitted quietly. “The number wasn’t traceable, and she won’t talk about it. She has deleted all of her apps, supposedly, and acts like it never happened.”
Silence filled the space between us as I found a rage settling in my chest, one that was purely fueled by the concept that someone had and possibly continued to hurt Dahlia. I swallowed, feeling unbalanced.
“Has she been eating more?” King nearly barked out as if the question had just occurred to him, catching me off guard.
“Hard to tell,” Sterling hedged. “She eats with us and her parents, but you know how that shit can go.”
“Why wouldn’t she be eating?” I didn’t bother stopping the question leaving my mouth. I was a lost cause at this point.
“A lot of the messages revolved around her looks,” King explained. “We were over for dinner one night, and her mom mentioned to her in passing that she needed to eat more, that she was looking too thin. I hadn’t noticed it until then, but once I did, it was impossible to fucking ignore.”
He eyed me cautiously before admitting, “According to her records from the doctor, she has lost almost fifteen pounds in the space of about six months. How we didn’t fucking notice that is beyond me.”
I blinked, realizing King was admitting to breaking into her medical records. I didn’t comment on that, though. I was far more concerned about the fact that the tiny woman I’d been talking to only minutes ago couldn’t really afford to lose weight.
“I am torn between wanting to kill everyone and anyone that sent her shit,” King explained, his voice going cold before he sighed, “and spanking her ass bright red for not telling us when this shit started. We could have handled it. It should have never gotten this bad.”
Kingston didn’t make the first set of threats lightly. I hadn’t ever seen him kill anyone until this summer, but once I had, it was obvious he’d done it before. There was a calmness that followed his rage that only came from someone that had killed and killed often. It should have concerned me, but the world our family was part of was anything but clean or neat. It was cruel and cold.
Publicly, our family ran an international shipping company, but our roots were tied and embedded in something darker. The legal front was relatively new, but for hundreds of years, the Ross family had been a fundamental part of the largest crime syndicate in the United Kingdom.
We weren’t good people and never claimed to be.
We did protect our family, though, and it was clear as day that King considered Dahlia just that and much more.
“Once we live together, it will make all of this easier,” Lincoln pointed out.
What?
“Are we going ahead with what we discussed?” Sterling asked King. I could see the hope on his face as I tried to play catch-up on the quick change of pace.
King’s gaze moved over to the house he’d purchased and demanded I live in. I would have been perfectly happy living in town or at his place, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I fucking prefered my own space, and the estate I lived in now was extensive.