As I round the hallway, I see her sister, Akila, sitting at the dining room table. She lifts her gaze. Her eyes are swollen and pink as though she has been crying. My jaw locks up, but I grin anyway.
“Sleep well, sis?”
She rolls her eyes at my term of endearment. “One of these days, you’re going to come down here and find our dad, and he will lose his shit.”
“Good. I can have words with him about how unacceptable it is to leave his two daughters alone.”
“You are such a chauvinist. We are quite capable of looking after ourselves,” she bites out, but her tone only works to spread my grin wider. When she stands, I move quickly to her side and grab the empty plate and coffee mug from her hands. She freezes, but lets me take them from her, lets me take care of her. Leaning in slightly, I whisper, “I know you are. But I believe you deserve to be looked after.” That dipshit of a boyfriend of hers is on thin ice with me. She is always upset, and that is on him. It is his responsibility to keep her happy.
She spins around and leans on the table, her arse just balancing on the edge. I can feel her eyes on me as I stack the plates in the dishwasher. Akila is hot as fuck, curved like her sister, with shoulder-length dark-brown hair and beautiful olive skin that makes my heart thrash around whenever I see it.
But no one makes me feel the way Shosh does.
She sighs. “You know Shoshanna will never be allowed to be with you, right? This is just a high school romance until you two move on to more appropriate partners.”
I chuckle because there is very little I can’t have if I really want it, and I’ve never really wanted anything like I want Shoshanna. “I think I’ll decide who is appropriate for your sister.”
“No. You won’t. We are not like your family. There are huge expectations of us. My dad is one of the best cardiothoracic surgeons in the country, ya know? Maybe the world. We are both going to study medicine. And no way would Shosh be allowed to date you. If our dad ever found out-”
“He will,” I cut in, turning to face her, a smirk playing around my lips. Reaching for a glass, I fill it up with water and take a sip, thinking about piles of bloodied bodies. Bodies of people who try to take her away. No one is going to keep her from me. I’ll die. I’ll die before that happens. “He’ll have to. I’m going to have babies with your sister. He’ll want to know his grandchildren.”
She laughs with derision, but my grin doesn’t falter. “You’re fucking insane.”
“Not the first time I’ve heard that.”
“Look, Bronson, I like you. I think you’re annoyingly cute. But my sister means more to me than anything else in this world and I’m trying to save her the heartache. . . You two. . .” She shakes her through a sigh. “You move like magnets. When you are together, it’s like-” Her eyes dart around, searching for words. “Like, no one else in the world exists to you. It’s dangerous and unnatural.”
I bite my bottom lip, eyeing her with a smirk. “I’m dangerous and unnatural.”
“You need to be careful!” she snaps. “You will get her in trouble one day. Your dad puts people in hospital. Mine helps them get out.”
At the mention of my dad, my business, the Family, my spine steels. A strange high-pitched cadence fills my ears, blistering and drowning out rational thought and consideration, leaving only the need to lash out and shut the flapping mouth of the person talking about my family.
My fist suddenly aches.
Looking down at it, I notice blood oozing from between my fingers. I squint at the red fluid, unsure of where it came from. Is itmyblood? Tomato sauce? I open my palm and see pieces of glass embedded in my flesh, twisted in tight, moving and swaying, the crimson-coated shards glistening. I follow the blood down to the floor and see more pieces glittering on the tiles.
Well, fuck.
I peer back up to find Akila staring at me wide-eyed, face drooping from her gaping mouth.
“Fuck,”I mutter, dropping to my knees. I pick the shards up with my bare fingers. “Sorry, sweetheart. There must have been a hairline fracture in that bad boy, yeah? They break real easy when that happens.” I pause and nod at the floor, still collecting the glass. This isn’t the first time I’ve lost time.
I clean up the mess in silence, Akila having walked from the room without even finishing her lecture. Mulling over what she said, I find it pretty fucking rich that daddy has such a say in their lives but such a fleeting presence.
Reminds me of my own.
My fingers twitch around shards of glass.
In my peripheral vision, I see long legs and smooth olive skin. She is wearing denim high-waisted shorts that hike up at the side of her thick curvaceous thighs and a tucked-in black singlet.
I jump to my feet and grin. The sight of her erases the. . . whatever it was I was thinking about. Quickly, I rinse the blood from my hands, pulling out the little shards implanted in my palm. I feel her eyes scrutinising me. After washing most of the blood off, I hold my hand out for her.
“Shall we, baby?” I ask.
Glancing at my hand, still dotted with small amounts of crimson, she nods and takes it. Pressing her palm into mine tightly, she leads me from her house.
Bronson