by Tiffany Jade
"Just needed some fresh air." It's so hard to maintain the facade with him, knowing what he's done, what he plans to do. It's hard to look him in the eyes when he's not the man I grew up thinking he was.
"It's all almost over, Son," he looks me right in the eyes as he says it. A flicker of almost regret passing over him. No, that must be my imagination.
"Yeah, it really is," I pause, "Father," the word is heavy on my tongue. I turn towards the ballroom. He sighs but lets me go.
As I enter the room from a side door, my eyes instinctively find Liv. Her gaze looks worried, I Iook to where she is watching and, of course, it's fucking Dean.
He looks like shit.
I mean he did just find out he was a part of my family, and right now that's enough to ruin anyone's day.
Liv rushes over to him, while I stifle my intense desire to fucking stop her.
"Let me fucking in Moretti," I turn my attention to Serafina, arguing with Luca as she tries to re-enter the room. He looks down at her with his arms crossed.
"What's the magic word Sera?" I bury my grin as I walk over to intercept her, before more attention is brought to her drama.
"Ah there you are, sweetheart," the word drips with disdain as I wrap my arm around her waist. "Did you get into a pillow fight while I was away?" I pick a small feather off of her shoulder as her eyes burn into me. "Calm down Medusa, I'm not ready to die just yet." Luca turns back to the door as he chuckles.
"Where the fuck were you?" she walks with me towards the small raised platform that had been moved into the room while I had been...occupied.
"It's been a long day, I needed a bit of a rest." We glide past Dean and Liv, I love the way her body tenses as she feels me near her. Serafina scoffs, I just smile.
As we reach the platform, I help her up. She clears her throat into the microphone and as the music fades to silence, everyone turns to face us. I try to keep my eyes from landing on Liv, but I see her holding Dean's hand. The woman is going to make my jaw crack, right in fucking two.
"Good evening everyone!" Serafina croons into the microphone, she is encouraged by a few responses, the drunker folks in the room shouting back at her. "It looks like everyone is having a wonderful time tonight." Now I do meet Liv's eyes, wonderful was one way to describe it.
Gray meets my gaze as Serafina talks about everyone having a wonderful time. His eyes sparkle and the corner of his mouth twitches.
Same Gray, same.
Dean's hand tightens on mine, he is barely holding onto himself at this point, I can feel his body shaking. He clearly needs to talk. Or punch something. Or scream. Honestly probably all of the above.
Serafina begins to ramble on about how her and Grayson met and instantly fell in love.
Gag me.
I wait for Grayson's eyes to slide by me again, and tilt my head. He slowly drags his gaze back to me. I look towards the doors, hoping he understands I'm telling him I'm leaving. He looks towards the door Daxon and Liam are standing by, I nod.
"Come on Dean, I think you are done for the night," I link my arm with his and he comes with me with no hesitation. As we walk past the boys, Liam steps to block me from the room as Daxon hands me a small handbag. I tuck it under my arm and we walk through the door.
We say nothing as we walk back to our room. Luckily Dean seems to know where we are going, as I'm still as confused as ever as to where anything in this building is.
As we reach the familiar hallway that holds our room, I feel a little bit of the tension leave Dean. He opens the door for me and immediately locks it behind us as we enter. Then his arms are wrapped around me.
I hug him back, offering comfort in the only way I really can right now.
"Oh my God, I'm being such a little bitch right now!" his chuckle shakes my body. He pulls away from me and walks over towards the couch. "So, your boyfriend is my brother huh?" he throws himself down and rubs his eyes with one hand. "Fuck." With an exasperated sigh he leans back.
"And your step-dad wants everyone dead," I sit down next to him as he shoots me a look.
"Keep piling it on Livi," he shoves at me playfully. At least he's still able to joke around, that's a good sign.
"I'm sorry," I smile at him as I hang on to the handbag that Daxon had handed to me. It begins to shake in my hand. "What the—"
Dean's eyes widen and he instantly grabs it from me, stands, and moves towards the window. "Stay there," he demands as I get to my feet to follow him.
His tone freezes me. He slowly reaches into the bag, making sure to point the opening towards the window.
"Dean, Daxon handed that to me. He wouldn't try to harm me." Dean doesn't even look up at me, his eyes locked on the bag.
"That doesn't mean someone else didn't do something to it," he clears his throat and reaches into the bag. As his hands land on whatever it is he breaks out laughing.
"Okay, maybe I'm a little jumpy," he pulls out a cellphone. "I'm assuming this is for you." He shows me the screen, an incoming text from Your King. Dean rolls his eyes as I smile, "Fucking lame."
"Shut up!" I rush over to him and grab the phone.
New Messages
Your King: Emergencies ONLY Queen
Your King: This line cannot be traced
Daxon Luca Nate and I are the only ones with the number if it’s not us DON’T ANSWER just text 3825 to one of us and lose it
"What did he say?" Dean asks, "Is he giving you tips on how to kill me in my sleep?" he gives me a rueful smile as he sits back down.
"Stop! He doesn't want you dead," I roll my eyes at him, "Well kind of," Dean smirks up at me, "but he won't do it."
"Why are you so sure Livi?"
"Because, he told me they were going to give you the option about what to do here, and I know you are not the bad guy. You'll make the right choice." The phone vibrates again in my hand.
New Messages:
Your King: I love you Queen
As I read the text, another one rolls in.
D: That's not an emergency head ass
N: Yeah what D said dip shit
L: I'm going to scrub all of your lines.
Your King: Fuck all of you
I sit down with a giant smile on my face, until I look up at Dean. The stressed look on his face is back.
"What's wrong?" he seems to snap out of his thoughts as I reach for his arm. He shakes his head.
"It's not that easy Livi," he takes a deep breath.
"Well none of this is going to be easy, it's all about to go to shit actually. People are going to die, it's all—" he cuts me off by raising a finger.
"No Livi, my father is on his way. Something happened and he called me— said he's coming to claim what is his." Dean glances down at his watch, "He'll be here before the wedding."
Well fuck.
Chapter 33
"How did she take it?" Daxon asks as he takes a drink, he raises an eyebrow at me, clearly hoping for a good story. Fucker seems to enjoy when I get my ass handed to me by women.
"Way better than I thought," he rolls his eyes, "she just wanted to make sure we weren't going to kill him." Daxon laughs.
"I'm so used to all the crazy we had to put up with Serafina that it's weird having a girl around who doesn't freak out all the time. Even when she deserves too." I nod. Liv had a ton of reasons to have lost it at this point. But somehow she was holding it all together, and being strong for me. I could only hope she was going to keep it up for the next bout of absolute fucking mess that was coming.
"Devlov's private plane will be landing at eight o'clock." Luca pops his head into the office Daxon and I had hid in after the ball. Serafina had disappeared with her father after our speech so we were taking the opportunity to go over our ever changing plans.
"Are we ready?" Daxon waves him in with a glass.
"Always!" Nate jumps in behind Luca, grabbing his own glass and dropping down to a chair.
"Liviana is going to fucking kill us. Like, for real this time.
" I take a drink, begging the whiskey to calm the stress in my body.
I had done many dangerous things in my time here, but losing her in all of this was the only thing that had ever terrified me. That's why we were going to have to do what we were doing. She'd understand. I hope.
"Na, she's going to kill you," Nate laughs as he pulls out his phone. "Zia Mari is on her way." We all finish our drinks and stand.
"Well," I pause as I look at the smirks on my family's faces, I glare at them and sigh. "Let's get this shit over with."
Dean had refused to expand on what exactly his father was planning on 'claiming' when he arrived. And the look on his face, had me dropping the subject. Pushing him was not high on my list of shit I should do right now. I needed him to stay on our side. But the longer I watched him and noticed the little tells of his internal struggle, the more nervous I became.
"I'm going to shower." Dean doesn't wait for an acknowledgement, he just stands and heads into the bathroom. Well this isn't looking good. I look down at the phone in my hand and wonder if this constitutes as an emergency.
I'm sure the boys have plenty of things going on right now. But did they know that Dean's father was on his way here? I look up at the bathroom door, if I ask Dean if he told anyone, would that be the final thing that breaks him holding on?
I sigh. Maybe for right now, the best thing I can do is get some rest. Because it seems like I'm going to need to be ready for the worst.
I had heard Dean walk out of the bathroom last night, he had peeked into the room, thrown a blanket over me as I pretended to sleep, then made himself a bed on the couch.
When I woke up—he was gone.
My heart starts racing as I sit up. A gentle knock sounds at the door before I hear a key enter the lock and watch it turn. I jump up, wrapping the blanket around me and moving to the other side of the bed, so that at least there is an obstacle between myself and whoever is walking in. I reach over for the vase full of flowers on the bedside table, it’s heavy enough to hurt at least.
Nate busts up laughing.
"What are you doing?!" he chokes out as he shuts the door behind him and refocuses on me. I have the vase raised up in my hand, ready to throw. He's laughing so hard a tear falls from his eye.
"What the FUCK Nate?!" I take a deep breath before setting the vase back down and throwing the blanket back on the bed.
"I knocked!" He raises his hand, showing he's carrying a coffee cup and a paper bag. "I brought you breakfast, please don't throw flowers at my head." He chuckles again as I rush for him and grab the coffee.
The liquid slightly scalds my tongue, but I keep sipping anyway. Nate finally calms himself and sits down, opening the paper bag and producing two bagels filled with eggs, cheese and bacon. "Come eat killer," he takes a bite from one and motions towards the other.
"I am in a house full of criminals—I think my response was totally rational," I huff at him as I sit down and tear into my food. Thinking I was about to die every minute was making me hungry.
"Oh Liv, trust me, if anyone here was going to kill you, you'd never hear or see it coming, unless they wanted you to." Nate takes another bite as he watches me, his eyes searing into me.
"I hate you." He winks at me over his food as he reaches over to grab my coffee and takes a drink. We sit in silence for a few minutes while we both finish our food and share the rest of the coffee. "Okay, I feel slightly more alive, now why are you here?" Nate raises his eyebrow.
"I can't just bring you breakfast?" I raise the cup to him.
"Grayson knows my coffee order, and this is it exactly, which means he sent you." I finish off the cup and toss it into the trash.
"You get all of that from a cup of coffee?" the corner of Nate's lip pulls up in a sarcastic twist.
"No, I get that because he sends me food when he fucks up." Nate starts laughing.
"Well shit, alright then!" He pulls his phone out of his pocket. "It's time, go get dressed, we gotta go."
"Where to?" I stand, heading for the closet. At this point, I know if I don't listen Nate will drag me down the hall in my oversize shirt, sleep shorts and no shoes.
"Your mans. But just so you know, he's not the one who fucked up," he pauses, "this time!" He grins as I roll my eyes and shut the bedroom door in his face. I change quickly, just pulling on a pair of black jeans and a t-shirt. It seemed to piss Serafina off that I refused to dress up for her massacre weekend so why not keep it up. I pull on my shoes and throw my hair up, trying not to think about Nate's comment. Someone definitely fucked up, and I had a pretty solid idea that it was Dean.
Minutes later, we are on the second floor again. Nate rushes ahead of me, checking down hallways to make sure they are clear. He begins to slow down as he reaches a door.
"Why we going so fucking fast?" I mumble under my breath as I finally begin to catch up, I'm going to have to start doing cardio to keep up with these guys. He looks over his shoulder and smiles. I go to roll my eyes but I'm yanked to the side.
"Good morning baby," I find my back against a door as Grayson's eyes meet mine. For a split second I can see the worry on his face, but he blinks it away and tucks his head into me, and I feel his grin against my throat.
"You know I'm going to start getting real jumpy walking down hallways if you keep grabbing me like this." My hands reach up to circle his neck. He picks his head up and nips at my lips.
"Are you complaining?" he whispers the words into my ear, his voice sending shivers through my whole body. He bites at my neck, as his hands find their way to my ass and squeeze.
"Mhmmmm," is all I can manage as his body pushes mine fully against the door, letting me feel every, hardened, inch of him. "Totally complaining, I hate it," the words come out barely above a whisper, but he catches them and I am rewarded with that deep chuckle that lights every nerve ending I have. His lips find their way to mine, a few gentle touches, and then he's deepening his kiss, his hands sliding up my body to rest on either side of my face, holding me to him.
"Oh my God, get a room!" my eyes pop open to glare at Daxon. Grayson groans as he pulls away.
"I swear to fucking God I am going to murder you in your sleep." Grayson tucks me into his body as he turns to face Dax.
"Yeah yeah, you keep saying that, and yet here I am!" Dax puts his hands up and wiggles his fingers, I'm mad at him, but I still have to giggle at the scene. Grayson just glares. "Let's go get this shit over with," Daxon's eyes slide over to me and back to Gray who just nods, his jaw tightening. He bends down and places a kiss to the top of my head before guiding me to a door a few feet away.
Daxon walks in first, then Grayson guides me in, staying at my back, always shielding my body with his. His protectiveness makes my heart squeeze. I quickly turn and rise to my tip toes placing a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you." I tell him as he looks at me, smiling but confused.
"For?"
"Loving me," I smile up at him as he squeezes my hand.
"Always."
"It's about fucking time." Nate gripes from across the room. I can't with these boys.
"When this is all over, can we go on vacation?" I rest my forehead on Gray's chest. "Far away? And ALONE!" Grayson laughs.
"Sounds like one hell of a plan Queen," Grayson gives me one more hug and then turns me around to face everyone. The room had more people in it than I had noticed and I can feel my cheeks heat up. Nate sits in one corner with Luca and Liam. Daxon stands in the middle of the room with two men I had not yet met flanking his sides. As Grayson walks with me farther into the room, the lightness disappears and the tension becomes clear. Even Nate's face has taken on a serious expression.
Grayson leads me to a small couch, motioning for me to sit while he stays standing. He takes a deep breath and then looks at Daxon. Daxon looks at me.
"Dean has made his choice." Grayson shuts his eyes as Daxon speaks. "He left this morning." My heart drops. Gray holds onto my hand.
"He left?" I feel nauseous. And dizzy. H
e had been my strength while I was here, helping me through all of the crazy emotions of watching someone I loved pretend to love someone else. He had come here to help save us all. And he just LEFT?
"His Dad was coming! He told me last night but I didn't know if I should text you or not! Maybe he just went to stop his father?" The words come out of me in a rush, praying for that to be the truth, not that Dean had chosen the side that didn't include us.
"Tell her the rest Grayson." Luca stands from the corner he is in, crossing his arms. Grayson shoots a glare in his direction, but Luca meets the look head on, raising an eyebrow.
"What? That can be it right? He could have just went to stop this all from getting worse right?" I stand up, my body too anxious to sit any longer. Grayson gives me a sympathetic look but then his face hardens.
"No Liviana. He chose his side. And he took my mother with him."
Chapter 34
Her eyes fill with tears as my words hang in the air between us.
Fuck, this was going to be even harder than I thought.
Luca's eyes burn into me from across the room. I just glare back as I pull her into my arms. He rolls his eyes but I don't care as her body shakes against me as she struggles to regain control. I was so going to owe her after all of this was over.
If she ever spoke to me again.
"How do we get your mom back?" Liv pulls away and wipes the small amount of tears she had been unable to hold back, away. She looks up at me and the look in her eyes feel like a punch to the gut. So much concern, so much trust. I shake my head.
"That's what they are here for." I motion towards the men standing with Dax and they move forward.
"Liviana, meet Mason and Drew." The men stick their hands out for her to shake. She tilts her head towards me. "Family friends." It's all I can tell her for now. Luckily she just nods and accepts their shakes.