Page 131 of Kill for a Kiss

“Jade didn’t know at first,” Damon adds. “Lix knocked on her door, so to speak. Now she knows and she’s more than willing to help.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elle glance up. See the way her shoulders pull together. Hearing her brother’s name must be jarring. I want to run to her side and comfort her. But she smiles a little at me, like she’s sayingit’s okay,I’m okay. That’s not enough for me, but I trust her to make that call.

Stan leans over Damon’s shoulder, squinting at the screen. “Damn, Damon, you move fast,” he mutters. “One minute, you’re balls-deep in Kaye. Next, you’re launching a counterstrike. Shit, don’t tell me you’re the type to bring a laptop to bed while you’re banging your wife.”

Damon doesn’t acknowledge the joke, but Kayla stifles a laugh. I narrow my eyes at Stan, who just looks proud as hell at his lame commentary.

“Focus, Stan,” Damon says.

“Focused,” Stan says brightly, running away to stir the pot of soup on the stove. “Focused on how fucked Ma’s about to be. But I can focus better when I’m not hungry. Do you not know how to feed your family, Damon?”

Elle laughs a soft sound that eases my chest. Kayla smacks the back of Stan’s head—thank god, someone with sense around the idiot—while cussing him off for “always giving Dae shit.”

Damon’s gaze pins me. “We have a fortnight to make sure her empire doesn’t rise from the ashes. Are you ready to end this, Sterling?”

I glance at Elle again. She’s wrapped in borrowed clothes, smiling at Kayla and Stan who are bickering back and forth.

Elle welcomes the chaos, this little last piece of our strange normal, even if it’s for a short while. Soon, we’ll have to face the monster thatmade us, when all I wanna do is make Elle smile. I want to see her happy all the time. But the only way to do that is to take down Clo once and for all.

So I turn back to Damon. “I’m ready. Whatever it takes.”

***

Damon’s back on the phone within seconds, pacing the corner of the open den. He’s coordinating, tightening the plan, building a noose around Clo one careful move at a time. It’s impressive how he naturally brings people together to accomplish all that.

I stay leaning against the wall, eyes on Elle. She’s cozied up in a blanket, curled small on the couch. She has one of my journals in her hands, reading it with such a tender look on her face that it rips me apart. But once in a while, she looks up to smile at me. And when she does, it feels like she’ll always love me at the end of the day. Love me through it all, despite the horrible things I’ve written in my journals.

But Stan’s hovering too close to her right now, acting like a mother hen in the form of a giant man with a goddamn death wish. He hands her a mug of tea with theatrical flourish and cracks some joke that makes her laugh. It guts me a little, seeing and hearing it. But I know she chose me. So whatever, Stan can have her little laughs. I get to have her whole heart.

Someone steps closer. I clock the movement without turning.

Kayla. She plants herself on my left, preening proudly.

“Hello there, Sterling,” she says with a sly smile. “Been meaning to get some alone time with you. By the way, you can call me Kaye.”

I arch a brow at her. “Sounds a bit much for strangers.”

“Well, that’s the thing. I wouldn’t say we’re strangers.” Her smile shifts into a smirk. “Would you, my dear little half-brother?”

I grunt, but it’s not a protest. She’s right anyway. No use pretendingotherwise.

“Stan’s a blabbermouth, by the way. He sketched areallyawful family tree where he spelled his own last name wrongtwice. And then, he went ahead and estimated who’s the biggestdown there.” She shudders with a disgusted groan. “Including yourdad.”

I don’t know whether to groan too or laugh at his ridiculousness.

Kaye keeps going. “It was the worst plane ride over here, being stuck between Stan and Dae.” She snorts a tiny laugh. “So I just ended up making out with Dae so much that Stan forced himself to sleep rather than see any of that PDA.”

I don’t hide my smirk this time, letting out a little laugh of my own. My half-sister’s got pretty funny anecdotes.

“You’re not as mysterious as you think. You have to know that, right, Sterling?” Kaye nudges me lightly. “In fact, Stan says you’re half-Batman, half-wet cat, and Dae kinda sorta completely agreed.”

I turn my head to face her. She looks nothing like me and she’s chatty with her jokes and quick wit. Must’ve learned to deflect that way. Growing up in a messy mafia family might’ve done it. I grew up above cliffs the sun kissed when it felt like it. Hers must’ve been all dark. Heard she handled most of her family’s business herself. Doing things on her own. That makes two of us.

“So Naomi Knight,” she says, still smiling. “Our mother.”

I nod, no hesitation.

“Figures,” she says. “The hyper-independence should’ve been a dead giveaway.”