“Stay put,” I tell Emilia, clicking my fingers at the bartender, gesturing at him to refill her drink.
I pick up the call. “Hey, Lil. I can’t talk here. Give me a second to walk outside.” Her response is drowned out by the noise as I push my way through the crowd toward the main entrance door.
“Are you okay?” I ask the second I’m outside where it’s a lot quieter.
“I’m good,” Lil replies. “Where are you?”
I nod at the bouncers by the door, walking off to the left and wedging myself into the shadowy corner of the building. I cradle the phone to my ear as I flatten my back against the wall. “At a club over on the west side.”
“Mischief?” she asks.
“Yeah, that’s the place.”
“I’ve heard it’s cool. All my friends have tried to get in, but they’re, like, super strict.”
“You will not be getting within one hundred miles of this place, Lil. It’s definitely not suitable.”
I was exposed to way worse at fifteen, but it’s why I go out of my way to ensure Lil is protected from all that.
Mom may want nothing to do with me anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped caring. I have a team of guys watching my family twenty-four-seven, and they report to me daily. I don’t want to worry Mom, but the elite threat hasn’t evaporated with Dad’s death or the FBI investigation. The new president is rebuilding the organization behind the front he presents to the authorities, and the danger is still ever present.
“Have you forgotten I live in Phoenix now?” Her dour tone vibrates down the line.
“Hardly, pumpkin. I miss your ugly face.”
I can almost feel her smile down the line. “I miss your grumpy ass too. I hate this, Charlie. Isn’t there anything you can do to make her talk to you?”
I sigh, rubbing at the sudden sharp pain in my chest. “I can’t force her to forgive me.”
“If I can forgive you, so can she,” she blurts.
“I killed the man she loved, Lil. She might never forgive me.”
Initial silence greets me. “You didn’t kill Dad, Charlie.” Her voice is low. “That murdering bastard did, and I hope he’s rotting in hell.”
“I made some bad decisions, and I’m living with the consequences now,” I admit, kicking at a few loose stones on the sidewalk with the toe of my sneaker.
“She’ll come around,” Lil says. “She has to, because I hate this. I hate living with Aunt Marie and Uncle George. He smells like whiskey and cigarettes, and he creeps me out.”
My spine turns rigid, and my entire body stiffens. “Has he—”
“He hasn’t touched me,” she says, cutting across me, “but he looks at me funny sometimes, and I don’t like it.”
That makes two of us. I make a mental note to call Knox, the guy in charge of the security detail in Phoenix, and request another check into Uncle George’s background.
When Mom announced she was moving back to Arizona, to live with her older sister and her husband, and that she was taking Lil with her, I had full background checks conducted on both of them to make sure it was safe for my family to move there. Nothing out of the ordinary stuck out, but I want to take another look. I don’t like the sound of this guy, and if he dares lay a finger on my sister, I will kill him with my bare hands. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken a life like that, and I wouldn’t waste any sleep worrying about it.
Now, more than ever, I need to find a way of repairing my fractured relationship with Mom. I want them back home where they belong. Where I can keep a personal watch over them and ensure they are safe.
“Promise me you’ll call me if anything happens,” I say, as the sound of tinkling laughter greets my eardrums.
All the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I whip my head around, spotting Demi as she rounds the corner. She’s linking arms with a girl with long purple hair, and they’re both laughing at something the two guys behind them are saying.
A burning pain rips across my chest wall and a muscle ticks in my jaw, as I stare at the two inked, pierced degenerates, wondering which asshole is Demi’s date, and what fucking hole he crawled out from, because she is always at work or at home, so when the hell did she have time to meet the prick?
“I promise,” Lil says, dragging me back to the conversation. “If you promise to come visit soon.”
Irritation prickles at my skin while I watch the small group joke around as they walk toward the entrance to the club. The guy with the dark faux hawk puts his hand on Demi’s lower back as he steers her around a puddle on the ground, and a flare of something close to jealousy burns hotter in my chest. “I’ll try my best, pumpkin. Look, I’ve got to go, but I’ll call you tomorrow, ’kay?”
“Just one last thing!”
I drag my eyes up and down Demi’s shapely form as she draws closer, lust stirring in my loins at the sight of her long, slim legs encased in skyscraper stilettos. Her lightweight jacket is open, revealing the short, tight black dress she’s wearing. It clings to her body like a second skin, and my dick surges to life behind the crotch of my jeans.
“Charlie!”
Lil’s shout brings me back into the moment. “I’m listening,” I say, pressing back farther into the shadows in case Demi should happen to glance this way. “What were you saying?”
“Mom’s freaking out over the invite. What should she do?”
I watch Demi disappear through the doors of the club as my sister’s words register in my brain. “What invite?”
“Were you even listening to anything I said?” she huffs, and her pout carries down the line.
“I got distracted for that last part, but I’ve been listening, Lil.”
“Mom got an invite to that elite ball.”
I frown even though she can’t see me. I haven’t heard anything about any event, but if formal invites have been issued, I guess mine is sitting in the mountain of mail piled high on the kitchen table.
“I’ll handle it,” I reassure my sister, because there’s no way in hell I want Mom anywhere near those sick bastards.
It’s challenging though, because she’s the widow of a man from a founding family, and as I haven’t ascended to full status within the order yet, she is still duty bound to fulfill a role when called upon. My father successfully shielded her from the worst excesses of elitist life when he was alive, and I fully intend to continue keeping her away from that world.
If everything hadn’t gone down the way it did in Wyoming, I’d be a full member now that I’ve graduated high school and I’m nineteen. But everything has been in limbo within the order since things were exposed, and I’m just waiting to find out what happens next. There’s no doubt the new president will rectify things in due course.
“Tell her you’ve spoken to me and she’s not to attend. I’ll RSVP on her behalf with an excuse.”
“Thanks, Charlie.” Her relief is palpable.
“Anything, pumpkin. You know I’ve got your back.”
“Call me tomorrow?” she asks.
“The second I wake,” I promise, and we say our goodbyes. I slide the phone into the pocket of my jeans and make my way back inside the club.