Page 193 of Rage

“We’re all here, Firefly,” he teased. “Darth was just giving you a hard time. You know how he is.”

I do.I knew how he was way more than I cared to admit. Growing up, many would whisper about what kind of family the Solomons were. Rumors circulated about how Martha Solomon’s beauty salon was home of an underground gamblingring and Donny Solomon’s security firm was behind hundreds of extortion rackets.

The Solomon brothers had to deal with scrutiny in every direction, yet very few got an up close and personal view into their lives like I had since I was best friends with their only sister.

Even though Darth had lied to me, seeing Key first out of the Solomon brothers immediately put me at ease. He was the carefree man of the bunch. The smooth charmer who had constantly made me laugh when we were younger even if there wasn’t much to laugh about being the daughter of a deadbeat dad and a mom who didn’t give two shits about providing for me if I wasn’t dressed like a bottle of tequila.

“Come in,” Key said, stepping aside and gesturing me through the threshold. His smile widened, a glint of mischief in his gaze. “Let’s see what you’re so nervous about that had you pacing our driveway.”

I stepped into the grand home with more confidence than I felt, my mind immediately recalling the last time I was in the home a few years ago.

“It’s good to see you, Firefly,” Key stated, leaning his six-foot-five frame down to embrace me in a tight hug that had me sighing into the curve of his arm and breathing in his delicious freshly showered scent.

“It’s nice to see you too.”

Key was the tallest of the brothers, but they were each over six feet tall.

“Do you want to fill me in before we head to the office?” he asked as we began the journey down the hallway.

I shook my head a bit faster than necessary. “No. I rather tell you all together, assuming Seb is here too.”

Key lifted a curious eyebrow. “Just Seb?”

“And Darth,” I answered, my anxious energy propelling me to walk a bit faster than he was. I only briefly glanced over my shoulder to catch him laughing at me, his frohawk shaking when he did so.

My nerves were on edge the closer I got to the room, but luckily, my eyes found Seb’s next.

“Nyxani,” Seb drawled, his lips curving into a smirk before he placed a kiss on both of my cheeks. Seb was the only one who called me by my government name. Darth and Key both called me Firefly.

“Hey Seb, it’s good to see you.”

His eyes sparkled with a look I couldn’t decipher even though his smile was warm and friendly when he said, “I’ve missed you too.”

Seb was a bit like Key in physical attributes. He was leaner with a body built for speed and precision, rather than brute strength. His tattooed, sepia-toned skin seemed to absorb the light shining through the window, enhancing his role as the family’s silent, secret weapon. He always kept his hair in a short high-top curly fade that was never disheveled.

Whereas Key’s eyes were bright and warm, Seb’s smoky-gray orbs were deliberate and calculating through his black-framed glasses, their depth hinting at secrets he’d never willingly share. A faint scar along the side of his neck only added to his mysterious air, even though I knew exactly how he got it.

Grinning widely at him, I ignored a surly Darth who was scowling at his desk while I spoke to his brothers.

“Mia said you’d be stopping by,” Seb stated inquisitively. “Didn’t say why, though.”

“Oh, she did?” I asked, my voice a bit too high-pitched. “Actually, she was the one who suggested I talk to you about my problem.”

“Talk to me personally?” he asked.

“No. All of you,” I corrected, implying that I meant his brothers as well.

“Even me Nyx?” a voice asked, stepping into the office behind me and Key. I froze at the sound of his question, wondering if my body would ever stop betraying me today when I was around the brothers.

I turned slowly, trying to prepare myself for laying eyes on the only brother I hadn’t randomly run into over the years, my breath hitching at the sight of him.

Cassius “Cash” Solomon.The only Solomon brother who called me Nyx.

Cash was the most physically intimidating of the brothers, with a broad, muscular frame that exuded raw power. His rich ebony skin was marred by a jagged scar that ran from his left temple to his jawline, a reminder of the assassination attempt that almost took his life.

His hair was styled in short locs that he didn’t have when I saw him last. They fell just past his ears, framing his face and somewhat hiding his gray, stormy eyes that were shadowed by the trauma of his past. Eyes that had always been raging and unreadable at times.

“Uh, yes,” I told him, finally finding my voice. “Even you.”

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