Chapter 2

Animal

I’ve stood next to this man through a lot of shit. Not ever have we been at such a loss for words and direction as we watched Ember make herself at home in the guest room.

Her phone was propped up on her dresser. There were two girls on the video chat, as if they lived their lives like that. Everyone was involved in different things. One was curling her hair, the other was typing on a computer, and Ember was unpacking her suitcase.

There was music piping through. I wasn’t sure which girl had it playing, but it was filthy.

Nix touched my shoulder and tilted his head toward the hallway. He wanted to talk.

I ducked closer to him as he leaned against the hallway wall. “She can’t stay here.”

Despite his ink, he looked pale. Becca had left for her shift at the tattoo parlor. It was just Nix, Ember, and I.

“Obviously.”

We were in a volatile situation. Nix had a past with the Feybis. He’d killed the patriarch after working in the family for a year. They feared him for his skill, but some sins were not easily overlooked. Lighting a mob boss on fire in his favorite chair was one of those touchy subjects.

The Kaleotos had been in charge of half of Midville and were in a war with the Feybis for longer than anyone remembered.

When Nix left to work with the Feybis, I knew I needed to prepare for when he finally returned.  I had assembled an army of broken souls over my lifetime, and bunches of them worked for me.

My family was small, but it now required that I run the entire entity that encompassed the criminal element in Midville. I slowly turned Kaleotos into my puppet. I went to their foot soldiers and offered better. Offered a future. Because there was no getting out of Feybi’s with your life. With me, on my crew, loyalty earned a way out. I treated people like people instead of pawns. I used Nix’s purple Hummer to gather them. Soon, gossip was what it was and I was getting approached by needy people, instead of the other way around.

By the time I got Nix back, I had a nice group of Kaleotos’ best men. And I had a formula that worked.

Nix was allowed to wallow in his happiness for a little while, but I used his knowledge of the Feybi organization to my benefit. I moved swiftly during the upheaval in power caused by Feybi Sr.’s demise.

After the meeting I had today, I was going to focus on eliminating the most vicious of the loan sharks. Then the independent drug dealers. I had Nix with me now, so we were running at full capacity.

I was magnetic. It was just something I had about me. My gift. Bad people trusted me. Good ones, too. I was ready to defend Nix from whoever came sniffing for his blood and retribution.

I was an unknown factor. Mysterious to the warring families. Where they had goals of crime and money and power, I just wanted my people to live—in comfort as well.

Nix wasn’t my first “family” member, but he was one of the dearest to me. And he was currently close to hyperventilating.

“Did your aunt do anything to cause this? I mean, like what the hell?”

The music cut out from Ember’s room. She stepped into the hallway. “She lied to me.”

Nix rolled his head in her direction. I peeked past her and saw that her phone had a dark screen.

“Your friends are gone?” I watched as she shifted her eyes and hips in the same direction. “Because if they were still there, they could hear stuff that could put them in danger.”

Ember snapped her gum and went to her phone. I watched as she unmuted herself and then ended the video chat session with a middle finger.

She stuffed her phone into her bra and came back into the hallway.

Nix put his hands through his thick hair. I knew that his scalp was tatted up to complete what he thought was a necessary permanent disguise as a skeleton.

“She lied to me,” Ember repeated.

“Aunt Dor?” I offered because Nix was too busy sliding his hand over his face to ask.

Ember narrowed her eyes at her brother. “She said that you’re dangerous. No one speaks about you that way to me.”

I loved Ember. She was always special because she was Nix’s sister. He’d done a great deal to make sure she was safe. More than she would probably ever know.

He never expected any kind of reciprocation from the women he watched. Nix rubbed his fingers on his chest. I knew he had the names of four females tatted there. His mother. Becca. Christina, the special little girl he’d rescued. And Ember.

He was feeling the love.

We were all goners now.

“You’re my brother, and I’m proud of you. You’d never hurt a soul!” She had fire in her eyes and the sureness only someone who was still a teenager could project.

She was wrong.  He’d never hurt her. Or me. Or Becca. Or Christina. But I’m sure we’d both lost count of the amount of assholes we’d ended. Hurt them so much they stopped breathing.

I saw the conflict in his expression. It was just because I knew him as well as I did. He had a great poker face.

“Just unpack for now. But don’t get too comfortable. This is no place for a kid.” Nix clearly wanted to talk this one out with me.

Ember leaned in and gave him a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, bro. I’m not a kid. Aunt Dor can pound salt.” She twirled and her long brown hair with streaks slapped me in the chest and Nix in the face.

Nix turned and headed toward my room. I knew we’d have to hash this out.

Because we knew something about Ember that she didn’t.

We knew who Ember’s father might be.