Page 26

26

Brianna

“ W hat’s up?” Reina asked, tapioca pearls shooting up the straw of her boba tea faster than the speed of light. “You look worried. Is it because of the…” She looked around to check the bubble tea shop employees were out of earshot, but only Koa was close enough. “The Wraiths?”

Bri considered, eventually settling for a nod. Roman had left to accompany Arturo and Tomas on the raid early this morning, leaving Bri and Aldous on the doorstep, their jaws locked and their brows creased with worry. He can handle himself , she tried to remember,

Reina gave her a sympathetic look. “We’ll be fine, I promise. Koa wouldn’t let anything happen to us.”

That hadn’t been exactly what she was worried about. “I can’t wait for this whole business with the Wraiths to be over.”

A nod. “I know. How is your new medication going?”

“Well, I think. I’ve still only had one seizure since starting them, and it was a teeny one compared to the ones I had at home and at the wedding. The downside is if I sit down for more than ten minutes I end up conking out worse than my car did that time I forgot to put gas in it.” Not that she could drive anymore, thanks to her epilepsy. Bri lifted her reusable cup with a half smile. “Hence the coffee.”

“How are things going with Aldous?”

She could feel a blush rising to her cheeks. “Very well, thank you.”

Reina’s spine straightened in a single movement, a saucy grin curving her hips. “That sounds… suspiciously positive.” When Bri’s blush deepened, Reina leant forward. “Have you finally lost your virginity?”

“Reina!” Bri whispered, glancing around at the empty tea shop—empty except for Koa, who was refusing to look in their direction.

“Is that a yes?”

It had been a yes a while ago, but Bri just nodded.

“Was it good? Was he gentle? Did you use protection? When—?”

“Reina,” Bri interrupted, her cheeks aflame. What would her sister say if she admitted Aldous hadn’t been the only one in the bedroom with her? “It was very good. Yes, we’re using protection, but that’s as much as I can say without my head exploding of embarrassment.”

“Spoilsport,” Reina chided her. “You got a handsome British billionaire. Mom’s been talking about marrying me off to the leader of some scuzzy motorcycle club.”

“ What ?!” In the corner of her eye, she finally saw Koa look their way. “But you were supposed to be her big bargaining chip, and she’s just going to throw you away for some biker?”

“It won’t happen,” Reina reassured her with an easy confidence Bri didn’t share. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Have you heard from your brothers lately?”

Bri nodded. “I spoke to my older brother and Dad yesterday,” she whispered, not wanting Koa to hear; Reina wouldn’t tell a soul that she’d found the other half of her family, but Koa was Mom’s employee, at the end of the day. “Dad invited me to another party at the end of the month. Here, I’ll send you a photo of him.”

“ Don’t. ” The words were a sharp departure from the whispers they’d been communicating in. Bri jumped in her seat, a hair’s breadth from knocking her half-finished coffee all over herself. Reina leant in with an apologetic look. “Mom tracks this phone. Just show it to me.”

Bri pulled up a photo she’d taken when they’d stayed at the Silvas compound last time. “How do you know she tracks it?”

Reina’s eyes lingered on the photo, a soft, almost melancholy smile curling her lips. “I can see the resemblance. You look happy.”

“I am happy,” she replied. “Deliriously so.” Minus the worry of Roman helping with the raid. “I love him.”

“Your dad?”

A laugh burst from her. “Aldous.”

“Good.” Reina’s shoulders dipped in a long sigh. “You have no idea how worried I was when Mom set up the marriage. I was petrified she was going to shackle you to some monster. Even with one of the security team going with you after you married, there was so much that could go wro—”

Bri took Reina’s hand. “I got lucky.” She lowered her voice, until she was sure Koa couldn’t hear. “You don’t have to go through with any of Mom’s plans to marry you off, Reina. I can help, and I know Aldous and Roman would too. We can hide you—”

Reina shook her head in one decisive slash. “I’ll be fine, Bri. I promise.” She looked over to Koa, her eyes softening as they lingered there. “Koa wouldn’t let anything happen to me.”

Bri blinked, digesting that look . There was far more emotion there than she’d expected, affection and trust and tenderness. Was there something going on between them?

Before she could speak, Reina filled the silence. “Speaking of bodyguards, where’s Roman? I expected him to come with us.”

“He would have, but uh…” Should she tell Reina the truth? Bri trusted her sister with her life. “He’s actually helping out on a job staking out the Wraiths.”

Reina recoiled, her eyes blowing wide. “The Wrai —?”

The squeak of metal chair legs sliding across the tile made them both wince, cutting off Reina’s response. Koa was at the side of their table in half a heartbeat, hurriedly tucking his phone into his pocket. “We need to leave. Now.”

Surprise winged onto Reina’s expression, but she asked no questions, storming to her feet.

With her heartbeat thumping in her chest, Bri followed. Mom had drilled them on this kind of thing until it was second nature. She knew exactly what to do: let the security team do their jobs.

Koa shepherded the two of them out into the parking lot, his narrowed eyes ever-watchful and a protective hand on Reina’s spine. Bri scrambled into the SUV after Reina, jumping slightly as Koa slammed them inside.

“What’s happened?” Reina asked as soon as Koa swung into the driver’s seat, the car dipping under his muscular breadth. The locks clicked. “Has there been another attack?”

“I don’t know. Vivian’s text just said it was an emergency. We need to get to one of the safe houses.” Koa pulled out a heavy-duty briefcase from under the seat, revealing its padded interior. “Phones,” he said, holding out his hand expectantly.

Reina handed hers over instantly, but Bri hesitated. “Can I just text Aldous first to let him know what’s happening?”

“I’ll let Roman know when I can,” Koa countered. “Phone.”

Goddammit . Bri passed it into Koa’s oversized hand, her lockscreen photo of her, Roman, Aldous, and Jasmine flashed up. It had only been taken a couple of days ago, when the three of them squished onto the couch together to watch a movie—before Jasmine decided to get comfy on the sea of laps on show.

Bri and Aldous had been lucky enough to avoid any permanent damage, but Jasmine had—according to Roman—stepped quite daintily on one of his testicles.

“It’s okay,” Bri had said. “Aldous and I will kiss them better later.”

She’d fallen asleep before the movie was over, but the sentiment was there.

She let out an unhappy sigh as Koa locked her cell in the heavy duty briefcase, knowing all signals to and from it would be blocked. All because of Mom’s Syndicate bullshit.

“How long until we get there?” Bri’s tone was sullen as the SUV pulled out onto the main road, quickly picking up speed heading northbound—away from the marital bliss of her beachfront home.

At least Aldous took Jasmine with him to work today. The thought of little Jasmine waiting at the door for Bri to return from lunch made her heart hurt.

“About an hour and a half,” Koa replied. “Once we’re there, we should know more—and if it was a member who was targeted or the relatives thereof.”

That one little word took her from being annoyed at Mom for the disruption to her day to terrified real fast. Relatives. “Do… do you think the Wraiths would target Aldous?”

Roman was surrounded by the Silvas cartel on a stakeout, not counting his own very particular set of skills . But Aldous? All Aldous had to protect him was a cuddle-bug Dalmatian.

Koa’s dark eyes briefly found hers in the mirror. “ Your husband?” He said the words like he was weighing them up. “I don’t know. If I was a Wraith, I’d rather spend my time going after actual Syndicate members.”

The fact that it wasn’t a denial spread through her veins like icicles of terror. “But it makes sense, though, right?” Bri didn’t want it to make sense, but the more she thought about it, the easier the fear spread. “The Syndicate funnels a ton of money through Aldous’s company. If—if they go after Aldous then it’ll cut off—”

“Bri.” Reina’s hands were freezing as they gripped hers. “He’ll be fine. Even if they did go in that direction—which I seriously doubt, by the way—then surely they’d go after the manufacturing or shipping facilities. Aldous is likely all cozied up in his office. Probably having afternoon tea or whatever it is British people eat for lunch. Fish and chips. I don’t know.”

Bri couldn’t brush it off that easily. It made sense. Mom was floundering; the Syndicate was losing members. Once the Wraiths cut off her supply of funds, it was only a matter of time before the Syndicate collapsed in on itself.

It just so happened that that supply went through Aldous. What if he got caught up in it?

What if she’d fallen in love with her husband, only to lose him?

“Why the fuck did you bring her ?” Mom’s question barked over the loading dock’s smooth grey concrete. She’d stopped mid-stride, lingering on the faded yellow paint of a truck bay as her fiery gaze found her approaching daughters.

Reina didn’t flinch. “You sent out an emergency alert. Has there been another attack?”

“What do you think?” Mom snapped, before raising her voice. “Don’t close the shutters, Koa. Brianna is leaving.”

Bri hesitated, but Reina tugged her along. “Close them, Koa. Bri isn’t going anywhere. Tell me what’s happening, Mom.”

For whatever reason, Koa listened to Reina.

Whispers from behind them reached Bri’s ears, and she turned to find Koa exchanging terse words with one of the guards who’d been at her wedding. On the steel walk-overs above them, she saw Syndicate members she recognised from one place or another, guns hanging on slings around their torsos. Her skin crawled at the distrust in their eyes, even as she wondered whether this was all that was left of the organisation Mom had devoted her life to.

“Brianna made her choice.” Mom stepped closer, until only her daughters could hear her snarled whispers. “She chose not to join us; she doesn’t get to avail herself of our protection when it suits her. She leaves.”

Reina’s backbone was as straight as the steel beams holding up the warehouse. “If Bri leaves,” Reina began, her voice a dangerous murmur, “then Koa and I leave with her.”

Bri’s eyes widened. Reina had never stood up to Mom before—not that she had seen.

Mom’s nostrils flared in anger, but the surge never hit them. “We lost Chavez this morning.”

“ What ?!” Reina hissed.

“Carry on shutting down. Black out the windows and get into position,” Mom called to the guards behind them before lowering her voice. “Come downstairs. We’re sitting ducks if we stay here.”

With Reina’s hand in hers, Bri let herself be pulled deeper into the building. She’d never seen Mom look so…worried, and it unnerved her.

Mom led them beneath the mezzanine above and down a darkened corridor hemmed in on both sides by offices of some sort. At first, Bri thought they were empty; the panes of glass on the doors showed little signs of movement inside, but the more they passed, the more she doubted herself. Were they empty? Or were there more Syndicate members lurking inside?

Bri thought she’d finally find out when Mom stopped at one of the doors, punching a number into the keypad lock before a green light permitted them entry. Instead of an office, a staircase sat behind it. Reina didn’t pause in her descent, so neither did Bri, carefully stepping down the black metal stairs going underground.

There was a blue tinge to the light at the bottom—originating from screens, as it turned out. A collection of them sat before the three of them, showing feeds of the warehouse above them, and a few more locations besides. As her eyes adjusted to the darkened light, more of the room came into view: a large meeting table, a kitchenette, and several closed doors.

Mom waved a hand at the screens, her eyes shadowed with a hunted edge. “The Wraiths hit the docks first, then home, then headquarters, then the warehouse up in the mountains. We don’t know where they’re heading next, but it’s only a matter of time before they come here.”

Her blood turned to ice.

Reina looked at Mom like she’d gone mad. “So, what, we’re just all getting in the same barrel for them to make it nice and easy?”

No. “You’re getting ready for them,” Bri whispered in realisation, thinking of the arsenal of weapons on show upstairs. “You’re using it to your advantage.”

For perhaps the first time ever, there was a glimmer of surprised approval on Mom’s face. “And here I was thinking you didn’t inherit any intelligence from me at all. Good to know you’re not completely brainless.”

Even as her stomach knotted over the impending attack, Bri’s eyes hardened. So says the woman being hunted down like a dog , she wanted to say, but there was a—a tingling in her mouth.

Reina snapped out a reply to Mom, but Bri couldn’t hear it, no matter how much she tried. The only thing she could hear was a tinny, high-pitched ringing getting louder and louder with every second that passed, until she realised she couldn’t differentiate one second from the next.

Reina , she wanted to say. A warning. But her mouth wouldn’t move, and she could no longer feel her mouth at all. I think I’m having a seizure.

Perhaps she had managed to say something because Reina turned with a panicked look in her eyes—just as Bri’s vision slipped from her grip, and everything went black.