Page 149 of The Devil We Know

I glare at him. “No one fucking asked you.”

He grins back but says nothing further as we sit there in shocked silence for long moments. After a few sighs, Agatha says softly, “So Declan was right.”

Declan is sitting in his chair looking even more morose than he was previously and I reach my foot out, kicking him in the leg. “Why the long face? You were right.”

“Yes, and now I’m just pissed.”

“Me, too,” Tony responds. “That motherfucker sat back and let us mourn his ass for months only to randomly turn up and with this ‘hey guys, it’s me’ bullshit.”

“Yeah. It does seem kind of dickish,” I add. “But Dare doesn’t do severely dickish things like this without good reason. And he doesn’t mention Antoinette, which is greatly concerning.”

Agatha frowns, nodding as she says, “I thought the same. Do you think maybe she’s dead dead, and he just didn’t want to tell us in a letter?”

I shrug, taking a deep breath through my nose and expelling it out my mouth in a huff. “Could be any number of reasons. We won’t know anything until Dare decides it’s time.”

Tony curses. “God, he’s fucking annoying.”

I laugh, shaking my head at what a fucked-up turn of events we’ve walked into.

“What do we do now?” Agatha asks.

Declan, Tony, and I look at each other briefly, each of us nodding because we know there’s only one thing we can do. Tony stands, stepping close to me and taking the letter from my hands. He stares down at it for a moment and then pulls a lighter from his pocket before looking over at Agatha with a smirk. “We continue to do what we do best.”

She quirks a brow at him. “And that would be?”

I laugh, watching Tony flick the lighter, holding the flame to the corner of the paper, which immediately ignites. We all watch the flames for a moment, and then Tony’s smirk blooms into a smile as he looks over at me, flames reflected in his eyes.

“We fuck around.”

60

Let’s Make a Deal

Matt

Three months later

It's been a rough few months.

While we found great relief in learning that Darius wasn’t actually dead dead, the gaping hole left by his continued absence is still felt every day. And then there’s Antoinette and her still unknown fate.

Then there’s the fact that this is the first downtime I’ve had since losing my job. A job I loved—a job I would still love to have if not for my habit of skirting the law basically all the time.

And then, there’s Jessica and me. It's safe to say that our fledgling marriage hasn't gone to plan, though that’s definitely not for lack of caring for each other. It's just our current circumstances have thrown curveballs that I'm constantly fouling, and she doesn’t always take it well—not that she should.

While I understand that no two people are going to get along all the time, the amount of unnecessary bickering we tend to do on a daily basis is bordering on unreasonable.

Don’t get me wrong, I know she wants to be there for me wherever she can, and it frustrates her because this isn't a situation where any amount of being there for me is going to help. I also recognize that my tendency to be a closed-off, emotionless bastard is becoming a bigger problem.

And the whole “It's not you, it's me” bullshit only makes it worse.

So, after months of all of us being on top of each other, everyone finally decided to go about their business. Tony and Carolina decided to go on an extended honeymoon. Declan and Issa dove head-first into their new business venture with Power PR Management. I'm relieved that things with Power PR are falling into place, so I’ll be able to take a bigger role in the near future, but in the meantime, I know I need to focus on salvaging my relationship.

Even Kaian pissed off into the wind, having to go back home to tend to the family business. Camilla decided to take some private contract in the middle of God knows where.

So, basically everyone has abandoned us. And I know they did it on purpose, considering every single one of them told me specifically to get my shit together or else.

Jessica went upstairs a while ago with the idea she would be taking a bath and relaxing before bed. And me, well, I've been sitting here the entire time, contemplating absolutely fucking nothing.

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