Chapter 37
VIKTOR
Gray clouds hang low over the city on my way over to the penthouse.
I barely make it through the elevator ride up before my anxiety starts climbing back up my throat again.
Marco hasn’t answered a single text or phone call all morning. My guess is he’s probably passed out somewhere sleeping off whatever he took last night.
The second I open the front door, I immediately spot Dante in the foyer.
He’s standing beside the front entrance tying his boots, fully dressed already like he’s about to leave.
I slowly shut the door behind me. “Where are you going?”
His hands stop moving for half a second before he finally looks up at me.
The second I see his face, my stomach drops. “What’s wrong?” I ask immediately.
The silence hovers between us and is sharp enough to make my nerves unravel.
Dante slowly stands up fully, dragging one hand across the back of his neck while looking away from me briefly.
“What happened?” I ask again, firmer this time.
He exhales quietly through his nose before finally speaking. “Late last night.. Marco’s apartment caught fire.”
Everything inside me goes numb so fast it almost feels unreal. “What?”
“They don’t know how it started yet.” He continues.
My heartbeat immediately starts slamming violently against my ribs.
“Where is he?”
Dante hesitates.
All it takes is a second of hesitation and my chest tightens with fear.
“Where the fuck is my brother?” I snap louder this time while stepping toward him.
“Viktor-”
“No.” I shake my head immediately. “Don’t fucking do that right now. Where is he?”
Dante grabs my arm before I can move again. “Calm down.”
“Don’t fucking touch me.” I rip my arm away hard enough that his jaw tightens instantly.
Then my eyes catch movement coming from out of the hallway.
Everleigh walks into the living room wearing her shower robe, confusion immediately crossing her face the second she notices the tension between us.
Her hair’s still damp, and even after showering, she looks like she hasn’t fully woken up yet.
“What’s going on?”
Fuck. I can’t even figure out what to say.
But then her eyes move between us again and panic slowly starts creeping into her expression too.
“Viktor?”
I hesitate for just a second before finally repeating what Dante told me. “There was a fire at Marco’s apartment.”
The color drains from her face instantly. “What?”
She rushes toward us so quickly that she nearly trips over her own two feet. “What happened?”
Dante’s jaw tightens beside me and suddenly I know.
I fucking know before he even says it.
The anxiety I felt before walking into this fucking building was right.
“They found a body.” He mutters.
The room goes silent.
Everleigh stares at him as if her brain physically refuses to process the sentence correctly. “What?”
Nobody answers fast enough.
“What?” she asks again louder this time.
I can already feel tears burning behind my eyes now.
“There’s no fucking way,” she whispers immediately while shaking her head. “No.”
“They did,” Dante says quietly. “It’s true, Leigh. They think they found his body.” His jaw tightens afterward. “I was heading over there now to confirm it.”
“What the fuck do you mean they think found a body?” Everleigh snaps suddenly, her voice cracking violently halfway through it. “What does that even mean?”
I instinctively move toward her. “Everleigh-”
“No.” She immediately backs away while her breathing starts turning uneven. “No. No. No.”
Tears spill down her face so fast it physically hurts to look at. “There’s no fucking way,” she sobs while shaking harder now. “Marco’s not-”
Her voice completely breaks apart.
“Not my brother.”
Fuck.
I reach for her again, trying to steady her, but she shoves me off immediately.
“What do you mean?” she cries. “What do you mean?”
Dante carefully steps toward her. “Leigh-”
The second she looks at him, she completely loses it.
A sob violently tears out of her hard enough that her knees almost give out underneath her.
I catch her before she fully hits the floor.
She collapses against me crying so hard she can barely fucking breathe while clutching fistfuls of my shirt in both hands.
“No,” she keeps sobbing over and over again. “Please, no. God, no. Don’t.”
Her entire body shakes against mine while I hold onto her tighter, trying not to completely fucking lose it myself.
Marco was a disaster.
Impossible half the time.
But he was still our disaster.
He was our family.
The memory rushes back into my head of him crying on that shitty apartment floor that night asking if Gabriel sent me there to kill him.
As if somewhere deep down, he already knew this was coming.
Everleigh starts hyperventilating harder against my chest afterward, her cries turning panicked and broken while she struggles to catch her breath.
“There’s no way,” she keeps repeating. “There’s no fucking way.”
I hold the back of her head while trying to calm her down, but I’m barely holding myself together too.
Across the room, Dante stands near the door completely silent while watching the entire thing happen.
Something shifts across his face for a second, but I can’t even figure out what the expression is.
But right now, in this moment, I don’t care enough to figure it out.
Our brother is dead.
A tear finally slips down my face while I hold onto the only sibling I have left.