Grave (Dark Kingdom, #3) — Chapter no 5

CHAPTER FIVE

GRAVE

I PULL INTO the private parking garage at Kingdom and bring my car to a stop. Walking up to our elevator, I scan my card and step inside. I make my way up to the thirteenth floor and walk off the elevator, stepping onto the white marble floor. The receptionist looks up at me, but I ignore her and head straight down the hall to the back. The four of us each have our own office, but I’m headed to my brother’s. He hates it when he has to hunt me down, so I might as well get this over with.

Shoving his door open, I refrain from sighing. My brother sits behind his desk. The black curtains behind him are pulled tight since it’s a nice day outside. He has a problem with sunshine. Anything that has life to it, he likes to black it out. Just like our father did.

Titan leans up against the wall to his left. Arms crossed over his chest and ankles crossed. He wears a pair of jeans, plain black T-shirt, and a scowl on his face.

Cross sits in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Holding a Zippo in his hand, he flips it open and closed.

They all look at me as I shut the door, but no one says a word. “I didn’t know we were having a meeting today.” I fall into the seat next to Cross.

My brother leans back, the oversized black leather chair squeaking at his movement. “We need to talk.”

“If it’s about Dad, you can save it.” I dismiss him. I have nothing to say

on the matter.

“It’s about you,” Titan growls.

I turn to look at him, wondering what’s up his ass. Ever since he got with Emilee, he’s been much more pleasurable to be around. “What about me?” I ask, not caring.

“We need to talk about the incident last week,” my brother answers.

“What incident?” I ask, but I already know what it’s regarding. Do they think they can corner me and expect me to talk because of their half-assed attempt at an intervention? They don’t know me very well if that’s what they think.

Titan pushes off the wall, eyes narrowed down on me. “Emilee thought you were dead.”

I run my hands down my shirt and jeans to where I grab my cock. It’s still hard from seeing the woman with the purple hair at the flower shop. I never did get her name, but I’ve decided I’m going to call her Petal. She’s as delicate as a petal. “As you can see, I’m very much alive.”

“Goddammit, Grave!” My brother slams his hand down on the black desk. “This is a serious matter.”

It’s one of his favorite lines to yell at me.

“You terrified her,” Titan adds, and I snort.

Cross and I sit in the living room of the Royal Suite—the suite the Kings and I share here at Kingdom.

Titan is working, of course, and Bones left earlier today to go to New York for whatever reason. He never tells me shit.

I throw back the glass of bourbon and stand. Swaying on my feet, my vision blurs. “Fuck …” I slur.

“Yeah,” Cross agrees, falling off the couch and onto the floor. We both laugh. “This shit is good.”

I take a step toward the open kitchen, but trip and fall on my face. My heavy eyes close, and I let out a long breath.

I woke up to Emilee kneeling beside me, shaking my body while screaming in my face. She called Titan, and he called Bones. I had passed out. It wasn’t something new or life threatening, but she freaked the fuck out and tattled.

I lean back, crossing my arms over my chest. “Cross was just as fucked up as I was.” I rat my best friend out like the child I am.

“Hey, don’t bring me into this.” Cross places his hands up in the air, surrendering immediately.

“Emilee didn’t find Cross passed out on the floor. She found you,” Titan growls.

I smile up at him. “Does she have feelings for me, T?” His nostrils flare.

“Better make sure to keep her in check, or before you know it, she’ll be

asking me to join in while you fuck her.” I wink at my brother. “Bones shouldn’t get all the fun.”

Titan lunges for me. His hands hit my chest so hard my chair falls back.

We crash to the floor, and I roll to my right as Cross yanks Titan off me.

I sit on the floor staring up at an infuriated Titan. His chest rises and falls fast, and a growl comes from deep in his chest. His hands fist, and when I think he’s about to hit me, he turns and storms out without another word, yanking the door open so hard it hits the interior wall with a thud before it slams itself shut.

I reach up to see if my nose is bleeding. I’m surprised when I see no blood. I think it was his elbow that connected with it.

“Give us a minute,” my brother tells Cross.

He exits, and I pick myself up off the floor. I tilt my head back, still waiting for the blood to come oozing out. Bones comes around the desk and leans his ass against it, crossing his arms over his chest. His black button- down strains against his muscular, inked arms. “Why do you do that?” he

asks.

I don’t answer.

He sighs. “Why do you take a serious situation and ruin it by opening your mouth?”

I snort. “How did you think that conversation was going to go?”

He bows his head and runs his hand through his dark hair. “You have a drug problem.”

My palms begin to sweat. He’s never said it out loud before. We both ignore it. “Well, I’m sorry but not all of us can turn everything off.”

“Is that what you think I do?” he asks, frowning.

“It doesn’t matter what you do.” I shake my head, not caring. “You deal with you, and I’ll deal with me.” I go to exit, but his next words stop me.

“You’re all I have left, Grave.”

I swallow and close my eyes. He and I were always close. Him and the Kings are only one year older than me, but he’s always been my big brother.

When our father wouldn’t teach me to play baseball because he wanted Dillan to be the star, Dillan taught me. When it came time for me to drive, Dillan taught me how to in his car. He gave me my first beer. First cigarette.

He was the one who showed me how to be a man.

“I want you to get help,” he adds, filling the silence.

I straighten my shoulders, not bothering to turn to face him. “And I want you to stay out of my business.”

“Kyle?” He sighs, and I swallow the lump that forms in my throat.

“Mom’s been gone for eight years.”

My entire body goes rigid. He never mentions her. “Your point?” I snap.

“Now Dad is gone.”

I spin around on him with my face scrunched in anger. “So you didn’t feel shit when Mom passed, but now that that son of a bitch is dead, you’re gonna feel something?”

“That’s not what this is,” he growls, his blue eyes narrowing on me.

“Then what the fuck is it? ’Cause that’s how it sounds.”

He looks away from me, and I see the tic in his jawline right where his neck tattoo comes to a stop. He took me to get my first tattoo when I turned eighteen. It was actually on my birthday. He already had his first one. I remember the next day when I saw Dad, and he was pissed at me. Said I was trying to be like Dillan and he didn’t raise sheep. I shouldn’t do something just because my brother did. I told him to go to hell and immediately went and got another one.

“You’re going to hurt yourself if you don’t stop,” he finally says, avoiding my previous question about our parents.

I snort. “Yeah, because you’re so cautious with your life.”

“It’s different,” he growls.

“How is it any fucking different?”

“I’m not feeding myself full of drugs,” he snaps, pushing off the desk.

“No. Instead, you’re too busy killing people and fucking your best friend’s woman.” I turn toward the door.

“Grave?” he demands.

“Fuck you, Dillan!” I throw over my shoulder as I go to walk out of his office door, but he yanks me back by my shirt and slams my back into the wall. Both of his hands grip the collar of my shirt, and his blue eyes are glaring into mine. He’s pissed. I’ve always known what buttons to push when it comes to my brother. I like the fight, and as much as he hates to admit it, he does too. This is one of his vices. We’re the same—he and I—I just don’t choose to hide it.

“Say that to my face,” he growls as his nostrils flare.

I lick my lips, lift my chin, and smirk. “Fuck you …”

He yanks me from the wall and shoves me away. My feet get caught up in his rug, and I find myself once again on the floor. I roll onto my back and close my eyes. Fuck, I should have stayed in bed with Lucy.

“Get the fuck up!” he shouts. “Go home and get some sleep. We’re leaving first thing tomorrow.”

I sit up and rub the back of my neck. I need something for the pain because my head is pounding. “Where are we going?” I couldn’t care less.

“To Rio,” he growls.

I start shaking my head. “I’m not going.”

He walks over to me, standing at my feet, staring down at me still on the floor. “Yes, you are. We’re going to go identify our father’s body and then we’re going to lay him to rest.” With that, he storms out of his office, slamming his door shut.

I fall back down onto his floor and let out a long sigh. Fuck my life.

Getting up off his floor, I walk down the hall and see Titan standing in his office with his back to the glass on his cell phone. Probably talking to Emilee. Cross stands at the receptionist desk, leaning over it and looking down her white silk blouse.

When he sees me, he straightens and walks away from her while she’s midsentence. “Where are you going?” he asks me.

“Out,” I answer and punch on the elevator. If I’m going to be stuck with my brother for a few days while we take an eighteen-hour trip to Rio, I’m going to get fucked up.

It opens immediately. I enter, and he follows me.

“Wanna go to Glass? They’re serving breakfast,” he offers.

The best thing about strip clubs in a town that never sleeps means they never close. I open my mouth to say yes but pause. “What happened to you the other night?”

“I left with Mandi. Then I was gonna come back, but when I called, you were already in the car with Bones. He came and got you.”

I lean my head back against the mirrored wall. “Did you take my pill bottle?” I ask.

He shakes his head, pulling out his Zippo and flipping it open and closed.

“Then it had to have been Bones.” Fucker!

“Not surprised. They’re worried about you.”

I snort. “Not you too?”

He gives me a smile. “I said they.”

That makes me laugh. Cross and I are a lot alike. We just don’t give a shit about a lot of things. Titan and Bones are the serious ones, always crunching numbers and wanting to chase down men and demand payment in blood.

Kingdom doesn’t deal with minor shit. From the outside, we look like a legit hotel and casino with hundreds of attractions, but on the inside, we’re as dark as the fucking world can go.

We deal with drug lords, celebrities, heirs to billionaires. My brother even deals with the mafia. To him, money is money. Doesn’t matter whose hand it comes from. That’s our dad in him.

Titan is the same fucking way. That’s how he got Emilee, and the bastard just so happened to fall in love with her.

The elevator dings, and the doors slide open. I push off the mirrored wall and walk into the underground garage. This elevator is for the four Kings only.

I unlock my car, and the lights blink. “Glass?” Cross asks.

I almost forgot he was with me. I look down at my Patek Phillippe watch and nod. “Sure. I could use some food.” Maybe it will get rid of this fucking headache. “Then we can make another stop afterward.”

He nods.

“Get in. I’ll drive us.” I pull my cell out and send Luca a quick message.

Me: Change of plans, I’m coming to you.

Luca owns the other half of Glass. His silent partner is my brother. Might as well get my shit from him there instead of him having to make a trip to Kingdom where Bones can see the exchange.

Luca: Sounds good. I’m here.

APRIL

“WHAT ARE YOU doing, Princess?”

I plop down on the barstool and look up at my best friend working the bar. She has her bleach blond hair up in her usual high ponytail and a smile on her face, but her green eyes look tired. Running two businesses will do that to you.

“Needing a drink,” I answer. It’s been a long day.

She frowns. “You mean you didn’t come just to see me?”

I chuckle. “Afraid not.”

“Sis, we both know that she only comes here to see me.” Derek walks out of the fridge behind the bar, closing the door behind him. “How are you doing, sexy?” he asks, and I don’t miss the way his dark eyes fall to my chest.

Derek and I went on one date. It didn’t work out. But we’re both adults and were able to stay friends. Thank God because his younger sister has been my best friend since we were in grade school.

“You wish.” She smiles brightly, showing me those teeth that took three years of braces to straighten. She hated every second of it. I remember her having to cut up everything she ate. It took forever for her to eat.

“Always,” I tease.

She laughs and turns to grab a frosted mug and pours me a Corona.

Knowing what I like. She places it on the bar in front of me and then leans over on her forearms. “I’m slow. Fill me in on your day.”

“It started off with me getting in a fight with Ethan this morning. It didn’t get any better after that,” I state and take a drink.

“Girl, I don’t know why you don’t just beat him into submission. We both know that you could take him.”

I snort into my beer. “True, but I’m trying to teach him that violence is not the answer.”

Now she’s the one who snorts. “Since when? You beat the crap out of him when he got into your computer and stole your research paper and used

it as his own.”

“That’s different,” I argue.

“How?”

I set my beer down. “Because Mr. Walden thought I had just freely given it to him, thinking he wouldn’t remember.” I sigh.

“Anything you need me to do?” Derek asks. “Want me to talk to him about something? Is it girls?”

I shake my head. “I found a key card of some sort from Kingdom at the shop today. I think it fell out of his jacket pocket.”

“What?” she asks. “How the hell would he get in there?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure what the hell he would be doing with that.”

Derek’s dark eyes look around before he leans forward and whispers,

“Kingdom is bad fucking news, April.”

I wave him off. “It’s just a casino.”

“No. I hear shit in here. Kingdom is into some bad shit.”

I’ve lived in Vegas most of my life, but I know nothing about the casinos or nightlife. I have always lived in my own world. From the moment my mother opened Roses, I worked there with her. Before school. After school.

Even after I turned twenty-one, I never ventured out onto the Strip. It’s just

not my scene. “Like what?” I frown.

“Yeah? Like what?” she asks him.

“I hear that the guy, Bones, is in big with the mafia. Whatever they want, he gets them. Vice versa. And they bury bodies in the desert.”

“Mafia? Really?” I laugh. “Since when do you believe in that shit?” I know they exist. But in Vegas? They’re in places like New York, Chicago, and Italy. “And what could this Bones guy get them?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know exactly. I just know that anything goes there. I guess there’s some sort of black market that the guys run.”

“Illegally?”

He rolls his dark eyes. “That’s what black market stands for.”

I’m still not sure I believe it. But even if I did, I ask, “What would Ethan have to do with that?”

He shakes his head. “You need to find out. And better hope that it’s not too late to get him out of it.”

Alexa frowns. “He’s a teenage boy. Maybe some friends of his had a party there or something.” She shrugs. “Kids do it all the time.”

“Or it’s something much worse,” Derek argues.

I sigh and tip back my beer as he goes to help a man who just walked up to the bar.

My brother better not be into some shady shit, or I will beat him so badly he won’t be able to sit down for a week. He forgets that I can knock his ass out. I’ve done it before. Many, many years ago. But a woman doesn’t forget how to fight. It’s like sex. Another thing I haven’t done in a while. When your body is put in that situation, it just knows what to do. Instincts take over. And cravings need to be satiated.

“What are you going to do?” Alexa asks me.

I shrug. “Not sure just yet.”

“Well …” She slaps the bar top. “How about we go out tomorrow night?”

“How is that going to help me?” I arch a brow.

“It won’t, but you need to have some fun and let loose. When was the last

time you went out and had some fun?”

I sigh. “I don’t know.”

“Exactly. I have this girlfriend who’s having a party. I actually have a night off. It’ll be fun.”

“Girlfriend, huh? Have something to tell me?”

She laughs. “Trust me, April, if I was trading teams, you’d be the first one to know.” She winks at me, and I throw my head back laughing.