Page 9 of Kings & Chaos

Family beyond blood.

“Come on, Jezebel,” Neo said. “There’s family, and then there’sfamily. You know that.”

He was right. Aventine’s unofficial motto sounded good when you were partying with the other crime families, but when the shit hit the fan, the only people you could really trust were your own.

Which meant the shithadhit the fan.

I had a flash of Emma’s face on the security camera.

“She was scared,” I murmured. “That’s why she came to you.”

“Now you’re starting to get it,” Neo said coldly.

“Maybe if you’d told me the truth in the beginning, I would havegotten itsooner. I’ve been fishing around in the dark, trying to figure things out on my own, because you wouldn’t tell me anything,” I said.

“It was for your own good,” Rock said. “We were trying to keep you safe.”

“I don’t care aboutsaferight now,” I said quietly. “I want to find my sister.”

“So do we,” Oscar said. “We’ve been working on it.”

I glared at him. “For two years?”

There was something a little sad in his nod. “Yeah.”

“And what have you found out?” I asked.

“Not as much as we’d like,” Oscar admitted.

I rubbed angrily at a vein of marble on the island countertop. “What a surprise.”

It was mean, but right then, I kind of felt like they deserved mean.

“Easy for you to say.” Neo’s voice was hard. “While you were having a global rave, we were here, trying to figure out what had happened to Emma.”

It only hurt because it was true. Maybe I deservedmeantoo.

“I shouldn’t have left,” I said. “I won’t defend that. I was in a bad place. But you were here. All of you. Emma came to you for help.”

“And we tried to help her,” Rock said. “We’ve been trying to help you.”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” I muttered.

Rock nodded. “I get that, but whoever is behind the disappearances of the Bellepoint girls, behind Nikki’s death, they have power. A lot of power.”

“Like Dean Giordana,” I said. “Did you know that he was involved? Before the fire at the cabin, I mean?”

“We knew,” Neo said.

I folded my arms over my chest. “And you didn’t tell me.”

It was a good thing I didn’t expect Neo to be apologetic, because he just glared at me. “Nope.”

“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why,” I said.

His expression didn’t change. “Nope.”

Oscar sighed and raked his hand down his face. The ruby in his ring caught the sun in the kitchen and flared. “Listen tiger, believe it or not, we’re trying to protect you.”

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