Page 49 of No Longer Safe

She looked down at her lap before she answered. “I’m not sure if he knows it yet, but no. I planned to break things off with him before this.” She waved her hand in front of her face and grimaced.

“I don’t see why any of this is dinner talk or why it is our business,” My father interjected and all conversation at the table ceased. He hadn’t even looked up from his phone, which he always brought to the dinner table. I didn’t know why he even came to dinner with us as a family. He didn’t care for any of us besides Ace and I was pretty sure the only reason he put up with the oldest was because he couldn’t trust any of us to be heirs.

Mother’s lips thinned as she looked down at her plate. I wanted nothing more than to put my father in his place, though it would do no good. I would be outnumbered. No one would ever side with me if I went head to head with the man who keptus fed and living the lavish lifestyles we did. Most of the time I was okay with not standing up for myself, but seeing Audrey’s shoulders hunch forward did something nasty to my insides.

Everyone ate in silence.

After dinner everyonemet in the foyer after we waited for our father to slink off to his office, or what we called The Lair. All he cared about was business and watching his profits soar. He would log in to his computer and watch numbers all day. If the numbers weren’t satisfactory then he would ultimately call someone to bitch and complain or even fire them. I’d seen that side of my father a lot as a child. Now as adults, we chose to stay away from that. If our father saw us, it was at parties that our mother forced us to attend or it was for dinner that our mother forced him to attend and he was rarely there emotionally anyway.

Griffin rubbed his hands together and looked like he was ready to plot murder. “What’s next?”

Audrey watched everyone with a weary expression. I could see the exhaustion in her features and watched her out of the corner of my eye to make sure she was okay, though I didn’t directly address her either. I wanted to, but I bit my tongue. There would be time for snarkiness and bad behavior but that day was not today.

Ivan cut Audrey a sly grin and I clenched my fists at my side. “Audrey has a Godawful engagement ring she’s ready to dispose of.”

That was interesting.

Ivan pulled something out of his pocket and I rolled my eyes. A stick of dynamite. How lovely. Leave it to Ivan to carry something around like that. Audrey’s giggle cut through my gut. “I thought we were going to send it off properly with fireworks?”

They’d spoken about this already? When? I thought there wereno dicks allowed.How had Ivan gotten past? The sneaky bastard pretended he didn’t care so he could slide under the radar. I knew it.

Ivan tucked the explosive back into the pocket of his baggy jeans and folded his arms over his chest. “Of course. I just wanted to bring out the big guns first. See if you were interested in something else.”

She shook her head and beamed at my brother. How could I get her to look at me like that? I swallowed thickly and tried to think of anything else.

Dimitri put his hands on Audrey’s shoulders and grinned. “Fireworks it is.”

Why were my brothers even here? Was I really having to compete against them?

I stopped the thoughts right there. Compete? Compete for what? I didn’t even understand my brain anymore. I wanted her. But I couldn’t give her what she wanted. She would eventually want kids and a picket fence. I wasn’t a suburban dad who grilled on the weekends and dropped kids off in a carpool. I wasn’t meant for that life. I was meant for roughening up thugs and opening up strip clubs. I was meant for a dangerous life, not this safe existence she sought out in Brian. I needed to keep reminding myself of that or I would destroy the one precious thing I actually cared about.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Audrey

The engagement ringwas cold in my hand as I watched Ivan and Dimitri set up the fireworks on the other side of the pond. They said they would signal me when they were ready for the ring.

When I imagined fireworks, I thought of going to the stand with my parents and buying the cheap ones that were slightly terrifying when you lit them. You didn’t know if they would go haywire and hit you or actually go into the sky. This was something else entirely. They had an entire setup dedicated to explosives. But what else could I expect? These were not some cheap fireworks. This was an entire setup that probably cost more than my yearly salary.

It was the perfect send-off. I didn’t know how ready I was for it, but at this point, I knew one thing—I was never going to get back with Brian and I didn’t think he really wanted to get back with me either.

If he had, he probably would have texted or called or something.

“I can practically hear your thoughts,” Carina wrapped her arm around my shoulder as we watched the guys work. I didn’t think it took all this manpower, but what did I know about a couple hundred thousand setup? There were freakin’ dronesinvolved. I also didn’t know how this was all going to work but I was willing to trust the process.

“He would have called, right?” I whispered the words.

Carina released me and let out a loud laugh. “No. I wouldn’t. Not after the ass-chewing Ace gave him. I would be pissing my pants scared.”

I felt myself pale but at the same time, I was proud. Proud I had people who stood up for me and cared enough about me to do all they’d done. “What did he say?”

“He told him how he would kill him in very creative ways if he spoke to you again.”

I could believe that. Now that I’d spent more time with Ace and his family, I knew without a doubt that they were into some illegal shit. I didn’t think they were trafficking, but there was something happening that wasn’t right. Not morally right. I didn’t care as long as I was on their good side, but I wasn’t so sure anyone was on Sinclair’s good side and that scared me. I especially knew something was up with how serious the grannies were about murder.

It was casual dinner talk and they didn’t seem to care who heard them. I guess that was what money bought you. Or maybe they killed everyone that might have evidence against them. It didn’t make me feel great, but I also wasn’t going to complain either.

It made sense on why Carina’s mother didn’t want to come and participate. I could imagine her sitting at the dinner table with us and passing out cold as soon as they mentioned murder. Or at least jumping up from the table and pointing at Carina screaming, “I told you so!” I would not be doing any of that nor would I be mentioning any of this to her. This was the life Carina chose for herself, she probably knew a lot more of this than she let on before. She didn’t look shocked when they talkedabout illegal activities. She didn’t bat an eye at the psychopathic tendencies that Ace’s brothers had.

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