Page 4 of Ravaged
CHAPTER 2
Ethan
Derek lifted his eyes from the phone and acknowledged that he was still listening. He was texting with one of the other Adlers. Even though we were half-brothers and close to the same age, I didn’t feel any kinship. I was a year older than him, but he held his shoulders like he was the only man in the entire house, as though his father, Gerard Adler, the number one mob boss in all of Sage City, wasn’t under the same roof. As if he wasn’t threatened by my sudden appearance.
Or, perhaps it was the contrary. Perhaps he understood the gravity of what my existence meant. An older Adler. Someone else who could take the role of leader.
We were sitting across from each other around the kitchen island, one of the only places Gerard’s wife had been allowed to renovate. Modern lights dangled above us. Through the windows above the sink, there was a view of the garden and the woods behind it.
“Did you take care of any business in New Mexico?” Derek asked, his movements stiff. By business, he meant hits.
“Besides the one time?” I asked, lifting a brow. Technically, it wasn’t a hit, but it had the same result. “No.”
“Shipments or deliveries?” No, I didn’t move drugs. I shook my head again. “Protection?”
“Just fought,” I said. And for no one but myself.
“Don’t start now. You’re a long way from home.”
I was used to the desert, to dry weather and rock, to hot air balloons rising in the early morning air like broken promises. This coastal city wasn’t home to me. I had years of building up hate for the Adler brothers, the sons Gerard proudly claimed as his own. My mother didn’t have the same resentment, but she told me everything she knew, besides their surname. But I wasn’t stupid. I had figured it out on my own, that I was related—an heir, in some ways—to the famous Sage City Adlers.
Derek and his full brothers had only found out about me recently, when my mother called Gerard to ask for a favor. I didn’t want to be where I wasn’t wanted, but now that I needed protection, working for Gerard was my only option.
“What happened?” Derek asked. He stowed his phone and leaned forward. “You killed your neighbor.”
I shrugged. “Shit happens.”
“It takes a lot of anger to kill a man with your bare hands.”
“I’ve got nothing but anger,” I said, staring into Derek’s eyes, daring him to fuck with me. His eyes were dark brown, almost black, like mine. We had gotten that from Gerard. Strangers wouldn’t question the fact that we were brothers, but they wouldn’t know that I was Gerard’s secret. The baby tossed aside, kept in hiding, an adult now, in his thirties. Gerard’s wife, Clara, knew, but she didn’t tell the sons. That would ruin the dynamic they had established. And Gerard had promised Clara that Derek would be the next boss.
Until I stepped in.
“I take you to be the hands-on kind man,” I said.
Derek’s nostrils flared, but his eyes stayed locked on mine. “Your point?”
“You’ve killed too.”
He breathed through his nose. I hadn’t grown up under this roof, but the rage still filtered through my blood. It was part of being an Adler. Derek rolled his shoulders, acknowledging the shared connection, and moved on.
“And you’ve been at the condo in Vegas since then?” he asked. “Did you talk to anyone?”
“I kept to myself.”
“No gambling? No interaction with anyone else you might have had to take care of?”
“I kept to myself,” I said again, my voice louder.
“Nothing we should be aware of?”
I put my fist down on the kitchen island. “I didn’t kill anyone else if that’s what you mean.”
“Listen,” Derek said. He straightened. “You’ve got to get your shit together. Just because the boss thinks you’re worth the trouble of inviting into the family home, doesn’t mean everyone else is on board.” He said it as if Wil and Axe, the other two brothers, were ready to kick me out too. “Gerard is due to retire, and when that happens, I’ll get the say on whether or not you’re welcome here.”
I sneered. “You forgot one thing,” I said. He furrowed his brows. “I’m older than you.”
He narrowed his eyes for a moment, then ran a hand through his hair. The seniority, even if it was one measly year, put me as the most likely candidate to take over the family business, and he knew it. It complicated things.
