40. Jace
“The sheer amount of wicked, depraved revenge I’m going to inflict on you for that is going to be fucking biblical,” I threaten Kayla as the two of us at last walk into the combined kitchen and living room to join my three infuriating brothers.
Kayla just laughs and then wiggles her eyebrows at me, challenge dancing in her bright blue eyes.
Huffing out a breath of grudging amusement, I shake my head at her. Little demon, indeed.
“That was fast,” Eli comments as we enter the room.
They’re all standing around the kitchen island. Eli is leaning over it, eating the leftover pasta I put in the fridge yesterday, while Rico is scowling at the mess of empty bottles and glasses that litter the surface. Kaden just watches me while he casually spins a knife in his hand.
“Yeah,” Kaden picks up, his dark eyes glinting as he holds my gaze while speaking to Eli. “But isn’t he kind of famous for always blowing his load too quickly, though?”
Kayla chokes on a laugh. I shoot her a sharp look before shifting my glare to my brothers. As we reach the kitchen island, I also snatch up the bat waiting there and level it at them.
“I will crack your skulls,” I warn.
Kaden snickers. Next to him, Rico rolls his eyes while Eli snorts. The bastard also continues eating my food.
“I was saving that,” I tell him.
Eli just keeps eating. “That right?” Then he looks up and meets my gaze, golden eyes glinting with sly amusement. “Guess you should’ve been faster.”
“I am not a quick draw, you motherfucker,” I growl. “I will have you know that I am excellent at foreplay and?—”
“No one wants to hear about your sex life, Golden,” Rico interrupts.
“Unless it’s to tell us that Kayla is making you wear a French maid costume,” Kaden adds, a smirk on his face. His eyes are full of dark delight as he slides his gaze to Kayla. “Then I want to hear all about it.”
I point the bat in his direction. “You are the one who is wearing the French maid costume, you whipped little?—”
“Why do you call him that?” Kayla suddenly asks, interrupting our bickering.
We all turn to face her. There is genuine curiosity on her face as she looks at the four of us.
“Golden,” she clarifies. “Why do you call him Golden?”
“Don’t—” I begin, but my bastard of a brother cuts me off.
“Because he has the attention span of a golden retriever puppy,” Eli says.
Narrowing my eyes, I glare at him.
Kayla bursts out laughing. Doubling over, she wraps her arms around her stomach and laughs so hard that tears line her eyes.
“Oh my God,” she gasps out between fits of laughter. Bracing herself on the edge of the island, she straightens and wipes away tears of laughter before looking between me and my brothers. Her entire face is full of sparkling joy. “You’re right! He really is just like a golden retriever puppy.”
All three of my brothers chuckle. I shoot them death glares before leveling a threatening stare on Kayla.
“You, little demon, are already utterly fucked after what you pulled in the study,” I remind her. “Are you sure you want to keep digging your own grave deeper?”
Her answering smile is full of brilliant challenge. Then she slides her gaze to my brothers. “When we first met, I called him Sparky for that same reason to piss him off.”
Rico chokes back a laugh, and Kaden grins in a way that means he’s going to remind me of this for all eternity.
Raking a hand through my hair, I heave an exasperated sigh and shake my head at them all. But just when I think I’m about to beat my dear brothers unconscious with my bat, Kaden speaks up again.
“He’s practically never had an attention span longer than five seconds,” he says, his dark eyes serious as he holds Kayla’s gaze. “So the fact that he has kept such unwavering attention on you, and for so long, really is saying something.”
Kayla’s mouth drops open, and emotions pulse across her beautiful face. She turns to me.
But before she can say anything, Rico straightens in a flash and snaps, “Incoming.”
We all whip around to stare out the window.
A car screeches to a halt on the road outside. Then an angry-looking man in his fifties jumps out and storms towards our front door.
Kayla groans. “Ah, fuck. That’s my new bodyguard.”
“Want me to bash his head in?” I ask.
She starts to laugh, but then realizes that I’m serious. While suppressing an amused smile, she shakes her head. “Uhm, no. It’s probably best if I just leave.”
Angry pounding comes from the door. Then the handle rattles as well, which means that one of my brothers must have locked the door behind them when they got here. Probably Rico.
“I’ll, uhm…” Kayla begins as she turns to my brothers and gives them a smile that is somehow both apologetic and grateful. “I’ll see you around.”
They all nod.
Spinning the bat around, I rest it on my shoulder as I start towards the door with Kayla beside me. It’s far too soon to let her go. In fact, if I had a choice in the matter, I would never let her go at all. But I don’t want to mess up her relationship with her parents, so I suppress the urge to murder the man currently pounding on my door.
“We’ll figure this out,” Kayla says, brushing the back of her hand against mine.
That small touch sends a bolt of electricity up my spine. I flex my other hand on the bat in order to stop myself from grabbing her and keeping her here with me forever.
Forcing out a long breath, I manage to reply, “Yeah.”
And then we’re at the door. After unlocking it, I deliberately shove it open much harder than necessary. It forces the man outside to leap back to avoid getting hit by it. With the bat still on my bare shoulder, I glare out at the now flustered-looking bodyguard.
“Ms. Ashford,” he says, his eyes locked on her. “You cannot simply…” Then he trails off as his gaze darts up to me.
I’m shirtless and very obviously closer to Kayla than six feet.
Alarm flashes in his eyes. Then hesitation. Then he seems to make a decision, because he clenches his jaw and pulls out a gun from inside his suit jacket.
He has only just managed to raise the gun and point it at me when fear crashes over his features instead.
Shoving the gun back into his jacket, he holds up his hands in a panicked show of surrender.
Twisting slightly, I glance over my shoulder to find my brothers standing in the hallway behind us. Both Eli and Rico are holding a gun, their weapons aimed straight at the bodyguard’s forehead. Kaden stands between them, spinning a knife in his hand while a true psychopath smile curves his lips.
My heart squeezes tight.
But I turn back to the bodyguard.
“Yeah, you should probably pretend that this never happened,” Kayla says to him while lifting her shoulders in a nonchalant shrug.
“Ms. Ashford,” he replies, his voice stern. But then his gaze drifts to the bat in my hand, and he seems to change his mind about what he had been about to say. “We should leave. Now.”
Kayla scoffs and then simply turns towards me. Wrapping a hand around my jaw, she yanks my face down to hers and kisses me so possessively that I think my heart stops beating for a second.
Then she releases me and takes a step back, across the threshold and out the door.
Behind her shoulder, the bodyguard is staring daggers at me.
Kayla just flashes me a grin, winks, and then saunters away.
My heart slams against my ribs as I stare after her.
Fuck, I think I love this girl.
No, I don’t think I love her. I love her. I love Kayla Ashford so fucking much that I would burn the world down for her.
Standing there, I watch the love of my fucking life disappear as the ill-tempered bodyguard drives her away.
It takes me another few seconds to compose myself after that. Dragging in a deep breath, I rake a hand through my hair and remind myself that she’s not gone. That this is just temporary.
Then I at last close the door.
When I turn around, my brothers are no longer standing there. Instead, I can hear faint clinking sounds from inside the kitchen. I walk towards it.
Someone has cleared all the empty bottles and glasses from the countertops. I approach the kitchen island that Eli, Kaden, and Rico are once more standing around. Kaden slides a glass of water towards me. It stops right before the edge. I pick it up and drink half of it in one go before setting it down again.
Then panic slams into me. I jerk upright and whip my head towards where Kayla is already gone. “Fuck! I forgot to get her new phone number.”
“Calm down,” Kaden says. “I already have it.”
Spinning back around, I stare at him with raised eyebrows. “Why do you have her phone number?”
He holds my gaze, a knowing look in his dark eyes, and raises an eyebrow at me. “Who do you think told her where you live?”
It takes a few seconds for his words to register. Then understanding trickles through me. I blink, stunned. “Oh.”
For a while, no one says anything.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Rico eventually asks into the suddenly pressing silence.
There is no accusation in his tone. Instead, he sounds almost a little… hurt.
It makes pain and guilt worm their way through my chest.
Setting the bat down, I drag a hand through my hair and lift one shoulder in a self-conscious shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” Eli says.
I snap my gaze up to his face.
Anger flickers in his eyes, and the scar down his brow tightens as he scowls at me. “You got fired, Dad threatened to kill you and sent you back to Blackwater, and you didn’t even tell us. We had to find out from him.”
“I just?—”
“And you’ve spent the past five years spiraling out of control because you don’t want to be a hitman, and you didn’t tell us that either.”
“That had nothing to do with you,” I try to protest.
“Shut up,” he snaps. Lightning now flashes in his eyes that are always lined with a hint of insanity. “Do you even realize how much of our shit you’ve had to deal with over the years? And during all that time, you’ve apparently been carrying around your own shit by yourself. For years. Without telling us.” His eyes are full of command as he stares me down. “Why?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
He slams his hand down on the counter hard enough to make my glass jump. “Just fucking talk to us!”
“Because you’re all always so perfect!” The words rip out of my soul with the force of a gunshot.
All three of my brothers jerk back in surprise and blink at me.
My chest is suddenly heaving. Raking my fingers through my hair yet again, I force oxygen into my lungs. Then I have to force myself to let my hands drop back down. I clench my fingers into fists.
“You’re exactly the sons that Dad wanted,” I say, holding their stunned stares. “The legacy that Dad wanted. And I… I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a hitman. So I started self-destructing. With the fights and the alcohol and the sex. Anything to take my mind off it. Which just made him even more disappointed in me. Made him see me even more as a failure. And you…” I slash my hand through the air, motioning at all of them. Desperation leaks into my voice. “I didn’t want you to see me as a weak pathetic failure too.”
The silence that descends on the kitchen is so loud that I can hear it ringing in my ears.
Outside the windows, the sun has crested the rows of buildings along the street. Pale morning light filters into the room, creating patterns on the dark wooden walls.
My brothers just stare at me for another three heartbeats.
Then Eli shatters the silence like a smashed mirror. “You fucking moron.”
Embarrassment crashes through me, and I start to turn away. His hand shoots out. Grabbing me by the arm, he turns me back towards them.
“I’m serious,” he says, anger and disbelief pulsing from every word. “How the fuck do you not know?”
All I can do is to just hold his stare. Waiting for whatever cutting remark is about to pass his lips.
His eyes are dead serious as he stares me down. “We’ve never considered you a failure.”
“And we sure as hell have never thought you were weak,” Rico adds.
I draw back, stunned, and glance between the three of them. Eli finally releases my arm and instead rakes both hands through his hair and shakes his head as if he can’t believe my stupidity. And Kaden has even stopped spinning his knife. It’s now back in its sheath as he holds my gaze from the other side of the island.
“Why do you think we give you so much shit all the time?” Kaden asks, his eyes boring into mine.
“Because I’m your annoying little brother who is always too loud and too careless and too restless and too much of a fucking screw-up?” I reply.
“Because you’re the best of us,” Kaden says, his voice dead serious.
“You always have been,” Eli adds.
Rico lets out a soft chuckle. “We’re all fifty shades of fucked up. But you’ve somehow still managed to remain exactly who you are. A fucking ball of sunshine who carries the rest of us. After what happened with my parents, you, with your easy smiles and your insane ability to make the world feel lighter, were sometimes the only thing that kept me breathing. That kept me from being crushed underneath the weight of it all.”
My throat starts to close up, and I swallow, not sure what to say.
Rico gives me a small smile. “It’s the real reason we started calling you Golden.”
My heart suddenly feels like it’s both bursting and squeezing hard at the same time. I drag in an unsteady breath, trying yet again to swallow against the thickness in my throat.
“You’ve always had our backs,” Eli says, his gaze steady on mine. “And we have yours. Against everyone.”
Kaden gives me a faint smile that almost seems a little sad. “All you had to do was say the word.”
Before I can make my brain work properly, Eli pulls up his phone and abruptly hits dial. The sound of the line ringing fills the silent room as he puts the call on speaker before placing the phone on the kitchen island between the four of us.
After three signals, someone answers.
“Eli, is something wrong?”
My heart jerks in my chest as I recognize the voice. Jonathan Hunter. Our father.
“Yeah, something’s wrong,” Eli replies.
“Tell me.”
“Jace’s future.”
I snap my gaze up from the phone and stare at Eli. He just holds my gaze while waiting for our dad to respond.
A deep sigh comes from the other end of the line. “Jace will finish his studies at Blackwater.”
“No, Jace will get to choose if he wants to finish or not,” Rico says, his voice full of calm authority.
“Rico?” Dad says, sounding confused. “Look, this isn’t?—”
“Or we will disown you,” Kaden finishes.
I jerk back, my eyes wide as I stare at the three of them. No one threatens Jonathan Hunter. No one.
Kaden just flashes me one of his psychopath smiles, as if silently saying, I can do whatever the fuck I want.
“You cannot disown me,” Dad sputters. “I am your father.”
“Yeah, we can, actually,” Eli says casually.
“Jace gets to choose his own future, or you lose four sons today,” Kaden warns.
Furious silence echoes on the other end of the line.
“What’s it gonna be?” Rico demands.
“You do not threaten me,” Dad growls, anger dripping from every word. “Jace stays at Blackwater.”
Defiance and steel resolve pulse through my soul. Straightening my spine, I raise my chin and level a hard stare down at the phone.
My brothers are right. I’m done letting him dictate what I can and can’t do. He is just a man like the rest of us. And any man can be threatened. You just need to figure out what the right leverage is. Luckily for me, I know exactly what will make our unbendable father fold like a pretzel.
With a vicious smile on my lips, I say, “How do you think Mom is going to react when you tell her that she will never see any of her kids again?”
Kaden, Eli, and Rico all look up at me in surprise. Then a smirk spreads across Kaden’s lips while Rico gives me a slow nod.
Eli flashes me a grin of approval and silently mouths, “Nice.”
The silence on the other end of the line is deafening.
Then Dad curses.
All four of us grin like devils at each other.
“Fuck,” Dad says, and lets out a low whistle under his breath. “You really are my sons, aren’t you?” He heaves a defeated sigh. “Fine. Jace gets to choose.”
Then he hangs up before we can gloat.
I stare down at the phone for a few seconds while those words echo through my mind.
I get to choose. My freedom is back. My future is back. Now, all I need is Kayla, and everything will be perfect.
Swallowing thickly, I look up and meet my brothers’ eyes. “Thank you.”
The words come out sounding more choked than I had hoped for, but they don’t comment on it.
Instead, Kaden simply smirks at me and starts twirling his knife in his hand again.
“Anything for you, Golden,” Rico says with a wink.
“But now, you really owe us dinner,” Eli adds, his eyes gleaming as he grins at me.
I laugh.
And finally feel that decade-long restlessness fade from my soul.