Page 7

7

Brianna

“ V ivian’s at the gates.”

Brianna glanced up at the sound of Roman’s voice. She’d been elbow deep in a search for the Baja California address her mother had given her—purportedly her father’s address, but Bri couldn’t find any record of the place online, let alone the road.

Sat at the large, sandy dining table he’d turned into a temporary office, Aldous’s attention shifted away from his video call, his face reflecting Brianna’s alarm back at her. “Look, I’m going to have to call you back,” he said, cutting off the meeting he’d been in for the last hour. “Send me over the rest of the forecasts for Q3.”

“What, now ?” Bri shot at Roman. She expected a visit from Mom at some point, but not the day after the wedding. Her entire body still ached from the seizure. The last thing she needed was to be subjected to Mom’s judgement.

“Yes, now .” Roman’s eyes were on his phone. “Do you want me to let her in?” He paused the torrented zombie show he’d been playing on the TV and switched to a live feed of the driveway security camera.

His shoulders expanding with a deep inhale, Aldous nodded. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

Brianna watched as the gates opened to reveal the sleek black SUV she knew so well. Her mother would no doubt be relaxing on the back seat’s dark leather, preferring to let one of the security team drive. Likely Koa.

A minute later, she was proven right, with Koa opening the rear door to let Mom out—although Bri was surprised to see Reina accompanying her, her blonde hair pulled into a sleek, sophisticated updo. Bri got to her feet, draping the pale blue cashmere blanket Aldous had given her over the back of the sofa. For once, she didn’t have to worry about what her hair looked like. The coconut oil had left it lighter and more pliable than ever.

As the doorbell rang through the house like a funeral bell, her husband’s brow creased into a frown. “You should stay on the couch.”

She shook her head as Roman went to answer the front door. “The moment my mom senses weakness is the moment she moves in for the kill.” Bri had seen it enough times to know, back when Mom was still trying to get her to join the Syndicate.

“Move over here onto the carpeted area,” Aldous muttered gruffly, staying within arm’s reach of her but making no move to touch her. “I don’t want you hitting your head on the marble floor.”

Bri swept her long black hair over her shoulder, feeling oddly contemplative. For all his bark, she didn’t think Aldous had any bite. Not really.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he warned, Jasmine leaning against his legs. “I just don’t want your mother to blow my fucking brains out—or those of my family.”

The reminder of Mom’s actions sobered her. “If I could get her to stop, I would.”

“I believe you.” Those piercing amber eyes stared straight into her soul.

Mom’s heels beat a quick beat down the hallway, closely followed by those of Reina. The former didn’t seem to be particularly pleased to see her alive, her expression barricaded off behind a wall of contempt. Mom clicked at Roman as he re-entered the room. “You. Koa needs help unloading Brianna’s possessions. And take the dog with you,” she ordered him, her lips twisting as she looked at Jasmine. “I don’t want its hair on my clothes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Roman replied, as though he was every inch the obedient employee she paid him to be.

Once he was gone, Mom focused her icy gaze on Aldous. “I understand Alpine Ridge has a steel shipment leaving Jalisco next week. Is that correct?”

“It is.” Aldous’s head tilted with curiosity. “Although I’d be interested to learn how you obtained that information.”

Mom ignored him just as easily as she’d always ignored Bri. “On Monday, the Syndicate’s associates will be loading product onto the ship equivalent to 50% of its cargo capacity. I expect your employees to be hospitable.”

Bri’s stomach dropped. Product? She’d heard enough of the Syndicate’s business over the years to know that product typically meant bricks of cocaine smuggled within steel ingots. She glanced over to her husband, still standing firm, and she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if the ship was searched by police.

“The ship is already loaded,” Aldous said coolly, as though Mom wasn’t staring daggers at him.

“That isn’t my problem to solve.”

“I see.” Aldous’s voice was quiet, laced with the kind of resolute determination she could only dream of exhibiting.

Bri couldn’t tear her gaze away from him. People had always cowered in front of Mom, but Aldous withstood it with ease, the immovable object against Mom’s unstoppable force.

Of all the men Mom could have forced her to marry, Bri was glad it was this one.

“But,” Mom continued, turning towards her, “there are other matters that bring me here.”

Bri tried to emulate Aldous’s posture, despite her body being wracked with exhaustion. “Oh?”

“A rival gang, the Wraiths, recently conducted a raid on one of our warehouses. Two of our men were killed, and more injured. They appear to be targeting committee members and their relatives—which includes you. Koa is bringing Roman up to date on the situation, but I also wanted you to be personally aware.” Mom’s heels thudded as she stepped towards Bri and her new husband.

Bri didn’t know what made her say it. “Is that because you care about me or because my death would reflect badly on you?”

Surprise flashed on Mom’s face for less than a second before it was concealed beneath her usual icy exterior. “Does it matter?”

She shrugged, hiding the sinking hole in her gut. “I guess not.”

“I understand,” Aldous murmured.

With nothing more than a contemptuous look, Mom turned on her kitten heel to leave, disappearing back down the long corridor. Reina remained, however, chewing on her lip as she approached the two of them. “Mom told me you had another seizure. How are you feeling?”

With Mom gone, Bri finally let her weariness surface, collapsing back onto the sofa into a heap. “Like I could sleep for a thousand years.”

“Maybe it’s best that you do.” Reina gave a humourless laugh, pulling her hair across her shoulder in a pale golden stream as she took a seat. “Mom says she doesn’t know what the Wraiths are capable of, Bri. They’re dangerous, and we’re all in the firing line here.”

“I’ve never known you and Mom to be this worried over a rival gang.”

Reina turned to look down the corridor Mom had disappeared down before lowering her voice to a whisper. “This attack was different. They shouldn’t even have known about the warehouse, let alone how to get in. Mom thinks there might be a mole in the Syndicate.”

Bri swore under her breath. She didn’t want to be involved in the Syndicate’s business, and yet here she was.

“But I’ll let you know what’s going on as soon as there’s an update, okay?” Reina pulled her into a hug, squeezing her tight.

“Thank you,” Bri said earnestly. “I’ll speak to you soon.”

Reina stood, giving Aldous an unexpected smile. “And thank you for taking her to the hospital.”

He nodded, his expression remaining unchanged.

Reina gave her a little wave before she too retreated, leaving her and Aldous alone in the living room. “I’m sorry about my mom,” Bri whispered. All she could think about was the potential consequences if police were to discover the drugs being smuggled on the ship.

An apology wasn’t much, compared to that—but it was the only thing she had to offer.

He draped the cashmere blanket back over her, careful not to let their skin touch. “It’s not your fault.”

On the TV, Mom’s dark SUV drove through the gates and onto the main road—and Bri let her head fall against the sofa in relief. She’s gone. “Sometimes it feels like it.”

Aldous changed the subject just as Roman wandered back down the corridor. “How is the address search going, by the way?”

Bri’s exhale was full of disappointment. She’d punched the address straight into Google, expecting to be able to pull up an image of her father’s home there and then. But no. Of course not. Of course nothing would be that fucking easy. “There’s nothing at Ruta de Los Cardónes 193.” She shrugged. “Santa Florencia doesn’t even appear to exist. So I’m left with just Baja California, which is—” Bri opened her phone to pull up her latest search “—approximately 27,000 square miles.”

“Not exactly narrowing it down much then.” Roman sat on the arm of the sofa, his arms crossed over his broad chest.

Bri idly scratched her leg, realising too late that she was scratching a cut from earlier. She pulled up the sweatpants she’d borrowed from Aldous to see the damage. Sure enough, she’d reopened the cu—

“Jesus Christ,” Aldous hissed, getting up from the sofa as Jasmine hopped onto it, her characteristic smile on show. “Your ankles are covered in bruises. What happened?”

Her brow pulled into a frown. “Those are from the seizure yesterday.”

He didn’t look convinced, but she couldn’t help but smile. “Just be careful. I don’t want your mother to think I’m beating you.”

“I know,” she said quietly, her mother’s threats to Aldous’s family weighing heavy on her shoulders. “Will you tell me about them, your family? Do you have any brothers and sisters or are you an only child?”

“I have a brother,” he admitted. “But he…” Aldous paused, sharing a glance with Roman, “he moved away when I was 13. After that, my mother raised me alone.”

So she had a brother-in-law, at least. “That must have been hard. The household shrinking suddenly.”

Aldous moved towards the sliding doors, looking out over the terrace to the blue waves of the Pacific. “It was.”

Taking the hint, Bri refocused her attention on Roman. “What about you? Any brothers and sisters?”

Roman threw his hands in the air, his lips twisting humorously. “Your guess is as good as mine. I mean technically I had lots of foster brothers and sisters over the years.”

“Did you keep in touch?”

Sprawling out over the sofa, he gave Jasmine a scratch under her chin. “I saw one when I was in prison.”

She paused, not knowing the etiquette. “Is it weird if I ask you what you were in prison for?”

Roman smiled, looking as though butter wouldn’t melt. He held his forefinger and his thumb millimetres apart. “ Teeeeeensy bit of murder.”

By the doors to the terrace, Aldous threw him a disdainful glare before shaking his head.

As someone who worked security detail for the Syndicate, Bri knew he wouldn’t have been hired if he wasn’t prepared to kill—but it was slightly unnerving how easily he spoke of it. “Were you in prison long?”

“That was my longest sentence. Ten months in total.”

“Jesus,” Bri blanched slightly. “I know American and British justice systems are different, but only ten months for murder?” That was insane.

“Oh, I wasn’t convicted of murder,” Roman said conversationally, stretching his arm up to rub the back of his head. “I was convicted of theft.”

She blinked. Was she missing something? “Did they… not notice you killed someone?”

Roman’s lips curved into a slow smile as he glanced up at her. “No one notices unless I want them to, Brianna.”

The way his voice curled around her name was softer than a kiss, sending quivers of need below her navel. Bri tried to look unaffected, but judging by his wink her attempt was less than stellar.

“Are you flirting with my wife in front of me?” Aldous’s question was a pointed interruption, but Bri noticed his expression was one of curiosity rather than anger.

Roman effected a casual shrug. “Someone has to. I don’t see you rushing to consummate the marriage.”

“No,” he murmured, his dark brows pulled down into a frown. The dismissal hit her like a freight train. She had been terrified at the thought of consummation yesterday, so why did his answer feel almost like a disappointment?

“Exactly.” Roman propped his elbow on the back of the sofa and rested his chin on his palm. “Everyone needs a helping hand once in a while. Wouldn’t you agree, cutie patootie?”

The question was laden with suggestion, but Bri noticed that, for once, Aldous didn’t look angry. There was an… intensity there that she couldn’t put her finger on. Was it jealousy?

Only one way to find out .

“Sure.” She nodded, her eyes never leaving her husband. “Once in a while.”

As her husband, Aldous should be fuming with jealousy, so why did he look just as victorious as Roman right now?