Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Hannah
“You’re cheating!” I give Granny the stink eye and fold the cards in my hand.
“I’m not cheatin’. Yer just not as good at poker as ya think you are.”
“Ha! Yeah, we’ll see about that when it’s my deal.”
I lean to the side and glance under the table. Where the fuck are the cards? I know that old hag slipped them under here somewhere. My eyes scan the little seat on her walker to make sure she didn’t put them there.
“Whatcha lookin’ for?”
“I don’t know . . . A couple of dropped cards . . . A stacked deck maybe. There’s two things I’m good at, Granny. Two things. Hockey and poker. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter,” I say, scoping out the area underneath her chair.
“Why don’t you teach Jade?”
“Teach Jade what? How to play poker?”
“No. Teach her how to play hockey.”
Her comment throws me off, and I slowly rise back up to a sitting position.
“I’m just sayin’. That girl has been watchin’ her daddy play on the TV since she was born. She loves the game. By the time she was three, she was able to name every player on the Blaze team. I bet she’d love to play.”
That’s actually not a bad idea. Just as I open my mouth to say something, the doorbell rings.
“Maybe that’s Publisher’s Clearinghouse, comin’ to tell me I won ten million dollars,” she says.
I glance back at her, my brows tugging together. “Who?”
“Never mind. You’re too damn young to know what I’m talkin’ about,” she says as I swing the door open.
“Oh,” I gasp, blinking at the woman standing in front of me.
My God. She’s beautiful. Emerald-green eyes and long black hair. Tanned skin. And her legs . . . wow . . . How are they that damn long?
She raises a brow. “Is Sean here?”
I stand at the door, blinking.
She tosses out a hand. “Well? Is he here or not?”
“He’s not available.”
Literally and figuratively.
“That’s okay. I’ll wait,” she says and takes a step forward to come in.
Oh no, you won’t.
I go to slam the door in her face, but she catches it with her foot and slings it back open, bouncing the doorknob off the wall.
“Hey!” I snap.
“I know that man has enough money to hire someone with better hospitality,” she clips, giving me a slow once over before she rolls her eyes, mumbling something under her breath about having me fired. Pulling her phone out of her back pocket, she places it up to her ear.
“I don’t work for—” I start to argue, but she cuts me off by placing her palm up in front of my face to stop me from talking.
Oh, no, she didn’t.
A pretty smile spreads across her lips as she begins speaking Spanish to whoever’s on the phone. She steps past me and drops her coat at my feet, and I stand there with my jaw on the floor.
“Look, lady. I don’t know who you—”
“You don’t need to know who I am,” she says, removing the phone from her ear. “He does, and he’s happy to know I’m here. That's all that matters. Now, be a doll and hang that up, will ya?”
I glance down at the coat laying on the floor at my feet and scoff. “No. I most certainly will not.”
“Your housekeeper is rude as fuck,” she says before switching back to Spanish.
My blood boils. Heat floods my body so fast I feel like I could spontaneously combust. Who the fuck does this woman think she is? I should drag her ass out of here by her fucking hair. I hear his voice on the other end of the call, and whatever he says to her makes her toss her head back and laugh.
Why does she have to have such a beautiful laugh?
The sound crawls beneath my skin, and something ugly twists in my gut.
Everything about this woman is damn near perfect.
Except her smug ass attitude. She speaks in rapid Spanish, and for the life of me, I can’t understand a damn thing she’s saying.
Despite the fact that I’ve spent the past two weeks studying the language, all I can do is stand here like a dumbass, catching tones, laughter, and zero fucking context.
Pulling the phone away from her ear again, she taps the screen, and giggles. “Oh good. He’s here.”
The door to the garage slams hard enough to rattle the walls, then Sean’s roar tears through the house. “Viviana!”
Viviana?
As in his sister, Viviana? What the hell?
She doesn’t flinch. No, she simply makes her way into the living room with her chin raised, a smirk playing on her lips. “Yes?”
Ohhh, she’s brave. Or clinically insane. Maybe both.
“Do not fuck with what’s mine. You understand me?” His nostrils flare as he stalks toward her, crowding into her space and pointing his finger directly at her nose.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look this angry. God, it’s sexy.
“Hannah is off limits. You wanna pull pranks? Fine. Do whatever the fuck you want to anybody else . . . but not her. Got it?”
My eyes volley between them, and aside from his heavy breathing, the room goes dead silent.
“She’s not just some fuck,” he spits. “Not some random girlfriend. None of that here today, gone tomorrow bullshit. She’s everything. Everything . . . Algún día voy a hacerla mi esposa.”
Viviana’s smirk completely vanishes. The color drains from her cheeks, and for the first time since she walked through that door, she looks genuinely shaken. Her eyes flick to me, then back to her brother. “You mean that? Like . . . really mean that?”
“Do I look like I’m fucking around?” Sean’s jaw ticks.
“Oh, shit.” She drags a hand over her mouth, guilt punching through her expression. “I’m sorry, Junior, I-I didn’t know . . .”
“Well, now you do, Viv,” he growls, looking like he’s one breath away from absolutely losing his shit all over again.
Releasing a deep sigh, Viviana turns to face me, and her eyes find mine.
“Look, Hannah, I’m really sorry. I’m kind of an eye-for-an-eye person.
Maybe it’s the Scorpio in me, I don’t know.
What I do know is my asshole of a big brother has fucked with my life more times than I can count, so when I realized you had no clue who I was .
. .” She cringes. “Well, let’s just say you made it really, really easy. ”
A smile twitches at the corner of my lips, because I can only imagine what she’s dealt with, being Sean Mackenzie’s little sister.
She points at Sean. “In my defense, he’s had this coming.”
“Viv,” he warns.
“I’m apologizing!” she snaps back before looking at me again. “Badly, apparently, but I’m trying here, so shush. I’ve been sitting back, just waiting for the perfect time to strike. Especially after he switched the contact names in my phone from this guy I was seeing to my ex.”
Sean folds his arms. “The ex was a better choice.”
“See?” She throws her arms up in the air. “This is what I deal with. That’s not even the half of it. When he was on his ‘Sean Goes Wild’ bender, he fucked—”
“That’s enough!” he snaps, covering her mouth.
Her muffled voice comes from beneath his palm, then she bats his hand away. “Stop, Junior. Fuck. It’s the truth . . . anyways, none of that was your fault, and I’m genuinely sorry for dragging you into our sibling warfare. I thought you were just another girl he was screwing around with.”
“Viv!”
“Clearly, I was very wrong.” She quickly recovers, holding her hands up in surrender. “Will you forgive me? I’ll even let you in on the revenge plot the next time—”
“There won’t be a next time.” Sean glares, cutting her off.
“Okay, see? You’re such a fucking drama queen. I swear to God. Would you shut up and let me finish apologizing?” Her eyes take a turn around her head as Granny cackles from the recliner. Viviana focuses on me again. “You matter to him. Which means you matter to me. Can we start over?”
I stare at her for a long moment, taking her in. The sting in my chest eases up a bit, and I release a sigh. “Okay.”
“Viv?” Aiden asks from the doorway.
“Oh, fuck,” she breathes.
Jade runs past us, her arms wide open. “Granny! I missed you. Daddy said we’re bustin’ ya outta of this joint.”
“How? What? W-what are you doing here?” Aiden stutters, his brows pulling together in confusion.
Sean’s eyes bounce between Aiden and Viviana. “How do you two know each other?”
“She’s the girl from Vegas. Remember? I told y’all about her. How do you know her? What the hell is . . .” He shakes his head like he’s trying to clear his thoughts. “I’m so fucking confused right now.”
No freaking way. No. Freakin’. Way.
SEAN’S LITTLE SISTER IS PTERODACTYL GIRL?!
“Vivana. You better start explaining right fucking now,” Sean snaps.