It was curious that each warning sign associated with his brothers seemed to fit their personalities so well. Beltran was a slight pressure in his temple as if a headache were coming on. Winter brought chilled goose bumps along his forearms. And Rafe was that annoying itch that couldn’t quite be reached. He never asked if they got a strange sensation when he was close or what it was. He wondered a bit now.
“My, my, dear brother,” Rafe drawled behind him. “This isn’t one of your usual hunting grounds.”
Marcus turned slightly to his left and narrowed his eyes at Rafe’s tall, lean form encased in an exquisitely tailored dark suit. His brother had been a perfectly dressed dandy in his previous life, and that had carried forward untouched into his vampire existence.
“Did you need something? Is it Mother?” he asked, preferring to ignore Rafe’s comment.
Rafe gave an irritated sigh before walking the last few steps to stand by his older brother. “I’ve just come from checking in on Mother and our sweet Bel. Mother is fine. She’s calm.”
“Thank you,” Marcus said simply to annoy Rafe, and it worked.
Everyone knew Rafe didn’t check on their mother out of some sense of familial duty. He did it out of worry for his twin. Bel, with his mind always on his research, tended to be the worst of them when it came to watching over Julianna. He too often missed the early warning signs of her mind slipping into a bad episode, which usually ended in bloody consequences that could have been avoided. It was probably best that Marcus would be managing her care once they were all settled in Connecticut.
“Seriously, Marcus, why are you in this part of town? You prefer to hunt closer to your home.”
Marcus resumed walking down the street, a frown tugging at his lips. He knew Rafe was going to keep needling him and digging at him until he finally had the truth of it. Rafe was such a nosy bastard.
“I hired a new assistant today. Ethan Cline. He lives in the neighborhood,” Marcus admitted.
“Really, now?”
“He’s to help prepare my household for the move and run errands as needed.”
“It’s a shame you couldn’t keep that last one. What was her name? Carrie? Cheryl?”
Marcus paused and glared at his brother for a second. “Amy.”
Rafe shrugged and they resumed walking down the street. “She was with you for ten years. All broken in.”
Marcus couldn’t argue with that. Amy had been fantastic, particularly those last six years. She knew his routine, didn’t ask unnecessary questions, and generally remained an invisible part of his life. She’d been incredibly well paid and worked well, but the truth was that having an employee around for more than ten years was dangerous. He didn’t age, and humans tended to notice things like that after a bit.
“This new assistant? Worried that he’s not who he says he is?”
Marcus stopped in front of a plain, square, brick building. The squat two-story looked worn and rundown. The front light flickered, staying off longer than it was on. The apartment building looked as if the owner had simply given up on trying to make repairs, leaving the tenants to live in relative squalor. This was the address Ethan Cline had put on his résumé.
Their meeting had been brief, but there was no denying there had been an instantaneous spark that crackled around Marcus when he met Ethan’s eyes. It had taken him a second to remember his own damn name after shaking Ethan’s hand. The young man was sharp and eager. His brain had screamed that Ethan was trouble, but he couldn’t stop himself from declaring that he was hired within seconds of meeting him. Marcus didn’t make snap decisions. He left the hiring to Janice. She dealt with the tedious details of running his financial empire.
But something had demanded that he walk into that office, demanded that he hire Ethan Cline on the spot.
It didn’t make a damn bit of sense, and the complete lack of logic bothered him. Not Ethan. Not that the young man would be in his house tomorrow. That they would spend time together as Marcus showed him his duties. Those things simply made his heart speed up and a strange feeling start to shift in his stomach.
“Have you asked Winter to look into him yet?”
Marcus shook his head. That would be the smart thing to do. Winter was the sneaky one of the family. He had a feeling Rafe could easily claim that title if only he would stop running his mouth for more than a couple of seconds.
“Have you spoken to Winter recently?”
“Nope,” Rafe said, seeming to pop the “p” with a little extra pleasure.
Of course, Winter was missing. Their brother took pleasure in disappearing for extended periods of time, only to reappear again when he saw fit. Luckily, he seemed to sense when true danger was brewing and managed to be present before things got out of hand.