Page 89 of When Sinners Rise
“Well, when you’re hosting, you can supply the booze and serve us some cheap ass swill.”
“No, we aren’t doing anything that tastes like the last shot I did with your family, Dante,” Wren defends. “This is just fine, Mariana, thank you.”
I look over to my brother and tip my champagne flute in his direction. “To Dante and Wren.”
“To Dante and Wren,” the table repeats.
“And to family.” Abel stands. “Old, new, and never forgotten.” He looks at each of us around the table, making sure we all feel his words.
Knox follows, standing and holding out his glass. “To family.”
We all repeat.
Because no matter what we’ve been through, and no matter how hard it might be, that’s what we are. Through and through – for better or worse – we are family.
EPILOGUE
SHAW AND MIRI
Istill can’t get used to this traffic, and being on the wrong side of the goddamn road constantly is a bitch. Still, the Jaguar I’m driving is good enough, and, as I pull off the main road and drive the country lanes, even I have to recognise I’m in a good place in life. No one’s hassling me for work I don’t want to do, and I’m with someone who gets me and wants to let me be me. Funny how I needed to move to a different country for that to happen, but maybe that’s just what was meant to happen all that time ago when I was sent here.
Steering around a blind corner, I damn near take three horses and their riders out. The woman on board the first one looks back at me and glares, making her feelings clear, as I swing wide to pass them. Thank fuck for that because British people are confusing as hell. Most of them never say what they mean, and half the time I’m trying to understand the hidden meaning behind everything. I miss that about San Antonio some days. It was straight there, and, with my name, there was a clarity involved in everything. I spoke – they listened. Well, everyone but my own goddamn family.
Sighing, I turn into what feels like a mile-long driveway and follow it. The Broderick mansion eventually comes into view, and I scan the periphery and outbuildings. It’s still as impressive as the first time I saw it. It was a family trip out, she said. That I’d have to deal with Landon one day, so why not now? I grumbled the whole damn way, unsure who the hell this Landon thought he was. Summoning me? Asshole. I’m still not convinced he isn’t one, but, for Miri, I’ll take the bait – again. It's not like I don’t enjoy the banter he tries pushing my way, and, as far as I know, he’s never killed anyone, so I’ve got that over his fucking trip to Buckingham Palace and title.
A gardener nods at me as I pull up, and then some other servants scuttle past, doing whatever job they do. I snort at the absurdity of it all and keep moving, heading for the main entrance. Having said that, at least they’re working – doing something. I haven’t done a damn thing since I settled here. Miri works, but me? Well, I’m not equipped for any nine-to-five this life here has to offer. I don’t even know what I’d do if I thought I should. Not that I need to. Whatever happened back there in San Antonio didn’t change a damn thing about my accounts. They’re still healthy as hell.
“Hello, you.” Willow. I look at her as I get to the stairs, still unsure what to make of her. I mean, what is she to Miri? Mother? Aunt? Big sister, now Naja isn’t here anymore?
“Hey.” I keep moving, heading for our bedroom here.
“Shaw?” My feet stop. “She’s out in the gardens with Seffi, and Landon wants to see you.” Fuck.
“Why?”
“She needed some air, I suppose.”
“Now, you know I wasn’t asking that.”
She smirks at me and starts walking away. “He’s in his study.” I hover on the stairs and watch her go, undecided onwhether I’m gonna give him the satisfaction of trying to stamp his authority on me again or not.
Her head comes back around the corner. “I didn’t think men like you ever got scared.”
“I’m not scared.”
She raises a brow at me and crosses her arms. “Really. Because it looks like it from where I’m stand-”
“Fine.” I huff and take the stairs downwards again, glaring at her as I pass. “But if this is another lecture in British etiquette and manners, I’m gonna kill him.”
Three doors passed, all five feet higher than me, and I turn through the next vast hallway leading to his study. I look at the run of crystal chandeliers as I go, wondering why there needs to be five in one corridor in the first place. I mean, I like finery as much as the next guy, but this place is fucking insane.
Eventually, I get to a door, and him.
He doesn’t even look up as I enter the room.
Just keeps scrawling words on some stack of files and passing one on top of the other.
The silence is near fucking deafening.
