Cole shakes his head. “No, no magick. I’m done with all that.”
Then how did you get to the Underworld? “I thought you might have gone back to Carolyn after you left,” Devon ventures. Something is seriously not right here.
“Trying,” he says. “My son,” he adds with a beam. “You should see my son.”
“That would be nice,” Devon replies.
“She hates me,” Cole suddenly says. “She won’t even tell anyone I’m his father.”
“What?” Devon asks, but is interrupted by the redhead as she comes out of the bathroom. She goes over to Cole and gives him a glossy-lipped kiss, which he returns and tweaks her nipple. “Call me?” she asks.
“Yeah, whatever,” he says, and she saunters off, pulling her skanky dress over her head as she goes.
“What are you doing with her?” Devon asks as he watches her leave.
“Trying to forget,” Cole says and stumbles into the sitting area. “Trying to forget that Carolyn won’t tell our son that I am his father.”
“Why wouldn’t she do that?” Devon asks.
Cole shrugs. “Who the fuck knows? I go over there, and I play with him and I hold him, and I put him to bed, but he doesn’t call me ‘Daddy.’ I am just that guy. That guy over there,” he says and gestures drunkenly to the corner, then takes another shot of bourbon.
“Did Liv send you here to get me to go back?” he asks, trying to focus on Devon’s face.
“No, she didn’t. I came to see how you were,” Devon says.
“Huh. I fucked her right here,” he says, indicating a spot on the floor. “And over there,” he says and indicates the wall. “And right about here somewhere,” he says and gestures to a space in thin air, which makes Devon wonder what kind of freaky shit that was. “It was perfect. But she doesn’t want me,” he says and sits heavily on the sofa, narrowly avoiding falling on his ass. “You want me, don’t you, Devon?”
“Err,” Devon says with narrowed eyes. “Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss that right now.”
“We kissed, and you liked it,” Cole says in triumph.
“So did you,” Devon reminds him dryly.
“I did,” he says with a dumb smile on his face.
“Cole, you need to sort this out with Carolyn,” Devon says, changing the subject. “You are either in or out, but you need to talk to her.”
“Noooo, you need to talk to Liv. Tell her that all those other fuckers are no good for her. I will give her what she wants,” Cole says with a very rude grab of his crotch.
“You need to sober up,” Devon says, shaking his head.
Cole responds by flipping him off and then taking another drink of bourbon. He finishes off the bottle and lets it drop to the floor. “Love her, man. Why did she do this to me?” He falls face forward on the sofa and then starts to snore loudly.
Great. This was a complete disaster. Cole is a complete disaster. Devon grabs a throw from the back of the sofa and throws it over his passed-out half-brother. He is about to sit down and wait for Cole to wake up and hopefully get enough coffee in him so that they can have a proper conversation, when the door opens and in walks a green-eyed blonde, and it is no stretch to assume it’s the infamous Carolyn.
“Oh,” she says as she sees Devon hovering. “Who are you?”
“A friend,” he says and points to Cole.
She huffs out in disgust and says, “Passed out again?”
“Kind of,” Devon says.
“Well, I only came to pick these up.” She picks up an A4-sized envelope from an end table and walks back to the door.
“Why won’t you tell your son that Cole is his father?” Devon asks, not caring that it is none of his business.
“What?” she asks, and she spins around. “That is none of your concern.”