FOUR
Darius
I burstinto the section of the third floor we used as our private apartment and was relieved to find both of my brothers already in the large sitting room we shared. Lucan was sitting at the table with one of his ever-present books, and Felix lounged on the leather sofa, jabbing at a video game controller. He paused the game as Lucan looked up.
Good. I could let out my frustration all in one go. Because fuck, I had a lot of it.
But as I took a breath, I reined in some of my roiling emotions. I couldn’t go storming around having outbursts for the hell of it. I was the oldest of us; I was the heir. I had to act like I was capable of ruling an empire, or not even my brothers would respect me.
Letting my passions getting the better of me had already led to near disaster before.
I couldn’t stop my voice from coming out terse. “She’s back. She’shere. They’re setting her up in a fucking guestroom, and Dad can’t even say how long she’s staying.”
Lucan blinked, his attention sharpening behind his dark brown eyes.Henever had any trouble keeping an even keel. If anything, he was too calm about too many things.
“Who’s here?” he said, setting his book aside. “What are you talking about, Darius?”
“The cunt who screwed us while she was screwing us over,” I snapped, and caught myself with a chagrinned huff. So much for keeping my temper.
But when it came to Anthea Noble, I was owed a little rage, wasn’t I? I’d never gotten to unleash my fury on the girl who’d deserved it back when she’d earned it. And now she’d waltzed back into our home as if the place belonged to her. The balls on that bitch.
Felix sat up straighter, swiping his floppy black hair away from his face. “Anthea’s here? Are you serious?”
My youngest brother didn’t sound as upset about it as he should have—but then, women were Felix’s main vice. If he’d paid as much attention to running the family business as chasing tail, he could have given me a run for my money when it came to taking the top spot.
“Yes,” I gritted out. “Dad just informed me. He got some sob story from her about how her brother cast her out of the home and she had nowhere else to go, and he agreed to take her in. It’s fucking ridiculous.”
Lucan knit his brow. He rubbed his forehead, displacing the light brown strands that had slipped free from his short ponytail. “Why would he do that? After what she did the last time she was here…”
“Maybe he doesn’t care,” Felix said. I was glad to hear that his tone had turned more somber at the reminder of the shameful revelation we’d had to face seven years ago. “You know what Dad’s like with women. He probably figures her dad put her up to it and she had no choice in the matter or some shit like that. Maybe he’s looking to get started on wife number five.”
I loved my father, but the thought of him setting his hands anywhere on Anthea Noble’s body made me want to puke. Oh, hell, no.
“It doesn’t matter what she told him to convince him,” I said. “Dad and the old Noble boss were friends for ages. He wouldn’t have needed a spy when he could have asked whatever he wanted to know. If she was working for anyone’s interests other than her own, it’d be that prick of a brother—Ezra. He’s shown he doesn’t care about screwing us over either.”
“At least he didn’t fuck us first,” Felix said jauntily, but his bright blue eyes had darkened.
“Her brother is another reason Dad might have let her stay,” Lucan pointed out in his usual measured way. “He thinks she knows things about Ezra and his plans that we’d want to find out. He figures he can outmaneuver her—or that we can.”
“Yes.” I prowled through the room, my rage slowly condensing into a concrete plan. “We have to get everything out of her. Every little tidbit she’s got in her head about how the Noble family operates. Everything we can use to show them they can’t get away with stabbing us in the back.”
Lucan reached into the desk drawer and got out one of his packs of nicotine gum. As far as I knew, the guy had never taken up smoking—he probably figured he was too smart for that—but he said he liked the boost in alertness and concentration he got from the chemical. I guessed it was smarter to ingest it in a way that didn’t also require filling your lungs with tobacco and Lord knew what other garbage.
“She might really have been kicked out of the family home,” he said. “Ezra isn’t sticking to their father’s policies. He wouldn’t have been expecting her to come back into the fold after her marriage.”
I snorted. “You don’t think her rich old husband’s death was a coincidence, do you? They totally set him up. Take a few years to make the marriage look legit and then off him, getting direct access to all his holdings. She’s a goddamn black widow.”
Lucan shrugged. “Maybe that was their dad’s plan and Ezra isn’t so happy about it. Or maybe he feels she’s fulfilled her usefulness. Or she got overconfident and started making demands he wasn’t willing to entertain.”
“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Felix asked, his gaze flicking between us. “No matter whether she really wants our helpnow, she turned traitor before. We can’t trust her.”
“We have to make her pay,” I said firmly. “What do you do with a spider? Crush it under your shoe. We’re not a bunch of horny teenagers anymore. We know how to handle a woman. We get under her skin, mess with her until she’s panting for more, and then break her until she’s ready to spill everything.” I shot a crooked smile at Felix. “Shouldn’t be any trouble for you, should it?”
He grinned back at me. “Oh, no. I’m looking forward to playtime. I’ll have her begging for mercy—and a whole lot of other things—in no time flat.”
Lucan cleared his throat. “It isn’t just playing. Don’t get caught up in the fun of it. That’s how she blindedusthe first time around.”
Felix shot him a disdainful look. “Do you think I’ve given a fuck about any of the women I’ve nailed? I can make her melt without putting in more effort than snapping my fingers. It’s you we should be worried about. Do you even remember where the pussy is located?”
Lucan glowered back at him, his mouth flattening. “Just because I don’t spend my free time humping every piece of ass in sight doesn’t mean I can’t handle a little seduction. Especially when it means defending the family.”
“Exactly.” I folded my arms over my chest. “It’s perfectly simple. We humiliate her just as much as she showed us up back then, we make her crave what we’ll never give her, we use her and crack her open and then we throw her out with the trash where she belongs. Any argument?”
Both of my brothers shook their heads, matching expressions of determination hardening their faces. A sense of total certainty came over me, steadying me despite my previous fury.
Anthea Noble was going down, and we were just the men to deliver her doom.