“Brilliant. Just what I fucking need. Go get me something,” I demand. “Alex will have enough vodka next door to wake the dead.”
“Fuck you, I’m not your little bitch.”
“Well, I’m not leaving. I need to speak to Calli.”
“You know, there is such a thing as a phone.”
“There’s also knocking,” a deep voice rumbles. “But he seems to be pretty shit at that too.”
When we look up, we find Daemon sauntering toward us with a shit-eating grin on his face, now fully dressed in his signature colour.
“You do not need to look so fucking smug,” I grunt.
“I think you’re wrong,” he says, an unusual smile pulling at his lips, and damn if the sight of it doesn’t soften something inside me. Something really, really fucking small.
He marches past me, shoulder checking me as he goes and mimics my gesture of pulling the fridge open. Only, he’s not disappointed by the contents and pulls out an orange juice and cracks the top open, chugging it down in one.
“Where the fuck is your alcohol?”
“Gone. Calli is focusing on her exams and eating and drinking better will help her focus.”
“And her sex drive,” Theo mutters behind me, earning himself a fist to the gut.
“Yeah, can’t say we’ve ever really had an issue with that, to be honest.”
“You motherfu—”
“What do you want, big brother?” a soft voice rings through the air. “If you just wanted to show your face and prove what a massive fucking hypocrite you are, then it’s really unnecessary and you can leave as fast as you entered.”
My teeth grind at her words. She’s thrown similar ones at me for years, and I’ve never been able to deny that they’re true.
Everything I’ve always told her not to do, I’ve always been doing.
But she’s my little sister. I never wanted her to be a part of the dangerous life, having to possibly put her safety on the line when she could make a nice, less risky future for herself.
But maybe she has been right all along. She was born into it as much as I was. It’s her right to be a part of it.
I just hate that that cute little blonde girl who used to run around with a teddy stuffed under one arm and a doll under the other has to face our reality.
All three of them stand there glaring at me, waiting to hear what was so fucking important that I had to barge in on them mid-fuck.
A violent shudder rips down my spine as I remember that scene only minutes ago.
Ugh.
“You’re lying to me,” I spit, making everyone’s eyes widen.
“I’m sorry?” Calli asks at the same time Daemon steps forward, ready to protect her.
“You’re hiding something.”
Calli doesn’t so much as flinch as she walks around her bodyguard and stares up into my eyes.
“So what if I am, Nico? That’s my prerogative. It’s hardly like you’ve been honest with me all your life.”
“I’ve never lied to you.”
A look of pure disbelief covers her features.