Page 114 of The Lost Kings
“You can hate me. I know what you saw when you were ten, Kingston. I know you witnessed us handling someone who had come in to hurt members of our community. You weren’t given the context for the murder, but it was more than justified I can tell you that. You’ve grown resentful of me, and now you’re misplacing your anger on my daughter. Speak of her again as if she’s your enemy, and I promise you, we will be at war. Be considerate and don’t make your father and I shoot one another because that’s what will end up happening.”
Gio shifted next to me and I knew this was getting too close to things we never wanted touched. Presley had her own category between us, and in everything, she was to be protected and kept safe. We would never harm her, but we had to give a good show that her choosing Adrian didn’t ruin us. I would say whatever I had to in order to save face and not let on that she’d fucking gutted me with that news.
“Adrian Adesso is responsible for the hit placed on you ten years ago. I don’t know how Scotty missed it, but he did. The threebrothers were raised by a man named Markos Mariano.” I explained calmly.
Our mom’s head snapped up, her blue eyes blazing as bright as fire as she whispered. “What name did you just say?”
“Markos Mariano. He was the head of the Mariano family, but he had a business partner named Lucian Adesso. Someone Kyle had killed eleven years ago. Markos raised the boys, and for whatever reason, perhaps he just cared exceedingly for his late partner, but he raised them to hate you, Kyle. Their hatred for you goes deep enough for this elaborate charade he’s pulling with Presley.”
“Son of a fucking bitch,” Kyle whispered, reaching for his phone.
Dad glanced over at Mom, his gaze narrowed in a way that meant they were communicating silently. I heard her walk up to him and ask, “Why would he go for Kyle and not us?”
Dad shook his head and pulled Mom closer. I looked between them, unsure what their connection to Markos was.
Scotty cleared his throat and stepped closer. “I’ve done my research. If there was a connection to Markos, I would have found it. This is baseless and, in my opinion, birthed from a place of jealousy and hurt over not being the person Presley could rely on.”
Fuck. Him.
My jaw was tense from how hard I ground my molars together. It took all my strength not to attack him, when my mother harmlessly asked, “What does he mean, jealousy over what?”
Scotty smiled at us. “Presley has agreed to marry Adrian Adesso.”
I pulled a gun out and aimed it at Scotty’s head. Gio copied me without missing a beat.
I was prepared for Scotty to pull one in defense, or even Kyle, but I wasn’t prepared for Presley to. She had the one we’d found that day in her closet pulled and aimed directly at me. She was a better shot than I was, so even if I did take a risk to shoot Scotty, her shot would land dead center in my chest.
“This is crazy, lower your guns. All of you,” my mom cried, completely outraged.
Dad slowly moved in front of us, then he placed his hand on the barrel of our guns until they lowered. The second they were down, Scotty, Kyle and Presley lowered theirs.
“I think I more than proved my point,” Scotty said before moving in front of Presley as if he was worried we’d actually harm a single hair on her head.
Everything felt too fast and out of control.
She wasn’t really going to marry him. She couldn’t.
She was ours.
“Presley, don’t do this,” Gio said, voice barely restrained. His fists kept clenching around the gun at his side.
She turned to look over her shoulder, but her gaze was empty as if we weren’t there.
We’d broken something inside her.
I realized as she walked away from us, and it felt as though she took my heart with her, there were a few things I had to come to terms with: The most dangerous version of Presley would always be the one that didn’t include us. We taught her about the beauty of stars and the importance of soil. In turn, she shared our passions with us; she had her cows and her ranch, but I believed it was all tethered to us. Without us, I didn’t want to know what would come out of her.
There’d be nothing left but darkness.
Chapter 45
Gio
PRESENT
The smoke billowed from my joint as we watched Presley greet Adrian with a kiss and he began to pack things into the back of his car. She wore her hair down in pretty waves that bounced against her back.
“I heard her tell her mom she was only going to go with him for a week or so then she’d be back.” Kingston blew out a cloud of smoke, mirroring what I was doing, his gaze pinned on her just like mine was.
