And for some fucked-up reason, I liked arguing with him.
And I refused to fucking admit it.
“They’re bickering like little kids, and I am here for it,” Selene whispered.
“How has no one suffocated you in your sleep?” I growled.
It was his maybe-brother but maybe-close-relative Leon who muttered, “We’ve tried.”
“I wish you would have tried harder.”
Selene’s laugh made me smile, and the funny expression on Alex’s face made me smile even wider.
I smiled at her a little through the mirror, my stomach loosening just a tiny bit more, giving me the tiniest hope that maybe this was all going to be okay. “Can I ask you both something?”
Beside me, Alex’s eyes glowed, but I ignored him.
“Is he always this mean, or is it just me that brings out the best in him?” I asked them, not totally sure which answer I wanted to hear.
They both laughed, these nice, bright, friendly laughs, but it wouldn’t be until hours later that I realized neither one of them actually answered me.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
“This is your house?” I gasped.
Alex grumbled as I stumbled after him in front of the modern Tudor-style building that may or may not be his home.
It was massive.
I’d passed out at some point in the car ride after listening to Selene and Leon explain just how they had gotten to us. They had flown to the nearest major city—Denver, apparently, we’d been in a town two hours north of there—and they had rented a car and driven over. Something had been off in their tones while they explained, and I wondered if even they were wondering why we hadn’t flown back. And I didn’t mean in an airplane. I had no ID.
Their words had gotten soft as I’d fallen asleep, the nerves, not feeling well, all of it hitting me hard. I’d woken up a few times, thanks to a shake of my shoulder to use the bathroom or to eat fast food they’d gotten through the drive-through. The sun rose and fell, then rose again in the longest road trip of all time. But I must have really needed the rest because I’d fallen back asleep almost instantly each time.
Until now. A strong nudge at my knee had had me lifting my head off the middle of the seat and blinking at the darkening rays coming through the car windows. And it was while I’d been processing that we’d arrived somewhere that I’d opened the door and taken in the home we were parked outside of.
What a home it was too.
My mouth was open, and I stared at the grandeur of what was pretty much an estate. Not a house. An estate. Or at least very, very close to one. Trees flanked it like something out of a movie or a storybook.
A fly was going to fall into my mouth, but it didn’t even matter. I couldn’t close it. Not when this was where Alex might call home.
“Is this how rich people live?” I counted the floors. There had to be… three. Maybe four?
I was pretty sure I whispered, “Wow.” The house didn’t even have normal windows. They were huge and paneled with black trim. The whole place, with its trees and wide property line and what seemed like it might be a giant garage behind the house, it was incredible.
“What else have you been hiding? Five kids?” I asked him in awe.
His growl was everything I would have expected it to be. “I liked it more when you were trying to keep secrets from me,” he grumbled.
I almost smiled and tipped my head back even more, whistling short and shrill when it made my throat hurt. Were those vines growing over some of the walls and windows? I started to gasp and coughed instead. I’d been trying my best not to in the car, and it was getting harder and harder. “You sure you don’t have a crazy wife locked in the attic?”
“She’s in a locked room next to mine,” Alex answered as Leon circled around the car and went to stand beside him.
Damn, they had to be closely related. With better lighting, I’d been instantly able to tell that they weren’t twins. I had done my fair share of staring each time we’d stopped for gas and food. Leon seemed to be a little older, his features broader, eyes deeper set, and more blue than indigo.
I’d had to blink a couple times just to absorb and comprehend the sheer magnitude of beauty radiating from both of them when they’d happened to stand close beneath the bright lights at the gas station pumps.
It was too much, the two of them together, side by side. I’d caught a couple of cashiers staring at them too through the windows, overheard them being extra nice when they’d happened to come inside, even though that wasn’t as often as Selene and I did. Neither one of them had bladders apparently.
“She used to be in the dungeon.” Leon chuckled as he leaned against the car, looking just as tired as I felt. He and Selene had taken turns driving the whole time, while I hadn’t done more than offer once.
“You’ve got a dungeon?” I reached over and poked at the hand closest to me to get his attention. “Can I see it?”
Alexander growled half-heartedly. “Not in this house, but if I did, maybe. Come on. We could both use soap, you could definitely use a toothbrush and toothpaste, and I’m ready to stop hearing your stomach grumbling. It’s been more talkative than you. I didn’t think that was possible.”
Oh boy. “I said like five words in the car…” I trailed off with another whistle as he started moving toward big, double front doors that looked like they belonged in some architectural digest magazine. The sensation of being overwhelmed filled my soul for a moment, but I tamped it down and focused on just being… relieved.
Maybe everything in my life was a total shit storm, a complete and total mess that I had no idea what to think of or where to start dissecting or fixing it, but…
I was alive and I was free, and with time, I would get better, and that would be more than enough to make me happy for now.
Alexander opened the unlocked door, and I followed him in as Leon and Selene hung back. They’d been making faces at each other and whispering to one another a lot, but I didn’t have Alex’s hearing, so I had no clue what was being said. The entrance highlighted tall ceilings, and it was instantly noticeable that the home wasn’t just beautiful, it was rich. There was so much wood everywhere; not the paneling I was used to either.
He stopped inside, his gaze eating up the view while he took off his borrowed shoes. Someone was glad to be back. Had he genuinely been worried that he wouldn’t make it home?
Some weird sense of tenderness filled my heart, to think he might have something in the world to be concerned over.
Then that thought led me to think about all the stuff he probably did have to worry about. Big stuff. Huge stuff. Things I would never have to comprehend.
That suddenly made me feel guilty. Who got to go through life without worries? Nobody did.
I took my sneakers off and set them next to his. Then I followed him as we went through a spacious, beautiful living room. The furniture seemed timeless but new. It wasn’t like I knew that much about interior design or trends, but I liked everything.
I spotted a few built-in bookshelves with brass or maybe bronze knickknacks. Delicate crystal things. There were even some gold-plated eggs that had gems in them that looked real. Through an impressive kitchen with pots and pans hooked over the range, sunlight spilled into the area and over late-model appliances. There was even a staircase that wasn’t the same one I’d seen when we had first come in tucked into a back corner.