Chapter 14
THORNE
The instant the words left my mouth, Ricky started choking on his beer. He slammed the frosted mug down onto the table as foamy spittle flew from his lips.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “Gross, Ricky. Cover your mouth.”
“Jesus, Thorne!” he hissed once he could breathe. “The hell is wrong with you?”
I blinked at him, holding a half-eaten chip mid-air. “Me? Nothing. I’m fine. I’m not the one choking to death on a drink.”
“You don’t announce something like that in fucking public,” he snarled.
His gaze darted to a nearby booth, and I followed his attention. Barnaby, the vampire I’d just publicly shamed, sat on the closest bench. He seemed overly interested in the napkin dispenser, but I caught the flicker of his gaze as he quickly glanced our way.
Mm-hmm. An eavesdropper. I stared—or rather, glared—until he hiccoughed and scurried away like the little blood rat he was. Much better.
“You know better than that,” Ricky scolded. “There are countless ears here, most with enhanced hearing. What if someone overheard you? What if they ran off and alerted the Ravenspells?”
I stared at my chip for a moment as I processed his question. A grin lifted my lips as I said, “Then I’d let my wolf out and give her a good hunt. It’s been a while since I’ve spilled someone’s blood.”
Four pairs of eyes stared at me in utter silence.
I rolled my eyes.
Sometimes my brothers were na?ve when it came to me.
They thought I was little more than their innocent little sister.
They always seemed to forget that I grew up in the same home as them and was raised by the same parents as them.
I may not walk around armed to the teeth and may not start bar fights as a hobby, but that didn’t make me any less of a werewolf than them.
I had teeth and claws and knew exactly how to use them. I was just more discreet about it.
“Besides,” I said cheerfully. “Between the bone band over there, the chatter, and all the loud chewing, no one heard me. You’re actually attracting more attention than I am.”
Ricky sighed. “That isn’t the point. It’s called operational security, Thorne. Use some common sense, alright? We don’t announce anything that someone can trace back to us later. You use code words. You imply.”
“You save the conversation for somewhere more private,” Felix casually added around a mouthful of chips.
I shrugged. “I apologize. I’ll disguise my words next time. Feel better now?”
“Next time,” Ricky huffed, shaking his head. “Fates save me from little sisters.”
“Oh, please.” I flicked my salty fingers at him. “You’re more of a pain in the ass than I am. How many times have I bribed the sheriff on your behalf? So, knock off the sanctimonious preaching before I throw your beer in your face.” I added a sickly-sweet grin to let him know I wasn’t kidding.
Felix hauled the basket of chips to his side of the table and stuffed another handful into his mouth.
“Okay, enough you two. I swear, you bicker more than Mom and Dad,” he said, spitting crumbs everywhere.
“Now, tell us what we’re after? Is it money?
Because I have a few debts that need settling, and the Ravenspells’ wealth would certainly take care of them. ”
I stared at my middle brother, my mouth half-parted. “How on Earth could you possibly need money?” Our family had practically invented the concept of generational wealth. I’d fronted the entire Love Bites renovation in cash, and it hadn’t remotely dented my savings account.
He just shrugged and stuffed more chips into his face, clearly disinclined to share his financial woes with the entire table.
I rubbed my temples and sighed. Time to audit his bank accounts—with or without his permission.
“You two have been awfully quiet over there,” Ricky said.
I lowered my hands and glanced to my left, because he was right. Cassian and Calder hadn’t spoken a word since this all started. My twin sat still as stone, his body practically vibrating with restrained violence.
Right. That was another problem I had to solve.
My brothers were operating under old information—that Calder had abandoned us to seek a life of adventure without me.
They didn’t know about his sacrifices. I had to tell them but dumping that kind of world-shattering revelation in the middle of a crowded restaurant seemed cruel.
Not for my brothers. For the public. No one knew my siblings better than I did.
They wouldn’t take this new information well.
Especially when I hadn’t even had the time to process it first myself.
Was it so much to ask for a plate of tacos first?
A girl definitely thought better on a fully sated belly.
Cassian leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. He glared daggers at Calder, his lips curling up over a hint of teeth. “This is because of you, isn’t it? You come back to town and now, suddenly, our sister is planning a heist.”
Calder didn’t say a word. Instead, he leaned back against the cracked red vinyl bench, looking completely unbothered to a degree I knew would piss my brothers off.
After an incredibly long minute of silence—which had my brow raising—Calder plucked a chip from the basket and scooped up a generous amount of guacamole.
“Actually, I didn’t want to include your sister in any of this. But as I’m sure you’re aware, she does what she wants, when she wants.”
Holding Cassian’s glare, Calder bit into the chip. The crunch was deafening.
Just what we needed. Two dominant werewolves waving their dicks around.
One would think I’d be used to this—and I supposed I was—but that didn’t mean I enjoyed policing them.
For a moment, I debated abandoning my food and heading to Love Bites to ask for Isadora’s help.
She and Selene Ravenspell had a friendly relationship.
Maybe with Izzy’s help, we could just convince Selena to hand the artifact over.
But after the hell Isadora had recently survived, dragging her into my family’s illegal shenanigans didn’t sit well with me.
Nor did I want her to attract any unwanted government attention.
“It’s your mess, though, isn’t it?” Cassian shot back. “And she’s helping you clean it up?”
“Cassian—”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Calder said.
“Oh?” Cassian leaned closer. “Enlighten us then. Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you rolled back into town just to involve my sister in illegal activities. So, what happened, Calder? Finally dug yourself too deep a hole to climb back out of?”
“Cassian,” I whispered. “You don’t know the situation—”
But Calder’s laughter cut me off. “The irony of that statement is just hilarious.”
“Keep laughing, mutt. Let’s see how well that ends for you. Maybe I’ll just bury your dead body in that hole.”
“Cassian!” I hissed.
Grinning, Calder matched Cassian’s stance, now leaning across the table.
Yup, this was bad. Really bad. I would bet every last dollar to my name that a fight was about to break out, and here we were, trapped in a booth with the sound of nineties hip-hop music playing in the background. This was like a really bad movie.
“Guys,” I tried again. “If you’d just listen to me—”
“Try me,” Calder challenged. “You’ll find out just how good I’ve gotten at breaking necks.”
“Calder!” I snapped. “Stop it. Both of you!”
But of course, they didn’t listen. Because when did men ever listen?
“Oh, is that so?” Cassian flashed a wolfy grin, one that was all teeth. “Think you can take me? You couldn’t before. You can’t now.”
“My gods.” I rolled my eyes and glanced imploringly at Ricky. “Are you going to do something about this?”
Ricky just glanced at the two of them and shrugged. “Might do them some good to finally have it out.”
“You are utterly useless,” I sniped at my eldest brother.
“Maybe you should leave,” Ricky suggested. “You might not want to see this.”
Growling, I turned back to Calder and Cassian, who’d continued baiting each other. Felix leaned away from them, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face. Of course he was enjoying this. I’d always said he was a lunatic.
“Yes, Thorne,” Cassian said, though he never once looked away from Calder. “You should leave. I don’t think you’ll like how this ends.”
“She doesn’t need to go anywhere,” Calder retorted. “Maybe she wants to watch me beat your ass. Ever think of that?”
Cassian’s upper lip curled back to reveal his fangs. He lifted a hand and pointed a long finger at Calder. “Beat my ass? Oh, I’d love to see that. Last I recall, you were a punk-ass wannabe who always pulled his punches.”
Calder laughed. “Yeah, I held back. Otherwise, you would’ve been eating through a straw.”
I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose. For a moment, I debated letting these two just brawl it out. Clearly, nothing productive was going to happen until they worked off their aggression. Except that was stupid. Calder didn’t deserve Cassian’s venom. Cassian just didn’t know it yet.
“Is that so?” Cassian goaded.
“Please. There’s four dominant werewolves at this table, and we all know who’s more alpha,” Calder sniped.
I scoffed. What was I? Chopped liver? Or were they just ignoring me because I was the fairer sex?
“You think you’re so clever—”
“Smarter than you. And smart enough to know the only punk-ass wannabe here is you. You wanna fight? Fine. We’ll fight. But not now. So, be a good dog, sit down, and shut the fuck up until your sister is done talking.”
Cassian lunged across the table. He seized Calder by the lapels of his leather jacket and hauled him forward, dragging him across the table until they were nose-to-nose over the spilled bowls. Calder gripped Cassian’s wrist and twisted until the bones popped.
And boom goes the dynamite.