𝐕𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐃 ❷

𝟐𝟑. ✭ 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐗𝐓𝐎𝐍 ✭

My phone won't stop ringing. I'd hoped that after the first few times I ignored it that whoever was calling me would get the fucking hint and stop, but no dice. It's going off, yet again, and I have to excuse myself from my current blonde companion. She reminds me of a certain someone on the exterior but she doesn't have nearly the wit or the sass that Adriana possesses. Adriana being the entire reason this woman is here in the first place. I was hoping to fuck all of the sex hormones out of my system before my double shift tomorrow. One had to prepare themselves for a day alone with Adriana because I know if I don't I will be nonstop, perpetually horny.

I snatch my phone of the countertop and tell my company to give me a minute while I take the call. A familiar name is flashing on the screen that has me knowing it has to be an important call. The fuck? He never calls me at this hour especially for his time. Blowing out a deep breath, trying to sober myself up, I answer.

"You're calling rather late this evening." I glance over at the clock. "Or should I say early in the morning for you." He wastes no time and starts speed-talking. His voice sounds panicked as he relays the series of events that have unfolded for him over the course of the last day. "Wait wait wait, slow down. Can you repeat that in a slower, much more articulate way so that I can actually understand what it is that you are saying?" He does exactly that, telling me something I already knew and had kept from him— our mother wasn't killed in a hit and run accident. Our mother was murdered by the Warner-Riley family. Our entire family was but, from what my mother had told me on the night of my little brother's eighteenth birthday, they deserved it. My mother though, my mother did not deserve the death she'd been dealt.

"Braxton? Hello? Are you still there?"

"Yeah, Tris, I'm still here." I let out a long agitated sigh as he continues, telling me exactly what Dedaj's plans are for him and Daniela. I had told my brother that Torey is now aware of his presence in her life. I had told him that he was not thrilled about it. What I had not told him about was the colossal violent eruption that had happened afterward. Torey isn't someone I had planned to take out on this endeavor but if he wants to murder my brother I may not have choice. The man is a savage.

"Brax, I dont know what to do. Tell me what to do. I know Torey is alive. Dani knows he's alive. I can't just fucking marry this woman, his woman, he will fucking slaughter me." Don't I know it. I saw the way he took out several men like it was nothing and they weren't even my brother. I can't imagine what he'd do to him if he was actually in front of him and when he's at full strength.

"Alright, here's the deal, talk to Daniela about it. Clear the air between the two of you so that she thinks that she can trust you. If you don't say anything about the conversation she's going to think you're hiding something and conspiring against her with her parents. You're not. So don't let her believe that."

"But Daniela *can* trust me." I let out a sigh at his emphasis of the word can. Regardless of whether the Dedaj's wanted my brother to fall for their daughter or not it would appear he may have already done that. Daniela is an extremely beautiful woman and she's a damsel in distress— just his type. He's always had a thing for the broken ones.

"She already has two boyfriends, Tris." He's quiet which has me shaking my head. "I know she's attractive and I know you looked up to Torey and everything but—"

"I just care about her is all. It's not like that."

"I'm sure it isn't, Tris." Although I'm thinking the opposite of what I said. I'm not going to push him on it but I will remind him. "Just remember who the people in her corner are. You aren't safe either way." This wasn't part of the plan, him going to Albania. He was just to infiltrate the Dedaj syndicate in New York and gain information, access. Him being mixed up in all of this wasn't supposed to happen. Him being, for all intents and purposes, betrothed to the mafia princess was not part of the plan in the least. My brother now has a bright red target on his back. "Fucking hell, Tristan, what did you get yourself into?"