Page 8 of Outcast

"Listen, I just thought since, you know..." He glanced around.

"Thought what?" Don't ask me why I was humoring him.

"I've seen you with your shirt off. That's a gunshot wound. I know what those look like. I've seen enough movies. And you're from somewhere in South America, which you've still never told me where." Henry raised his brows like he was chastising me. "I figured you'd be into thiskind of stuff. No." His eyes widened. "I didn't mean that because of where you're from. I just mean that you have this cool accent, and with the scar, I thought you'd have to had seen some stuff, that's all. Like Scarface or something."

My mild expression slowly melted off and my lips pulled down.

All that kept flashing through my head were those final minutes before I received the gunshot wound.

Trying to help my half-brothers stay alive. Trying to prove myself to them so they'd finally accept me as family. But it had all been a useless effort.

The four of them were so tightly bonded, that even after they did accept me, and I truly believed they did in their own way, it wasn't what I thought it would be. They had too many memories tying them together, and too many old perceptions of who they had always thought I was to ever let me fully in.

It hadn't stopped me from trying forher, though.

I stood by the half-wall at the edge of the cliff, staring out at the ocean. The night sky was clear and the stars were bright. El Chato was a fantastic restaurant to get good food, and meet with people off radar. I'd used it a time or two to meet Javier.

This time wasn't nearly as pleasant. I swallowed down the sour taste in my mouth as I waited. Valentina, my snake of a sister, texted that she was out here. Yet, she wasn't.

If she didn't show up soon, I'd give up on her. There were a thousand different ways to get the information I wanted. I'd simply have to take the time to flush all of them out.

Someone, somewhere in the organization knew where Grace Black was.

Heels tapped quietly on the stone and I turned around. The woman coming around the side of the building was perfection according to society's accepted beauty standards. She was also thefemale version of me. Between Andre, Valentina, and myself, Vicente’s genes had run strong.

And her eyes were sharp and frigid. Just like Vicente's. I'd always known she was a psychopath, like him, and the eyes gave it away.

"I didn't think you were coming." I raised a brow.

"You have something you want to ask, and I have something I need." She waved her hand as she stopped a few feet from me. Her anger was palpable. It was a wonder the guard creeping up behind her didn't shy away from fear of being burned.

"What happened to Amorette's sister?" I dove right into the meat of why I wanted to see her.

One side of her lips curled up as she glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes. "Trying to slide between that whore's legs? It's not enough that she's fucking every illegitimate child Vicente had?"

Had...because Valentina had him killed. I'd never guessed I'd be living in a world where my sister was a bigger threat than my father.

"Don't start with that fucking shit." I glared at her. I'd entertained the idea of Amorette for a span of ten seconds. But it didn't take long to figure out it was what she represented that drew me in. It wasn't actuallyher.

That tiny woman was the spoke in the wheel of my brothers, and it seemed like an easy way to join them.

Still, just because I didn't want her didn't mean I didn't care for her. She was the sister I wished I'd been given. Not this viper in front of me.

And when she was taken by my father's people, so was her identical twin sister. Only we couldn't find any proof of where she was or where she'd been. Even though our hierarchy had been shaken up since Vicente's death, I still had sway, and I could help in ways my brothers couldn't.

I wanted to find Grace for Amorette, and my brothers.

"You know it's true. And it's disgusting. We're better than taking sloppy-seconds. Or thirds, or fourths, or in your case, fifths." She wrinkled her nose.

"If you say another word like that, I'll fuck you up." It didn't matter to me that she was a woman. In our world, that meant nothing.

I didn't hold the same values, and this bitch? She'd deserve it and I couldn't find it in myself to believe otherwise.

She smirked and faced me. "You wouldn't dare. Anyway, I might have the information you want. But there's something I want in return."

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. She was every inch as manipulative as Vicente. Whatever she wanted would not be good for me. Hell, she'd already had too much fun whipping me in the basement.

All for giggles.

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