32. Orion
Orion
V ince didn’t go to church often. It was a habit he’d picked up after almost dying in front of one, and I hoped it was something that wouldn’t last for long. I was jealous of the time it gave him with Jacob, time I wasn’t a part of because I chose not to be.
I busied myself with the chores I otherwise neglected while Vince was around, doing laundry, changing my sheets, placing grocery orders.
I stayed out of his office, even though there were things he needed to do that he’d been ignoring.
He’d taken a lot of responsibility onto his shoulders when he allowed North and Sinclair to re-evaluate their place in the familial hierarchy, and he was yet to reallocate most of it.
He foolishly believed with Francis North and Miller Sinclair out of the picture that everyone else would follow suit and fall in line, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
There was unease in the ranks, and if I’d already heard the rumblings of it, it was loud .
Louder than it should be, and louder than was safe.
A key in the door startled me, and I headed out of the kitchen and into the entry, finger tapping against the butt of my weapon. The door opened and I expected Jacob, expected Vince, but got Daren Moore and Luca Mandeville instead.
“He’s not here,” I said bitterly, fidgeting with the rolled-up cuffs of my white button-up.
“Maybe we didn’t want to see him,” Daren said.
The two of them stepped into the house and closed the door behind them.
Luca looked around the living room, eyes wide.
I imagined he was shocked by the normalcy of it.
Especially in light of his limited knowledge of Vince as son of Ricardo Angelini, as prince of the Angelini crime family.
The living room was absolutely mundane, though that had been partly his father’s doing.
Vince had ordered some minor changes since the patricide, namely a new couch and coffee table, new barstools in the kitchen, nothing else of note.
Daren took Luca’s hand and brushed past me like he owned the place, and with a clench of my jaw, I followed them both into the kitchen.
The chicken salad was still in a mixing bowl on the counter where I’d left it at their arrival, and I went back around the counter to finish folding in the diced pickles.
I mentally put relish on the shopping list.
“Did you want to eat?” I asked.
Daren declined, and Luca accepted, so I took out two extra slices of bread and dropped them open faced onto a clean plate.
“I’m glad Vince isn’t here,” Daren said, climbing onto a barstool and leaning in close, like he still had to whisper even though it was the three of us alone.
“Why?”
“He…” Daren trailed off, pursing his lips.
“Tell him just like you told me,” Luca prompted, covering Daren’s hand with his.
On paper, the two of them were an unlikely pair.
Sons of dueling families, much like Gideon and Fletcher, their relationship was a secret made easier to maintain because of their jobs and their allegiances.
Especially with how things were now, with the North and Sinclair interests merged, it made sense for Moore and Mandeville to do the same.
“Yeah,” I said, slathering two sandwiches together. “Like you told him.”
“Can you…” He gestured at my rib cage. “Take that off?”
I glanced down at my gun in its holster, the snap still undone. “No.”
“He’s not going to shoot you,” Luca said.
“I might,” I corrected.
The jealousy I felt for Daren ran deep into my bones, knowing that I should have been the one to take care of Vince while he recovered from the bullet I’d been responsible for putting into him in the first place.
My short stint in hiding had been necessary.
There was no other place or way for me to come to grips with what I’d done to the man that I was falling in?—
“He won’t,” Luca said, interrupting my train of thought.
“What do you have to say?” I asked, shoving a sandwich toward Luca.
“There’s…I’m concerned.”
“In general or as an exception?”
Daren scrubbed a hand down his face. “I’m not cut out for this the way you are. The way Gideon and Fletcher are.”
“You’re a fool if you think you weren’t raised for this. Maybe daddy dearest did a good job at shielding you from it, but this is just as much your life as theirs.”
“As yours.”
I shrugged. “My circumstances are different.”
“And yet, here we all are.”
“Trying to enjoy lunch if you’d say whatever you came here to say.” I lifted my sandwich to my mouth and took a bite.
“I think my father is planning something,” Daren said.
Luca’s sandwich sat untouched as his hand flattened in the middle of Daren’s back drawing soothing circles across his spine.
“I’d be disappointed if he wasn’t.”
Daren’s concern mirrored the rumors I’d been hearing when I listened hard enough. The rumors Vince had been willfully blind to.
“Vince gave me some names to look into, most of them led back to my father and my uncle. They’re not happy with how things have changed,” Daren said.
“I can’t imagine they would be.” I dropped my sandwich onto my plate and wiped crumbs off on the front of my slacks. “Your father especially. He worked too long and hard. He was too close to greatness to not just take a back seat, but get out of the car entirely.”
“He’s…he hasn’t cut me off.” Daren bit the inside of his cheek, hard enough for me to see the suction as he chewed on the soft skin. “But he’s not being as forthcoming with me about things as he used to be.”
I glanced at Luca. “What about yours?”
“My father is happy enough in second.”
“Then why was he so adamant about positioning his bastard at the right hand of Gideon North?” I asked.
Daren pushed up from the counter, lunging forward like he was going to fight me. I took a step back, hands raised in surrender, even though if I wanted to put a bullet through his forehead, I could have.
“It’s fine,” Luca said softly, hand still working reassuring lines across Daren’s back. He pursed his lips, looking from Daren to me. “I think it was as much of an apology as he could offer for the way he’d treated me my whole life.”
“You are the most competent of his sons, that’s for sure. ”
Luca smirked, pushing his gold-framed glasses up the bridge of his nose when Daren settled back into his seat.
“I think my father and my uncle are working together, and I think they’re planning something big,” Daren said, shoulders sagging. “But I have no idea what, and I’m worried I’m already too late.”