“It’s personal.”
“I’m sure it is. Still, I can’t help but wonder how this woman managed to become an unanticipated complication to a man like yourself.” He leveled me with a pointed stare. “A man like the Musician.”
And there it was. The threat. The split-second a friend could become foe.
I placed my hands in my pants pockets as I widened my stance, not backing down an inch. “This is killing you, isn’t it? Not knowing.”
He smirked. “I’m not going to lie. It does…irkme, not knowing how she fits into all of this. You know I don’t appreciate surprises, Elijah. I don’t like it when people hide shit from me.”
“If it was my intention to hide her from you, do you think I’d let James live so he could inform you of my guest?”
He crossed his arms, puffing his chest like a goddamn peacock. “I suppose not. But I still don’t appreciate being kept in the dark. I consider shit I don’t know as threats—which is why I made it my business to know everything about everyone who has ties to my family and me.”
“Bullshit,” I scoffed. “You and I both know if you considered Charlotte a threat, you wouldn’t have waited this long to come here. And honestly, was it necessary to make such a huge motherfucking entrance with that overpriced helicopter? A speedboat works just as well.”
“What can I say? I like to make an impression.”
“You like to show off.”
“That too.” His lips curled up at the corners. “What’s the point of having so much money if you can’t flaunt it to the world?”
“Good God. I thought having a family of your own would make you a little more humble, but it seems like you’re still the same arrogant bastard you’ve always been.”
“Not a chance. In fact, having a family of my own only made me more cautious. Protective. Deadlier.”
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t scare me, Saint. You never have.”
“Do you think I scare Charlotte?”
“After flashing a gun around? Yeah. She’s probably terrified of you—which I don’t appreciate, by the way.” I stalked closer, leveling him with a glare. “If you were anyone else, you’d be breathing out the side of your neck right now.”
Seconds ticked by like bombs going off in quick succession, the tension between us mounting to a point where it was a mere matter of moments before it exploded. His brow dipped in the center, and my top lip curled into a silent snarl. He knew I was speaking the truth that the only reason he wasn’t dead right now was because…well, I considered the man a friend.
A dear friend.
Family.
Saint smirked. “How much did it take for you not to punch me in the face when I landed?”
“A fuckton.”
“God, I love fucking with you.”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?”
“Oh, I know.”
We smiled, the tension shattered as we went in for a hug, Saint slapping my shoulder before leaning back. “She’s going to kill you when she finds out we were fucking with each other.”
I pulled a hand through my hair. “I’ll just blame it on you since you started it.”
“You played along, didn’t you?”
“God, she’s going to hate me.”
We snickered, and I walked over to the cabinet, grabbing two crystal glasses, and poured us each some bourbon. I turned and handed him his drink before taking a seat on the leather couch. “Seriously, though, what are you doing here?”
“I had some business in Rome, finalizing a project with my father.”