Page 169 of Poison Aches

He whips his head around to look at me in surprise. “What?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” I mutter. “You must’ve suffered for something that’s not your fault at all and it must’ve beenhorrible. The people at fault never suffer nor do they ever apologize. So, I’m sorry.”

He stares at me for so long, time passes.

“What else did you want to know?” he asks gruffly.

“I… If Emmett was already the next heir after his mother, why did your grandfather say I would be choosing the next heir?”

“Simply because Grandfather is no longer sure of Emmett.”

That makes something in me stand up at attention.

“Why?”

“I’m not sure of the details but for the last few years, there’s been a rumor that has been floating around.”

“A rumor you started?”

“Well, I wouldn’t be alive if I started it,” he says with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“What rumor?”

“Well, there have been many rumors about the monster of the Easton Family."

"They call Emmett a monster?"

"He was born premature, but do you see how huge he is?"

Wait, what? Emmett was born a premie?

“But that’s not why he’s feared beyond any boss of the mafia.” Vaughn’s voice drops suddenly, and he looks out the window as if he’s now stuck in a distant yet potent memory. “We basically grew up together, my cousin and I. We were ‘raised’ together.”

Somehow, I don’t think he means that in the traditional sense of raising a child.

“We were evaluated together, but only one of us has these deep-cemented rumors that cause a kind of fear that’s too deep, too dark and horrible, it only grows wilder, even when Emmett does nothing for a time.”

“How?”

“Because he doesn’t have a bark.”

“What do you mean?” I whisper as my heart starts to race.

Vaughn turns to look at me.

“I’m sure you have suspected,” he starts. “My cousin doesn’t waste time with making a whole show of threatening someone. He never makes noise. He doesn’t warn anyone that they are doomed. Instead, he uses his sharp, iron jagged teeth to shred, devour, and tear apart immediately and profoundly.”

Shivers roll through my body as if I’ve been cast into an ice bath.

The sinister way in which Vaughn says this makes me realize that he’s telling the truth about Emmett.

“All the idiots that have tried going against my cousin have never seen the next sunrise after he found them,” Vaughn continues. “And they never died peacefully or easily. It’s best not to have my cousin as an enemy, even our grandfather knows this.”

Emmett’s entirely dark and ruthless side.

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