Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Apollo
The unmistakable sound of laughter hits me as soon as Yordan opens the door.
It isn’t what I expect to hear when returning him to the apartment.
Especially since the noise isn’t a singular feminine laugh, and it isn’t coming from the television.
No, it’s too prominent to be a digital recording, it’s coming from human mouths.
Yordan turns over his shoulder, giving me a baffled look. “Did Elio beat us here?”
No. No, he did not.
Elio drove separately from myself and Yordan after our day together had concluded.
He’s bringing a spare vehicle for the Todorov siblings to use whenever they wish to leave the house without one of us.
Even if he’d passed us on the road, he would still need to park the car in the underground garage, not right on the side of the building where I pulled up moments ago.
Whoever Rayna is laughing with, it’s not Elio.
“No,” I tell him, putting a hand on his shoulder to pass him. My hand instinctively goes to my belt, reaching for my pistol.
“Do you need that?” Yordan whispers, sounding panicked. “She’s laughing.”
And that’s the only reason my hand is hovering above it, rather than wrapped around it. The door falls shut behind us, clicking softly since neither of us continued to hold it open.
“Yordan? That you?” Rayna calls out.
Her voice is perfectly steady, without a hint of fear to cloud it.
“Yeah,” Yordan calls back without a second thought.
Fuck it.
I throw out any semblance of cunning, stomping into the apartment toward the sound of her voice. Rounding into the kitchen, I stop dead in my tracks, finding the source of Rayna’s laughter.
“Oh,” she grumbles, the ghost of a smile vanishing from her face. “You, again. You could have just dropped him off, you didn’t need to come in.”
I can’t even respond to her snark, because I can’t process the sight in front of me.
Rayna is sitting at the kitchen counter with Leo in her lap, holding the small boy while he draws wiggly shapes with his fingers.
The counter top is smeared with white shaving cream, speckled with various cookie cutter shapes and plastic spoons.
Sitting close to his son and Rayna, Leon holds a small towel covered in smears of shaving cream.
My eyes bounce between all three of them, digesting the strange combination. None of this makes sense. At all.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, eyes narrowing on Leon.
“Nice to see you too, brother.” He sighs, shaking his head.
“Oh, hey,” Yordan chirps, coming up from behind me. “I remember this! Sensory activity, right? Shaving cream?”
He took the time to secure the locks while I stormed in. I don’t know why he wasn’t more concerned about the male laughter in the apartment his sister was supposed to be alone in, but apparently we’ll need to work on his level of protectiveness.
Rayna smiles at her little brother. “Yes, shaving cream. I’m surprised you remember this, you haven’t done it since you were like five.”
“You had pictures of it, though.” Yordan grins, watching as Leo slams his palm down into the fluffy product-covered counter. The shaving cream splatters and he bursts out with a high-pitched giggle. “He looks like he’s having a blast.”
“Never thought I could entertain him for this long with such a simple activity,” Leon says, eyes bright with fatherly joy. “He’s obsessed with it.”
“Oh, Rayna is good at stuff like that,” Yordan tells my brother proudly. “We didn’t have any real toys a lot of the time when I was young, so she made due with stuff around the house. Bags filled with water and beads, pasta bracelets, homemade slime and Oobleck.”
“Pasta bracelets that you tried to cook and eat,” Rayna replies, scrunching her nose. “You tried to eat everything actually, homemade slime included.”
“It looked like a blue slushie,” Yordan defends. “That one was really your fault. You can’t give me something so delicious looking and not expect me to try and take a bite.”
Rayna laughs, and the sound reminds me just how ludicrous this situation is. I bring Yordan home to find my brother and his sister far too close. Domestically close.
“Why are you here?” I repeat, eyes never leaving Leon.
He opens his mouth to reply, but Rayna doesn’t let him.
“Why are you asking people why they’re in my house?” Her voice is like venom, burning with a lethal drawl. “You said this was our space, did you lie?”
“Don’t flatter yourself, Rayna. This has nothing to do with you. I’m asking why he isn’t back at his house, with his wife, where he should be,” I say tersely. “I don’t give a fuck that he’s in your place, I want to know as his brother why he’s neglecting his responsibilities.”
By my side, Yordan winces, taking a step back. He’s going to have to get used to witnessing conflict without reacting. Another note for later.
“Our Capo knows I’m here,” Leon tells me, leveling me with an assessing look. “I didn’t want to chuck Leo back in the car for such a long ride so soon. He had shots today, thanks for asking.”
“His medical status doesn’t explain why you’re here.”
“I thought you didn’t care that he was here,” Rayna challenges, her face hard like she’s holding back. She can’t chew me out while holding a child, or at least, I don’t think she will.
Leon lets out an impatient sigh. “We stopped in to see how Rayna was settling, not that it’s any of your business. And watch your language around my child, he’s a sponge.”
Rapid knocking on the door cuts through the air, interrupting our tense moment swiftly.
“That’s Elio,” Yordan says, sounding relieved for an excuse to leave. “I’ll let him in.”
“E-yo?” Leo asks, looking up at Rayna with hopeful eyes.
“Did you hear your uncle Elio’s name?” she asks the small boy, smiling down at him. “Should we get him with shaving cream when he comes in?”
Leo’s eyebrows dip down, trying to digest her question. He peeks over at his father, silently asking for help. Leon translates Rayna’s words into effortless Italian, and Leo giggles, nodding.
Endless questions burn in the back of my mind, frustrating me to no end. Why are they so comfortable around each other? Why does Leo look at her like she’s family? Why is Leon so content to allow her to bond with his son? Why did Dad sign off on Leon stopping by here?
Why is Rayna Todorov of all people able to get under my skin so fucking easily?
Elio and Yordan return within a few short moments, but it’s enough time for Rayna and Leo to plan. Covering his tiny hands shaving cream, Leo waits patiently for Rayna’s cue to strike.
“Your nephew wishes to say hello,” she tells Elio by way of greeting.
“E-yo!” he cheers, grinning at his uncle.
Smiling in return, Elio moves around Rayna’s side and leans down to eye-level. “Bello vederti, nipote.”
“Salve, E-yo!” Leo squeals, lunging forward to smear his hands over Elio’s cheeks. He laughs uncontrollably, bursting with giggles as he sees his uncle react.
“Mio Dio, Leo,” Elio chuckles, shaking his head. He finds Rayna trying to smother her own laughter and huffs. “I’ll remember this, you two.”
“So will I,” Leon says smugly, holding up his phone. Spinning the screen, he shows off his prized picture proof.
“Betrayed by my own flesh and blood,” Elio jokes, tsking.
“Daddy, all done,” Leo says suddenly, holding up his messy hands.
“All done?” Leon confirms, using his towel to start wiping the toddler’s fingers clean. “Are you ready to go home, bambino?”
Leo tilts his head in contemplation. “Mama, home?”
“Yes, Leo. Mama, home.”
“Okay,” he agrees, mouth clicking open with an unexpected yawn. “Go home now.”
Leon nods. Switching to Italian, he adds, “Will you say thank you and goodbye to Rayna?”
Hands now clean, Leo spins around in Rayna’s lap and offers her a shy smile. “Grazie, Rain-a. Bye bye.”
Her eyes sparkle as she observes him, face melting like she finds the child to be impossibly precious. “Bye bye, Leo. I hope to see you again.”
“I’m sure you will,” Leon tells her, scooping up his son.
“Let me grab him a snack and a juice for the ride back,” she offers, standing up from the counter to reach the fridge. “Gold fish, okay?”
“Perfect, thank you.”
“Since when are you two besties?” Elio asks, watching the seamless way that Rayna and Leon interact. His eyes dance between them, an alarming amount of amusement poorly hidden in his gaze.
Rayna blatantly ignores the question, continuing to rummage through her fridge and cabinets to retrieve a juice box and a bag of gold fish. I feel like I’ve just walked into the fucking twilight zone.
Leon clears his throat, uncomfortable with Elio’s stare—or mine, perhaps. “I’m going to take him to the bathroom real quick.”
As he walks toward the nearest half-bath, Leo looks over his shoulder and waves at us. “Bye bye E-yo, bye bye Pollo.”
Despite my sour mood, I muster up a forced smile, nodding my head at the child.
He hasn’t been a member of the family for very long, but as soon as Leon and Cleo took him in, he became my nephew.
It seemed like fate when Ana and Cassio found the boy.
He’s Italian and his name is Leo, after all.
He was meant to be my brother’s son, of that much I’m certain.
“Did you have fun today?” Rayna asks, greeting her brother with a short hug. “You didn’t get into any trouble, did you?”
“Looks like the baby got into more trouble than I did,” Yordan jokes. “The counter is a mess. Should we order takeout so you don’t have to clean up and cook?”
“We’ll see.” She sighs, suddenly moving close to embrace him again.
“Since when are you so huggy?” Yordan asks, sounding surprised.
Rayna shrugs, continuing to hold him close. “I missed you today. I didn’t think I’d become such a co-dependent mess but I was bored as soon as you left.”
Yordan chuckles. “You’re not a co-dependent mess. I’m easy to miss.”
Playfully smacking his chest, she releases him and huffs. “I miss when you were too young to sass me.”
“Didn’t get enough baby time with Leo?” Yordan teases. “You want me to age backwards real quick for you? Put on my footie pajamas and pester you for sweets?”
“Yes, actually,” she says, crossing her arms.
“Rude.”
“You offered.”
Leon returns, quietly approaching for a final farewell. Rayna doesn’t hesitate to forget about the rest of us, grabbing Leo’s treats and offering to walk them out. I watch with a tense gaze as they disappear into the hall, hands clenching into tight fists.
Something about them together disturbs me. And the fact that Rayna is continuously pulling unwelcome frustration from me only makes it worse. My life was easy, predictable, and perfectly satisfactory before she became a part of it.
“Think he’s got a thing for her?” Elio asks, voice teasing. “Or she’s got a thing for him?”
“No way,” Yordan answers, sounding appalled. “He’s married and Rayna isn’t that kind of girl.”
“Chemistry is chemistry,” Elio replies, shrugging him off.
Yordan’s face twists, lips pursing in distaste. “So, you’d cheat on your wife if you had chemistry with someone else?”
“No, but I wouldn’t marry someone who’s as indifferent to me as Cleo is to Leon. The man probably has balls bluer than his eyes.”
I have to ignore them, choosing to pick up Leon’s discarded hand towel and making quick work of cleaning the counter.
I throw the cookie cutters into the sink, rinsing out the towel in the process.
Wiping the cool stone counter top once more, I make sure that the surface doesn’t become sticky with any residue.
Yordan and Elio are still politely bickering about marriage, chemistry, and the possibility of affairs when I’ve finished. Footsteps approach, along with the sound of paper swishing.
“Yordan, can you help me grab these—” Rayna stops, dropping the shopping bags in her hands. Her eyes flicker from the counter to her brother. “Did you clean up?”
“Yes,” I answer for him. “He did.”
“Great manners, this kid,” Elio agrees, picking up on my firmness.
Yordan looks contemplative, like he doesn’t want to lie to his sister, even if it’s a small fib. “You finally bought clothes?”
Rayna huffs. “Sort of, can you help me grab the bags? There’s a million of them by the door.”
“I gotchu.” Yordan salutes, sliding past her to do as she asked.
“How do you sort of shop for clothes?” Elio wonders.
“Leon gave Armani access to my app,” Rayna says, hiding a smirk. “He seems to have gone entirely overboard, but Apollo can yell at him if the bill is ridiculous. We’ll see if anything fits.”
“Oh, if Armani did this, everything will be perfect,” Elio assures her. “He has fashion superpowers.”
“I didn’t even blink at the bill.”
Rayna startles at the sound of my voice, like she’d forgotten I was even still here.
I was notified with every charge as the purchases were made, and I’d assumed she went on a splurge to try and punish me for pestering her.
The number didn’t frustrate me, but the fact that Armani had to do the task for her does.
“Well, good for you I guess.”
“Oof,” Yordan grunts, dropping a bundle of bags onto the couch a few feet from us. “This bag full of shampoo and soaps and shit is heavy as fuck. How many products does one need?”
Rayna shrugs. “Don’t ask me, I haven’t even looked at what’s in there. Do some more push ups if it’s too much for you.”
“You calling me skinny?”
“Yes.”
Yordan doesn’t pretend to be offended, he grins like she’s fallen for his trap. “Better fatten me up with dinner, then.” Turning to us, he adds, “You guys staying?”
“Are we invited?” Elio chuckles. “Your sister looks like she hates that idea, buddy.”
“No,” Rayna grits, trying to restrain her reaction. “You’re both welcome to stay and eat. It’ll be a couple of hours—”
“That’s fine,” Yordan says excitedly. “We’re going to plant weapons around the house anyway, it might take awhile.”
“You’re going to what?”
I chuckle at the intensity of her reaction. “You know how to handle a gun, don’t you, Rayna?”
Her lip curls up. “Why don’t you put one in my hand and find out?”
Tempting.