Gracious

Chapter 48

A/N - we have 2 chapters left I'm not okay

~~~

Because Marco and I were Marco and I, any of our disputes never lasted for more than about 24 hours.

So the day after I offended him with my concerns about Ezekiel, he'd come over with busted knuckles and asked me to clean him up. I knew that was his weird ass way of saying he knew I was just worried about his brother.

Nearly three weeks later and it was water under the bridge, long forgotten about.

"Twenty fucking six", my cousin laughed at me, wiping a cloth down the blade of his knife, "you're getting old". I narrowed my eyes at him, sipping my peppermint tea with a grimace- I fucking hated this drink.

"You say that as if you're not less than a year younger", I raised an eyebrow at him, "think I saw a grey hair when you opened the door".

"Watch yourself", he pointed the knife in my direction and cocked his head, "don't want my hand to slip".

"Psychopath", I scoffed, earning myself a chilling grin; of course he relished in being called that, "so we're-,". I paused when Marco's office door swung open- there were few people who would dare to walk in without a knock, and of course his best friend was one of them.

Rio waltzed in as if he owned the place, an elated expression on his face as he perched on the desk and nodded down at me; the two of them had known each other since they were fourteen, and had been wreaking havoc side by side ever since.

"You make me sick", my cousin stared at him on his desk in distaste, "can't you see we're having a riveting conversation?". I smirked into my mug, I'd never met someone with a personality like Marco, and probably never would again.

"I can barely see, period", I choked on the damn tea, spluttering all over the desk while smacking my chest, only making Marco look at me in disgust too. Rio smirked in triumph at getting that reaction out of me, seemingly subconsciously running a hand down the scar that ran through his left eye; the same eye that he'd been blind in for about four years now...I still didn't know what had happened to him.

I knew Marco did, I had suspicion he was even there to witness it, but neither of them had given me the details.

"You're hilarious", Marco said dryly, pointing the knife at Rio instead now, "what do you want?".

"I can't come and hang out with my favourite person?", he frowned, smoothing a hand over his buzzed head, "poor hospitality".

"And you wonder why I don't socialise with people", my cousin addressed me to which I snorted, "we're talking about Zane's birthday next month".

"The big twenty-six", Rio laughed, "old as fuck".

"You're literally a month older than Marco", I narrowed my eyes, "anyway, I'm not doing anything".

"Taking a leaf out of my book", Marco grinned, "birthdays are overrated, another year closer to your demise".

"The positivity radiates off of you, you know that?", Rio scoffed, my cousin grinning in reply.

"My greatest asset", he lifted a shoulder, "someone has to be full of sunshine".

"Yeah, if the sun was fucking cold", Rio chuckled, "everything good at home Zane?".

"The best it's been in a while", I said, knowing full well that was nothing but the truth, I finally felt content with where me and the boys were at, and I knew I had another decision to make, "so much so that I want to bring Isabella home, as soon as possible". The pair of them stilled, Marco pausing his weapon cleaning and Rio's hand stopping on the top of his head.