15. Connor
Connor
“Connor, get your ass down here!” Declan shouts.
Poor Declan. He’s stuck with me for life. I change my shirt and put on jeans, then walk past Dina, who’s coming up the steps.
“When you call him like that, you sound like his parent,” Dina says to Declan, who’s downstairs, hands on his head, gaze on the television.
“My parents never sounded like that, I promise you.” If they sounded that way, it would’ve meant they gave enough of a shit about me to get upset with something, anything I did.
But Anabel Crossbow never got over the rape that led to her having babies with Massio, and she couldn’t find it in her heart to love us.
Massio Crossbow handed us over to Donatella Macarley, who raised us practically without him. Whenever he was around, he wanted to take us to our mother. Not for righteous reasons. He taunted her with us.
This is why they’re both dead. Good riddance.
“Hey, we’re on for dress shopping today instead of next weekend.”
“Why the change?”
“Ekatia can make it today. The baby is coming with us.”
“Who’s on your security team?”
“Nema.”
Downstairs, Declan stands in front of the TV, clutching his phone, knuckles white. The reporter for the local news station stands in front of L’Octane as police and medical staff peel Pete off the front door, where I pinned him last night.
“Your work, I presume?” Declan asks.
I slide my hands into my pockets and regard the screen. “I have no idea why you’d think that’s my work. It’s not like I have a signature style.”
Declan looks over at me.
I glance back at him. “What? Oh.” I cringe. The station rolls a video they acquired from someone. The view shows the back of a blond man dressed in black on black. He pounds a man with his fists, breaks his fingers and hands, then pins him to the front door with big kitchen knives.
The man steps out of the frame for a beat, and that’s when the camera shows his face. He wears a red clown nose and carries three things: a DETOUR sign, which he fastens to Pete’s chest, an orange cone, which he fits onto Pete’s head, and a purse. “Did the purse give me away?”
“Connor,” Declan warns.
“Those valet guys from the Tavala district sold their videos. Traitors.”
“You let them record you?”
I shrug. “I didn’t particularly care what they were doing while I was getting creative with Pete.”
“We agreed we’re focusing on the wedding and not this, whatever this is that you did.
Important people are coming. Politicians, folks we need for legitimate recruitment and connections.
We agreed that they need to feel safe when they’re here.
We agreed they can’t be stained by association while here. ”
“They’ll still come to your wedding, Dec.”
“But you and I agreed, didn’t we?”
“We agreed that I would go to my sessions with the Musketeers until they want out. We also agreed I wouldn’t shoot randoms for being stupid or for other petty reasons. Pete is alive.”
“Barely!”
“Don’t be mad, Dec. You’d have shot him clean.”
“Fine, try me. What did he do?”
At that moment, Ekatia walks in with Hanna. She’s wearing jeans and a pretty red top that shows plenty of cleavage, and her hair is done in low pigtails.
“Good morning.” She looks from me to my brother and then smiles just for me. “Did you see what happened to Pete?”
“Yeah. Unbelievable.” I shake my head in mock horror. “Who would do such a thing to a nice, innocent doctor?”
Declan points at Ekatia. “Dina told me you went out with a doctor last night.”
Dina joins us again. She’s wearing a red dress, and I can tell my brother likes what he sees because he’s momentarily sidetracked. Dina slides next to him and winks.
Nothing beats a player with a sister-in-law in his corner. “I’m so glad I have a man who listens to my rambling.”
“I listen to everything you say.” He kisses the top of her head.
Dina knows damn well that Declan and I solve our disputes with fists, and she hates that about us. If she’s hugging my brother (or doing anything with him), she can restrict his movements and soften him so he won’t argue or get violent with me.
Naturally, I won’t attack him if she’s attached to him, so she knows what she’s doing.
Declan gives me the evil eye. “Who’s on your security team?” He asks the same question I asked her only a moment ago while he was watching the news.
“Connor,” I answer as if I’m a third person.
Declan sizes up Ekatia again, and I know he linked what I did to Pete with her. “That was the doctor you went out with, I presume?”
Ekatia nods.
Declan locks eyes with me. We’ve always been able to communicate without speaking.
It’s not telepathy. It’s being born the same but different.
Declan understands I protected Ekatia because she’s Dina’s friend.
But he also knows me well enough to know I’ve taken an interest in this woman that goes beyond her ties to us.
“You didn’t have to wear the red clown nose.”
This city knows our father as “the clown.” He’d wear the red nose and sometimes even dress as the clown.
Declan is right. I didn’t have to put on the red nose.
“What’s done is done,” I say and walk out with a wave.
“I’m going dress shopping, brother dearest. I’m a busy guy.
No time for your big-man tears. Send Pete flowers if you feel sorry for him. ”
“Stay out of trouble, dickhead,” he calls after me.
“Will do.”