Bitter Truths (Crimson Falls Duet 2)

I don’t know how I’m going to deal with them both, but if he is willing to let me, I’ll most definitely try.

13

Lycan

When I step into the living room, I find Darius staring out at the garden. He looks so much like our father. I wonder if he realizes. Even in a torn t-shirt and leather cut, he’s got his coldness from the man who raised us to be emotionless, yet strong.

He turns his attention to me, offering a glimmer of a smile. “Brother.”

“I thought we should talk,” I tell him, hoping that this doesn’t go down the fucking drain like every other time we’ve tried to be civil with each other. When I reach his chair, he rises. “And before we talk, I have something to say.” My fist rears back and quickly makes contact with his jaw, sending him stumbling back. The chair he’d been sitting on falling on its side with a loud crash. When I see blood dripping from his lip, I smile. “Next time you go near my wife without my permission, it will be worse than that.”

I pull out another chair and settle in, waiting for Darius to seat himself once more. A chuckle leaves his lips before he swipes away the blood with the back of his hand. Once he’s sitting, he looks me over and nods. “Fair enough. I didn’t expect you to come at me, but then again, I did get a taste before asking for your permission.” He shakes his head. “Did you hit me because you’re jealous, or because she admitted to wanting it?”

I don’t even fucking know how to answer him. Yes, to both. But also, I don’t blame her. She’s new to this life, the same life I brought her into, and I cannot be angry with her. She needs to explore, to experiment. Hell, I did so much of both. I wasn’t sure I’d ever settle down, or even have an inkling to settle down.

Yet here I am.

“Business first?” I say finally, needing to change the subject before Darius and I end up sprawled on the floor, ready to kill each other.

“The money I demanded from Horatio has cleared in the offshore account. But he doesn’t need to know Scarlett is safe, not yet.” A sly grin curls his lips, but then he turns serious. “Also, I want to bring down the Bardots, Grace specifically. She had our father killed when he wouldn’t give up on their relationship. She forced him out, he married Mom, and yet, after all those years, when Mom died, he went back to Grace who had her cunt of a husband kill him.”

“And you have proof?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to show you for years.” He lets out an exasperated sigh. But this is all fucking news to me. Yes, I knew my brother believed in something, in someone coming after our family, but he never had proof. I’m a man who doesn’t take things at face value. I need it in black and white before I realize it’s the truth.

“And I need your help,” I tell him. Kahn mentioned the rumors that had been sifting through the underground that an informant of Lorenzo’s was brought here, to this house. On our way to the compound, the call came through. That was the other reason I was ready to finally sit down and talk to Darius.

“Well, it seems we have no choice,” he says, settling back as the door swings open and a beautiful young woman I’m certain is only here to get my brother’s attention sidles in with a tray. The aroma of coffee, along with her sickly sweet fragrance wafts by as she sets the items down on the table and offers Darius a long look before leaving us.

Perhaps his world isn’t too different from mine.

“Someone I should meet one day?” I challenge, taunting him because he’s not a one-woman man. He never has been. Settling down is not something Darius would ever do. At least, that’s what I think.

“No. Like you said, business,” he says finally, before pouring two steaming mugs of java and sliding one over to me which I gratefully accept. Last night was long, after I made sure Scarlett remembered just who owned her, I fell asleep holding her.

“I have been helping Alexei Carnevali, one of the capos from New York. He’s been looking into a string of girls disappearing. It led us to a convent on the outskirts of New Orleans. I’m not sure—”

“Father Lorenzo?” Darius arches a brow as he regards me, and I nod. He must’ve gotten the name from the bastard he brought here. “Just learned about him a couple of days ago. What’s your connection other than Alex?”

My brother and Alex’s twin, Atreo, spent many nights in my club before Darius left. They’ve been best friends for a long while, but Atreo is one of those men who kills first and asks questions later, which is why Alex is the one who took over their father’s organization.