Page 40 of Call You Mine

Making him look like him. It’s surprising no one ever suspected we were Wesley’s children. Looking at my brother, he’s the spitting image of our bio dad. It’s unnerving, the devil looking at me through my brother’s eyes. His ghost haunting me through a familiar face.

“What the fuck do you want now? You finally ready to be a man and stand up to mommy? Or are you going to continue to let her degrade your wife and mother of your children?”

Ace’s face turns bright red, anger emanating from him in ferocious waves directed at the man by my side. “Fuck you, man. You don’t know what you're talking about.”

Damon scoffs, “What I know is that you stood there before her like a dumbstruck little boy. Your sister had more balls than you and the nerve to stand up to her.”

“Damon, please. Just stop,” Scarlett pleads, and frankly it’s annoying that she’s asking him to stop when Ace is the one who’s come over to continue to insult us.

Ignoring Scarlett’s pleas, I sidestep Damon and move to face Ace head on, pushing my finger into my brother’s chest. He falters back slightly. “You need to back the fuck off, Ace. I don’t give a fuck about whatever bullshit beef you have against Damon for whatever happened between him and Scarlett in the past. He’s my boyfriend now and if you want to be in my life you better get used to the idea. I’ve gone three years without so much as a goddamn text from you, I can go a lifetime without speaking if need be.”

My brother’s eyes go wide in disbelief. Does the idea of me choosing Damon over him really surprise him after all we’ve been through? We haven’t been close since we were ten years old, since before Wesley began molding him into the soldier he needed him to be, making Ace forget he had a twin sister who needed him. “You’d really choose this asshole over blood, Wyn?” Ace asks, his expression softening as he looks deep into my eyes. Mirrored reflections of his in both color and pain.

“When has blood done me any good, Ace? You witnessed the same thing I did. A woman who’s supposed to be the one person to protect us and love us unconditionally is just another devil wearing sheep's clothing. Or have you forgotten that Wesley, ourblood,” I enunciate the word to make my point, “Tried to have you and your wife killed?”

Because I haven’t.

Months before our high school graduation from Servite Academy, Wesley and another one of his associates, a man I now know was Franco Marchesi—Enzo’s psychotic uncle who was banished exiled from the Famiglia—essentially kidnapped Ace and Scarlett, with the help of Scarlett’s mother who was related to Franco. It’s all too confusing to keep track of, but the bottom line is the three of them, along with Scarlett’s biological father, died that night. Who shot who is beside the point. Luckily Ace and Scarlett made it out with only a few bruises and cuts after Servite Manor, my home, exploded into bits.

Within the year he had it rebuilt, but I’m glad Ace is selling it. The place is haunted by their ghosts.

The truth is blood means nothing to my family. Nothing but a false sense of loyalty and an excuse to be complete dicks to one another.

Shame flashes in his eyes as he looks away from me. “You’re right, okay. I’m sorry, but fuck Wynter. Him really?” he asks, his voice now low so only I can hear him, but still clearly bothered by the idea of Damon and I being together. It’s unconventional but hell, I thought he’d have gotten over it after seeing the way we were together at Stella’s wedding. Regardless of the fact I sprang this lunatic idea on Damon last minute, we were pretty convincing.

“Does your pathetic and frankly stupid feud with him mean more than seeing your sister happy, Ace?”

Ace contemplates my question but Damon doesn’t give him the chance to respond. “We should go,” Damon says, opening the passenger side door for me when he senses my unease. I don’t argue, tired from the day's events, I just want to go home and forget all of this happened. I slip inside the car but justbefore Damon can shut the door, Ace calls out my name once more.

“Wynter,” he says, looking between Damon and I, unease flickering in his eyes. “This isn’t over.”

I nod my head only I’m not sure any of them can see it. “I know brother,” I mutter back, accepting the fact that we can’t leave things like this. Not if we plan on being in each other's lives. And after being gone for so long, having absolutely no one to rely on, I need my brother. But I won’t sacrifice my happiness to do so. “But I’m done fighting with you, Ace. Come find me when you're ready to apologize.”

Chapter Eleven

DAMON

“Where are we going?” she asks from the passenger side of my Audi A5 Coupe, a hint of uncertainty in her hushed tone. I bought this baby two years ago, the first paycheck I received after accepting Clarissa’s offer and joining Kingsman. I put a down payment on the apartment the guys and I moved into after graduation, and had enough left over to get me this sexy piece of luxury. A used model of course, but to me it was more than enough.

Sleek leather interiors, a pimped out, touchscreen stereo with LED lights, air conditioning that actually worked and didn't smell like soiled diapers, and heated seats. Oh, those heated seats were worth it. The exterior of the two-door coupe was all black, rims and everything. A dream come true I could only afford with the money I was making working for her.

Not necessarily dirty money, but not exactly legal either. Not that I wasn’t used to it.

This ride was the first thing I ever bought myself with an honest paycheck, not the under the table shit I used to get paid for back in Pleasant Hills, doing whatever odd jobs my buddy Kai’s uncle would hire us to do. His uncle being the President of the Pleasant Hills Cobras, a motorcycle gang that ran their fair share of illegal trades, we were never out of work for long. But Kingsman was a legit business. A front for the illicit labor that would go on behind closed doors but wasn’t everything in this town part of some greater scheme.

I was eighteen making more than enough to set myself up, morals be damned. But when Nico came knocking on my door, my life truly changed. I’d bought myself another car, a newer, more powerful, muscle car, but still preferred to take this beauty out on the road whenever I got the chance.

Today was one of those days where I needed to just hit the pedal and drive. It was soothing to me and I wondered if in a past life I could have possibly been a Formula One champion.

“Damon,” Wynter calls out when I don’t respond to her question. She wears an agitated expression, her anxiousness from not being in control getting the best of her. Wynter’s always been one to wear her emotions on her sleeve even if she refuses to believe it. She may think she wears a mask of indifference but not with me. The girl is so easy to read, at least with me she’s an open book. Though, I find the plot takes a few unforeseen twists and turns, such as the one we’re currently dealing with.

I have yet to figure out what she's scheming, what angle she’s playing in this ruse she’s expecting me to go along with, or what even my role is.

We've been driving for fifteen minutes in dead silence. After the altercation with her mother and brother I should have seen coming, and what I almost let happen again, I needed to put some distance between us and going back to my house right now didn’t seem like the smartest idea.

I have yet to figure out what she's scheming, what angle she’s playing in this ruse she’s expecting me to go along with, or what even my role is.

We've been driving for fifteen minutes in dead silence. After the altercation with her mother and brother I should have seen coming, and what almost happened again between us, I needed to put some distance between us and going back to my house right now didn’t seem like the smartest idea.

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