Chapter Sixty-Seven
Helios
The motherfucking doorbell rang. When we had a goddamn security gate and perimeter wall to keep people out.
Haven set her glass down and stood. “I’ll go check.”
The fuck she would. “Sit your ass down.” I grabbed my burner off the counter to check the security feeds, but the thing was dead.
The doorbell fucking rang again.
Haven glanced toward the front entry. “It could be Ares.”
It wasn’t fucking Ares. “Like he said, he doesn’t need a key to get in here.” Tossing the dead burner in the trash, making a mental note to change the keypad codes, I palmed my Glock. “Stay.”
Halfway to the front entry, the fucking doorbell chimed again. I wanted to shoot whoever the fuck it was on principle, but I had a goddamn idea who it was.
Checking the security panel, confirming my suspicions, I fucking sighed.
“Who is it?”
I glanced back at Haven. Still in her robe, hair fucked up, whiskey eyes curious, my woman stood barefoot, and my head fucking went there.
Haven. Knocked up.
“Jesus,” I mumbled.
“Who?”
“Someone you’re not gonna let me shoot.” Jerking my chin toward her bedroom, I shoved my Glock into my back waistband. “Go get dressed.”
“Oh my God.” Her eyes went wide as fuck. “Our parents?”
“No.” Those fucking assholes couldn’t get through the gate. I’d also told her piece-of-shit father the one time they’d come here for dinner at Haven’s invitation, after he’d bitched about the food she’d cooked, that he wasn’t coming back. Ever.
“Then who—”
The doorbell rang a fourth fucking time.
“You got company. Go get fucking dressed before I change my mind.”
She hightailed it down the hallway.
Already out of patience for the shitstorm that was about to hit, I opened the door.
Fucking Raine, in one of her hippie shirts and tie-dyed skirts, eyes bloodshot as hell, looking like she was about to lose her shit, tried to push past me. “Where is she? Where’s Feralyn?”
Blocking the door and throwing my arm up to stop her, I looked over Raine’s head at the motherfucker I wanted to kill a hundred times over. “Is she fucking high?”
Ghost eyed my Glock. “No.”
“Then what the fuck’s up with her eyes?” I demanded.
Officially losing her shit, Raine yelled. “Let me see Feralyn!”
“She’s upset,” the cryptic motherfucker replied.
“About?”
“The crash! I heard about the crash. Let me see her!” Raine shoved at my chest. “Feralyn!”
Jesus fucking Christ. The only goddamn reason I’d opened the door was because I knew this shit was coming. Haven would talk to Raine eventually. Didn’t fucking think it would be today, but here we were.
I threw Raine a warning glare. “Calm the fuck down, and you can speak with her. Keep pulling this bullshit, and you’re out. We clear?”
Looking up at me with tears in her eyes, the woman still held her own. “If you hurt her, then we are definitely not clear.”
“Raine?”
The older woman looked past me. “Oh, sweet child.” Then she burst into tears.
My woman’s hand landed on my arm, I stepped back, and Raine rushed Haven.
The two women hugged, motherfucking Ghost walked into the house, and I kicked the door shut.
“It’s okay. I’m fine.” Haven patted a crying Raine on the back.
Ghost flanked me and dropped his voice. “Heard we missed an al-Hashimi.”
“You would’ve fucking heard sooner if you’d taken my calls.” Asshole.
“Was off grid.”
Haven whispered something, and Raine cried harder.
Fucking seriously? “What in the fuck is wrong with her?” His mother was insane. But I’d never seen this level of batshit.
“Nothing.”
I looked at Ghost like he was out of his goddamn mind.
Motherfucker shrugged. “This is Raine not high.”
Fuck me. “You should’ve brought some of her shit.” Or fucking dosed her on the way over.
“I did bring some.” Fishing his cell out of his pocket, he glanced at it. “It’s in the car, but she won’t take it.” He shoved his phone back into his pocket. “She hasn’t touched anything since you told her she overdosed Feralyn.” He scanned the house. “I’m surprised.”
This motherfucker. “By what?” Nothing surprised him.
“You haven’t asked yet how Raine heard about the Phenom.”
“Don’t fucking care.” Same as I didn’t give a damn about whatever the fuck else he or Raine knew. I jerked my chin toward the women. “I’m giving this shit two more minutes, max. Then you’re both Oscar Mike, and don’t fucking come back.”
“You’d rather Raine drive herself?”
Jesus. “What the fuck do you think?”
“I think you dumped an Embraer Phenom to start a new life with your stepsister.”
“Pissing me off is a good way to get dead.” I raised my voice. “Wrap it up, Raine. Haven hasn’t eaten yet. She needs food and rest, not a fucking reunion.”
Raine jerked around, stared at me a beat, then her shit turned into a glare. “Haven,” she stated, fully fucking loaded with judgment.
I glared right the fuck back. “You heard me. Visit’s over.” I opened the front door.
Raine turned back toward my woman and grabbed her hands. Then she fucking said something I couldn’t hear, and Haven’s face fell.
Oh, hell no. “OUT,” I ordered.
“Raine.” The motherfucker had enough sense to grip his mother’s shoulder. “Time to go.”
Still holding Haven’s hands, Raine looked at my woman like she was an injured animal. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to my house? I’ll make you granola—with cherries.”
“I’m fine, Raine.” Haven pulled out of her grasp. “And thank you, but no thank you.”
The motherfucker, still gripping Raine’s shoulder, tipped his chin at Haven. “Good to see you, Feralyn.”
Grasping the back of Haven’s neck, I pulled my woman to my side.
Then shit happened simultaneously.
Ghost and Raine looked at us. Haven stepped away from me.
I glanced down at my woman—a full two fucking feet away from me.
Shoulders dropped, she crossed her arms.
Ghost ushered Raine the fuck out.
I kicked the door shut.