Page 10 of Obsessions of the Heart

I heard his steps before my door swung open, Ravi moaning as he stumbled his way onto my bed. I resisted the urge to give him any attention. That was all he wanted anyways.

“I am just fuming with jealousy right now!” His voice had a naturally light and flowy tone with a flare for dramatics. The slam of his hands on my bed grated on my nerves.

“Quit taking it out on my bed.”

He sat up immediately. “Well, are you going to tell me how it went? It was your genius idea, so I know you're watching like a little pervert.”

Snorting out a laugh, I kept my eyes on my screens, my arms crossed. “Like you're not an equal pervert when it comes to her.”

I heard the smirk in his tone from here, watching him shrug through the reflection of the monitor. “I'm not the object of discussion right now. So… Are you going to tell me anything?!” His whining made me wince. I closed my eyes and reminded myself that I needed patience to deal with my brothers. Always had and always would.

“We ran into a snag.” I sat up in my chair, watching Roux take her up her shitty apartment stairs thanks to the camera at the corner store across the street. “She didn't go to the library yesterday. Seems like she pulled a double at the diner, and she didn't go today because she was hanging out with that friend of hers. They went to a club, and it got shot up.”

“The blonde one?” he growled, letting his possessive jealousy come out hard and fast, ignoring everything else.

“Yes. Roux said she was dead before he clicked off-line.”

Ravi slid off my bed, stepping up to my desk. “Good riddance. She was taking up space that was ours anyways.”

Death, life, it meant nothing to us. Only Rin lit our dead souls on fire.

My eyes stayed on the code next to the video feed I was tapped into, making sure my uncle wouldn’t be able to catch on to what we were doing. It had taken a very long time for him to trust us enough to be left on our own, running things our way, without watching us at all times. We didn’t want him in our personal business now.

Tapping a few extra lines of code to make a backdoor for my backdoor, I answered him. “Normally, I would agree with you, but the look on her face when Roux got her out of there said she’s crushed about it. I would advise that when she gets here, don’t bring that up or how much you don’t care about her dead friend.”

He laughed before going cold, glaring at me like what he’d said was my fault. “I’m not an idiot. I wouldn't do that to her.” My happy-go-lucky brother turned away, done with me, to watch the video feed. Roux left her apartment and gave us a thumbs up, knowing I was watching him.

It wouldn't be long before he jumped on a private helicopter and rushed home before ol’ uncle dearest could figure out that he’d taken a little detour on his trip. It was one of Roux’s specialties, after all. Slipping out from under our uncle's nose wasn’t an easy thing to do, but Roux had done it a few times over the years whenever an opportunity presented itself.

“What happened with all this?” Ravi’s question brought me back.

“I had the scholarship letter already drawn up as a back-up, just in case she didn't believe the email I sent. Had Roux take it with him on his job since it was a short distance away. Didn't want to trust the postal service to do their damn jobs.”

The one time we were able to try to sneak a birthday gift off to her, the post office had lost her package. That day, Roux went to the gym and beat up five guys while Ravi spent all day ordering new Rin swag for his room. As for me, well, the damn coal mining town she’d grown up in was so podunk and remote they only had cameras on the inside of the bank. At that point, I hadn’t known how to hack into phones and laptops, so I opened my Rin drawer to bask in her perfection. That was the last time I ever did anything snail mail.

“I let him know when she left her apartment, giving him time to slip it in her mailbox. Then he decided to make sure she got home okay. Some guys in big coats burst into the club, and the rats started to scatter, which made me nervous. I told him to go find her.” I didn't tell Ravi that I was barking at Roux the entire time, threatening to burn his little trophy collection if he didn't get to her on time.

Ravi stood up, crossing his arms and glaring at the screen. His brows pinched just as Roux called, and I put our brother on speaker.

“She’s sleeping. Had to give her something to knock her out.” His gruff voice came out clipped and short, telling me just how much this job had affected him.

Ravi bumped into me, practically shoving me out of the way. “How did she look? What did she smell like? Did you grab a memento? Please tell me you snagged something! Her toothbrush, her comb… maybe a piece of clothing? Please, please, please tell me you have some bit of a brain in that large, thick head of yours and grabbed one of her panties? It would be even better if you grabbed a couple, but beggars can't be choosers, you know?”

Tired of his awkward yet very serious request, I kicked at his legs, causing him to go down with a yelp. I rolled my way back to my desk in time to hear Roux curse under his breath. “Fucking hell! Something is wrong with that fucker.”

“Agreed. Was she hurt?” My skin crawled at the thought of something hurting her. If those fuckers hurt even a cell on her body, I would do a deep dive and find out who they were. I could ruin their lives with just a few clicks of my keyboard. It was one of the best and worst things people had done, putting their lives and faith into the internet and machines.

“She’s shook up. Had to yank her away from the dead body, but she was fine otherwise. She’s strong.”

“And the letter?” The whole reason for him going there was that damn letter, and now more than ever I felt like this was our moment. She was going to feel alone, lost, and in pain. She was going to want a fresh start, something to erase her past and help her build a better future for herself. Vivian Rodgers was always going to be a problem—a tie to her life without us. It was better this happened now, versus having to take care of this ourselves down the road.

Even though the line was silent, I could envision him clutching the phone, the plastic cracking from his too-tight grip. His teeth ground together as he swallowed down what he really wanted to say. “Yes. It's in her mailbox, but she won't be getting to it until tomorrow or the next day.”

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that this was fine. That still worked for my plan even though I wished she were opening it now, getting into her car, and driving out here as we spoke. Some people just weren’t that lucky. “Still works. Even if she doesn't make it this week, she still has late admissions next week.”

Maybe I should’ve just had Roux kidnap her? My mind went back into that rabbit hole, but I knew where it ended, where it always ended. If we did that, we would lose the chance to woo her and convince her to stay here with us. It was a better, longer-lasting move to have her decide that on her own.

“Rion.” The hesitancy in Roux’s voice had my dreaming mind crashing back to reality. “Are you sure this is the right time to do this?” What the hell? Why is he backing down now?

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