Page 124 of Driftwood Daffodil

Darry did not. “She lit your father’s car on fire because he wouldn’t let her go out with her friends.”

Atlee shrugged, “She was tired of being trapped in the house.”

“She was twelve.” Darry shot back.

That was bad, and not the worst thing she’d done. Let's just say over the next two years, Alex Fiore amped up her rebellion. So much so that Atlee’s dad shipped her off to some boarding school for kids in families like ours. I almost felt bad for Wayward Academy.

Atlee being the protective brother that he was, stopped before we broke through the tree line and spun around to cross his arms at Darry. “You got a problem with my sisters?”

“Yeah, I do.” Darry puffed his chest out and squared off with Atlee by returning his glare. “Kendall is always flirting with random guys and Alex is a train wreck. Neither one knows their place."

That wasn’t entirely true. Although Kendall was a bit flirtatious, she was also prepared to marry my brother. Being tied to Romeo wasn’t a fate I’d want. Couldn’t blame her for wanting to feel a bit of freedom before that happened. Not that it would matter to Darry. Nothing Atlee said would matter to Darry.

The simple fact was his sisters were girls and our friend had a special hatred for the female species. Didn’t stop him from enjoying them, though I think the girls he’d fucked would argue the enjoyment part. Whatever he did in the bedroom scared them so much that I’d seen girls literally run away when he walked down the hall.

I stepped past them and waved. “Can we continue this debate later?”

We didn’t come here to argue the validity of Atlee’s sisters as mob wives. A fact that Atlee was more than happy to go along with. He stopped squaring off with Darry and followed me towards the glow of crackling fire.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“What?” I’d say no if I thought he’d keep his mouth shut.

“Well, Nova kind of hates you…”

That didn’t sound like a question to me. “And?”

“How exactly do you plan to get her to agree to this agreement?”

“I’m not. I’m going to get her to come to me with it.”

Novalee would never agree to marry me, but she would take her brother’s life debt. And I couldn’t be the one to offer her that option. Her stubborn streak would make her automatically reject anything I said. Meaning Nova had to offer herself up. That was the only way this could work. That didn’t mean I couldn’t apply a little pressure. Like say, make sure her brother wound up in the hospital tonight.

Atlee’s brows knit. “Why would she do that?”

“Self-sacrifice is a beautiful thing,” I said as we broke through the tree line.

“Ah,” Atlee breathed. “So you’re going after Kato?”

“Yup.” In fact he should be getting shanked right about now.

Darry’s brow rose. “You want her to take her brother’s life debt?”

“Can you think of another way?”

He knew there was no other way. He also knew I didn’t like it. But we had a job to do and sometimes sacrifices had to be made. My father needed to see that I was willing to do that.

“So you’re going to give up revenge on Kato Ford to make sure his sister keeps quiet?”

I understood Darry’s question. For the past two years revenge was all I could think of. That was all I talked about. How I would make Kato suffer for what he did. But…

“There’s more than one way to torture someone.”

Realization sparked across both my friend’s faces.

“Defile the baby sister,” Darry shifted his gaze out at the crowd of drunken teenagers stumbling around. “That’s cold.”

Coming from him, I took that as a complement. Atlee was always down to break some bones, but Darry was a twisted fuck that got off on the mind games. He had Simon blubbering like a baby before Atlee broke his arm. Needless to say, Simon paid up. Well, mostly. He still owed us a grand, but after the way we left him, he’d do whatever he had to, to get it.

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