Maxon
YOU COULD’VE HEARD A FEATHER fall in the seconds after Dare left the apartment.
No one moved.
No one spoke.
I wasn’t sure any of us fucking breathed.
Libby’s head dropped and angled to the side so she could look at me from over her shoulder, finally breaking the spell, her dark eyes a mixture of defiance and grief.
She swallowed, the movement slow and forced. “I think I, uh . . . I should check on Einstein.”
“Are you okay?” I asked soft enough so my voice wouldn’t carry to the living room.
Her gaze darted away and one of her shoulders lifted slightly. “He can’t get away with saying shit like that.” She glanced at the guys then whispered, “We’ll talk later.”
I lifted her hand to my lips when she began walking away, kissing the tips of her fingers and holding her stare before releasing her. As soon as she slipped down the hall toward Einstein’s room, I hurried out the front door, ignoring the guys when they started talking and calling out for me.
I caught Dare just as he and one of the twins were sliding into a car.
The second he saw me, he climbed out and slammed the door behind him. The twins followed, naturally flanking him, as if they’d done it hundreds of times.
“Not backup, huh?”
Dare only cocked a brow.
I rubbed at my jaw, my frustration building. “Right. If that’s how you want to do this. But we need to talk.”
“We talked. If you weren’t listening, my decision didn’t change.”
“Yeah, no, I got that. I didn’t think it would anytime soon. Your sister knew that.” I gestured to the building behind me. “But after the shit you pulled in there? You’re begging her to go against you.”
“And you’re suddenly an expert on her?”
A stunned laugh left me. “I know her well enough. You can’t tell Libby not to do something unless you want her to do the opposite. She allowed what you said before because she respects and loves you too much—but you just damaged that.”
A cruel smile crossed his face. “I told you I didn’t want you together. I told you your life would ruin her. Yet you somehow took that as an invitation to stay.” He lifted his hand and pointed to the apartment. “And it doesn’t take a fucking genius to know I walked in on something that shouldn’t be happening.”
“Jesus, give me a break,” I said on a groan. “She’s thirty-one years old, Dare. Are you gonna tell me you were a fucking saint until you married your wife?”
“You aren’t good for her,” he growled.
“Why?” The word was a taunt. I ran a hand over my jaw and stepped closer so my voice wouldn’t carry. “Because I don’t come from your world, Boss?”
The guys tensed, all eyes went wide before I was met with identical threatening expressions.
“Choose your next words carefully,” Dare said in a dark tone.
My brows slowly lifted and my mouth twitched into a smirk. “You honestly think I could love your sister my entire life—be there for her through everything—and not figure out what your family was?” When a cold, detached look settled over his face, I said, “I’ve known since high school. I never told a soul because I don’t care. I get that you think I can’t keep her safe, and maybe in the way you keep people safe . . . I can’t. Doesn’t mean I can’t protect her my way. Doesn’t mean I can’t love her. Provide for her. Doesn’t mean we don’t belong together.”
Dare stared at me for a few seconds before rubbing a hand over his mouth, nodding as he did. “You’re wrong.”
“Jesus.”
“It’s not just the lifestyle. It’s that you’re in a spotlight Libby can’t be in. She isn’t just a Borello by oath, she’s a Borello by blood. People know our family. Our name. I dissolved the gang, but enemies don’t care. When you put her in the spotlight, you put a blinding target on her back.”
My stomach churned and it felt like the ground was coming up to meet me.
I could wait out Dare. I could wait for Libby forever.
But this?
“You knew . . .” I shook my head slowly, then lifted my stare to meet his. “You knew we’d be together one day. You’ve never said anything until now. Why?”
“I knew you wanted to be with her. I knew how much you meant to her. But I was positive she wouldn’t consider a relationship with you—let alone a future with you. Being with anyone isn’t Libby’s style.” He huffed. “Then the last six months happened and I saw how ruined she was by you. I knew I’d had it all wrong.”
I stood there, my mind racing, before I shrugged helplessly. “It was never a question of if we would be together. It was when. I’ve told her our entire lives it was going to be her and me forever, and it will. There’s no ending us.”
“I can’t let you be together.”
I nodded and turned, running my hands over my face and through my hair, gripping it as I paced away before turning around to face the guys. “There’s no ending us.”
For the first time since I’d asked if I could marry Libby, he didn’t look angry. He looked like he felt sorry for me.
“She wants to settle down here with me. She wants a family. I plan on giving her those things, but I’ve been stalling because you aren’t okay with the idea of us.”
“How nice of you,” he said with a curl of his lip.
“I said stalling . . . I didn’t say I wasn’t preparing for everything.” I smirked when his hands fisted. “I could find ways to keep stalling and hope you’d come around, but even if you didn’t, eventually I’d stop waiting. I asked you if I could marry Libby because you mean the world to her. I’m trying to respect you, but you can’t control her life. She’s not your daughter, she’s your older sister.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then treat her like it. As much as you hate it, I do know her. She defies authority. She does what people tell her not to. After today, I know she’s going to push for me to stop waiting for you to give me the green light. And she won’t have to push hard.”
Dare stared me down, his chest pitching with his rough breaths. After a few moments, his shoulders sagged. “I never wanted to lead. I never wanted to be in charge of the family. I was forced into it. But they all became my responsibility—Libby became my responsibility. All I ever wanted was to find a way to end it. Now that I have, I don’t know how to stand back and watch my family make decisions I know will hurt them.”
“I get it, man, I do. But you said it yourself . . . you thought I’d ruined your sister. That’s what happens when we’re not together. She’ll hurt more if we’re apart. Let Libby be mine. Let her become my responsibility. I’ll take care of her.”
“Didn’t you hear a word I said?”
“I heard you.” I shrugged. “Look, I won’t lie to you. People will want to know about her in the beginning. They’ll want to know who my girl is. But we have publicists for a reason. Everything can be monitored and pictures of her can be taken down if they need to.”
“Hell of a lot of good that did you for the father-to-be pictures.”
“There wasn’t a reason to take them down considering it was Ava and we thought it was funny. Not to mention we made the decision to wait a day to give a statement. Libby’s different. But she won’t be caught with me until her last name’s changed. No one needs to print the name Borello. No one needs to know who she really is.”
He stared at me like I’d lost my goddamn mind. “That’s it?”
“I love her. No one else can offer her better than that.” He looked like he was about to disagree, so I hurried to ask, “What, would you be okay if I was someone safe? Some guy working in a cubicle who would piss himself if he ever found out about who you really are? Or would you rather me be from your life? Someone who could keep her safe? Someone who kept Libby pulled into that life after you spent so long finding a way to end it?”
Dare’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t respond.
“I’m her best friend. Her safe place. The guy she chose.” I flung my hand out toward them. “I found out about all of you and didn’t bat a fucking eye or run scared. I’m what’s best for her. You can deal with the rest.”
Dare nodded absentmindedly for a few seconds before heading for the car, the twins following without having ever uttered a word.
Once Dare was at the car with the door open, he looked at me and called out, “I don’t ever want to walk in on something like I did today.”
“Don’t walk in without calling first,” I shot back.
His laugh was loud and didn’t hold a hint of his earlier anger. With a dip of his head, he slid into the car and turned it on.
I didn’t wait to watch them leave. I walked into the apartment and found the guys standing in a tight circle, talking softly.
As soon as they saw me, Jared threw out his hands and mumbled, “The fuck, dude?”
“Yeah, what the hell did we wake up to?” Lincoln asked.
I blew out a harsh breath. “Honestly, I don’t know half the shit they were fighting about.”
“When did Dare become such an asshole?” Ledger asked, looking over my shoulder to see if the guy in question had followed me inside.
My mouth twitched into a grimace as I headed toward Einstein’s room. “Right about the time I asked if I could marry his sister.”
“Not like you haven’t been fucking her for the last decade.”
I paused and shot Ledger a warning glare, then looked to the other two. “Did the girls ever come back out?”
When they shook their heads, I continued toward the room, following Libby’s and Einstein’s voices.
With a knock on Einstein’s door, I slowly cracked it open and waited to see if there would be demands to leave. When there was nothing, I stepped inside and looked between the girls.
“You both okay?”
“Who came in?” Libby asked instead.
I glanced behind me before realizing what she was asking. “I went to talk to Dare.”
Her exhausted stare bounced over my expression. “Are they gone now?” When I nodded, she leaned forward to squeeze Einstein’s hand, then stood from her bed and walked toward me. “My room,” she whispered.
I let her lead me across the apartment, ignoring the questioning and confused looks of the guys as we passed them. I closed her door behind us, then leaned against it when she began pacing the length of her room.
“Dare’s never been like this before,” she said after nearly a minute. “Even when he was boss.”
“I know.”
“I think he’s panicking because he doesn’t have a say over anything now, and he doesn’t know how to let us live our lives.”
I watched her for a while, waiting to see if she would add to that. “He thinks you’re going to get hurt, and he’s trying to prevent it.”
She stopped moving and turned to look at me. “It doesn’t matter. He can’t do what he’s doing. He can’t say the shit he said today. And Einstein—God, he doesn’t even understand what’s happening with her, and he’s trying to place the blame somewhere else.”
I knew better than to ask what was happening with Einstein.
I cleared my throat and shifted against the door. “I caught some of it,” I mumbled, dropping my head against the door as I tried to remember Dare and Libby’s fight.
“Kieran Hayes called because you didn’t show to close out a case last night.”
“Kieran—She was his girlfriend.”
“But this person you’re turning into since Johnny died?”
“I didn’t know Johnny died,” I whispered.
Can’t say I’m sad about it.
He’d been Dare’s best friend and Einstein’s boyfriend. And like Libby said, he was crazy. Batshit fucking insane.
The kind of guy you knew would snap one day.
“Dare did it.”
The fuck.
I don’t remember moving.
But the next thing I knew I was away from the door and in front of Libby.
“Johnny had really lost it,” she hurried to explain. “Worse than ever. Tried to kill Lily numerous times. One night it came down to Johnny or Lily, and . . . Dare had to make the decision.”
“How the hell is this your life?” I whispered.
Her brows drew together and she seemed to fold in on herself. She looked terrified. Like she was afraid that anything that left her lips would be something that sent me in the opposite direction.
“We don’t choose the families we’re born into. This is never something I thought you would know.” She held her hands out pleadingly when a sharp laugh left me. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Look at me like you don’t know me.”
I closed the distance between us and pulled her into my arms. “I do know you. But you have to realize how crazy this sounds. I knew . . . but I never thought anything like this. I never thought there was another family living in the same damn town that was killing members of your family, and vice versa. And Kieran?” I asked, bringing up the guy Dare mentioned. “He’s one of the Holloways, isn’t he? You said Einstein worked with them.”
“Yeah, he was the worst one.” When I stiffened, she quickly added, “I mean, he’s good. He’s a good guy . . . but he was their assassin. And he’s still absolutely terrifying to be in the same room with. I don’t know how Einstein works with him.”
I blinked slowly. “You’re not joking, are you?”
Her head shook and mouth twisted in a sad smile. “You’ll get used to the stories and old titles. It’s just different from what you’ve ever known.”
“That’s an understatement, Rebel.”
She relaxed deeper in my arms and whispered, “My world is born of shadows and kept hidden from view. Your world is in the spotlight and on display for everyone to see. To the average person, both seem unbelievable . . . doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
In the spotlight. For everyone to see.
“She’s a Borello by blood . . . When you put her in the spotlight, you put a blinding target on her back.”
Shit.
I trailed a finger down her jaw and back again. “I’ll find a middle ground for us. I promise.”
“You mean in between dealing with my brother?” she asked, defeat and frustration coating her words.
I started walking her toward the bed, my mouth curving up. “Already taken care of.”
I pressed my lips to hers when her mouth popped open in surprise, teasing her tongue and swallowing her moan when I laid her on the bed.
She wove her fingers through my hair, gripping and tugging to break the kiss so she could look at me. Her breaths were rough and her dark eyes were full of excitement and need. “Maxon, are you serious?”
“When are you gonna let me give you my last name, Rebel?”
A soft laugh slid up her throat. “Now.” She pressed her mouth to mine. “Now. Tomorrow. Whenever.”