Chapter Six #2
I hadn’t been in any kind of relationship in a long-ass time, but I knew ‘get in here so we can talk’ when I heard it.
“Smells good,” Charlotte said as they moved into the kitchen, making the spicy tomato and tangy cheese scents waft into the living room.
“Anything smells better than whatever the fuck Chris made last night.”
“Language,” I grumbled.
“I’m all for a good diss,” Alara said. “But that was lame,” she added, clucking her tongue at the teenager. “I mean, if you’re gonna be a dick, be a dick. That’s my motto.”
“What would you say?” Liam asked.
“Depends on how bad it was. You could have gone with that it tastes like a learning experience… or asked what the ingredients did to him to make him punish them like that…”
“He doesn’t need help in the insult department,” I told Alara.
“What did he try to make?” she asked, ignoring me.
“Pizza,” Charlotte added.
“Pizza?”
“It was both soft and burnt at the same time somehow,” Liam supplied.
“Why would you make pizza? In the city of pizza?”
“Don’t listen to her,” Ezmeray said as she breezed in with a tray of different sodas and juices for the kids to choose from. “She can’t even fry an egg.”
“I make an epic sandwich, though. Which is way better than eggs.”
“I like sandwiches,” Liam said.
Was he… warming up to Alara?
The kid was cold with everyone. Not a single one of the maternal figures he’d met so far had been able to get him to engage. Then there was Alara, calling him a dick, and getting him to open up.
She walked over, snatching an orange soda off the tray, then dropping down on the couch to discuss what made the best sandwich with my moody-ass nephew. Who she not only got to talk, but smile. And once… almost laugh.
“I like her,” Charlotte said, catching me looking at Alara.
“Yeah? I would have thought she was a little rough around the edges for you.”
“She reminds me of the heroine in the book I’m reading. She’s kind of… snarky too.”
“Snarky. That’s one way to describe her.”
“She’s a mage who does blood magic.”
“Alara?”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “The heroine in my book.”
“Right. That makes more sense. Though, I wouldn’t put blood magic past Alara either.”
“Did I hear book and blood magic?” Alara asked.
“She’s like Pavlov’s dogs,” Ezmeray said. “And those words are her bells.”
“You like to read?” Charlotte’s voice was small and hopeful. I was sure it disappointed her that no one else in her immediate family (or the kids at school, it seemed) liked reading.
“I’m in a book club with the Lombardi Family women.”
“You’re what now?” Brio asked.
“Yeah, they’re who got me into reading. Lore, Cinna, Elian’s wife, and his sister. Though, those aren’t books you can read. Yet.”
“Or maybe ever,” Ezmeray said.
I had a feeling the books were of the smutty kind, judging by Ezmeray’s mom voice.
“How long have you been sneaking off to Brooklyn for book club?” Brio asked.
“I don’t know. Since the third one, I guess. Maybe the second. I dunno. Lore was still roughed up from that whole kidnapping thing.”
“How am I just hearing about this now?”
Ezmeray sighed. “I have a feeling there are a lot of things she’s keeping from us.”
“Keeping from you,” Alara said with an eye roll that rivaled Liam’s. “Like I’m a kid. I own a whole business. Pay taxes. Make questionable life choices. Besides, the Lombardis are allies now.”
“What you gonna say next, you go to The Bronx to get steaks from Primo Esposito?” Brio asked.
“No. Oh, but I did go to a rage room with Mira last week.”
“I don’t remember any of these names,” Charlotte whispered to me.
“That’s okay,” Alara said, patting Charlotte’s knee. “Stick with me, kid. I’ll have you up to date in no time.”
“With your murder board.”
“Murder board?” Brio asked.
“It’s more of a stalker board,” I relented.
“I need a drink,” Ezmeray said, turning on her heel and disappearing into the kitchen.
“So, blood mage, you said? What’s the book?”
“Well, it’s for young adults,” Charlotte said.
“So what?” Alara asked, kicking off her shoes and folding up on the couch. “I mean The Hunger Games was for teens, but I ate those up. What’s the book?”
I stood there for a moment, listening to Alara effortlessly engage Charlotte the way she had with Liam before making my way into the kitchen to offer Ezmeray a hand.
“Alara hates kids,” Brio said, standing in the doorway, watching Alara and the kids.
“That’s not fair. She doesn’t hate kids. She just doesn’t want to have any. She’s freaked out about pregnancy and childbirth,” Ezmeray explained to me. “And babies freak her out. And she’s not a fan of the sticky and snotty stage either.”
“Basically, she likes tweens and teens,” I said, holding out my glass when Brio waved the whiskey at me.
“I mean, she’s good with the younger ones,” Ezmeray said. “But she likes that she can engage with the teens on a more natural level.”
“Except she calls them dicks,” Brio said, smirking.
“Where are your kids?” I asked.
“There’s a birthday party for their friends a few doors down. They will head back after,” Ezmeray explained. “I didn’t realize she likes to read.” She seemed to be speaking mostly to herself.
“Ezzy, you know Alara. She’s… full of surprises.”
“If it helps, I think she’s mostly in the book club because she’s low-key obsessed with learning about the mob.”
“That I did know,” Ezzy admitted. “It started the day they rescued us. Been going strong ever since. You’ll be seeing her weekly?” she asked me.
“Yeah. Being a bagman is steady work for me right now.”
“You’ll keep an eye on her for me?” she asked. “I worry about her there. And I know she keeps things from us because she doesn’t want us to worry.” She paused. “Or because she thinks she can handle everything on her own.”
“She pays the Family for protection,” Brio reminded his wife.
“Yeah, but—”
“So, how long until dinner?” Alara asked, leaning in the doorway.
“Half an hour, give or take.”
“That bookstore the next street over, that’s only like a ten-minute walk, right?”
“You’re leaving to go to the bookstore?” Ezzy asked.
“I have to see a man—or woman—about a blood mage. Charlotte has made a good argument for me needing to read it. Even if there isn’t an alien with a special nub.”
“I don’t think I want to know what that means,” Ezzy said.
“Well, you see, they have this extra little nub right above their—”
“Uncle Chris,” Charlotte piped in.
“Jesus. You need a bell on your neck or something, you ninja,” Alara said, wide-eyed at what she almost just explained in front of a twelve-year-old.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Alara is going to the bookstore.”
“Is this you asking to go too?”
“No.”
“No?” I asked. In her whole life, she’d never turned down a trip to a bookstore.
“I have a whole pile still. It’s nighttime, though.”
“Uh, yeah,” I agreed, looking out the window.
“Alara shouldn’t walk alone.”
“I walk alone at night all the time.”
“More stuff for me to worry about,” Ezmeray grumbled.
“Uncle Chris,” Charlotte said with more emphasis, giving me big eyes and stern lips.
Was Alara likely perfectly capable of a ten-minute walk in a very safe neighborhood? Sure.
But I was also trying to be, you know, a good example to Liam for how a man should behave and to Charlotte for how men should treat her one day.
“Right. Yeah. Of course I should walk her.”
For once, Alara bit back whatever she clearly wanted to say.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” I asked.
“Come where?” Liam asked, appearing behind his sister.
“Nowhere. You’re staying here with me,” Charlotte said. “I need help with something.”
“What do you need help with here?” Liam asked.
But his sister was grabbing him by the wrist and leading her bewildered brother away.
“Ready?” Alara asked.
“Sure,” I agreed, finishing my drink, then following her through the house.
“Don’t worry,” Charlotte called. “We’ll watch Tuna for you. Right, Liam?”
“Ah, yeah, sure.”
Liam’s brows were knitted but he was always on his sister’s side. Even when she was making no sense.
With that, we walked out of the brownstone.