Cousins(3)

"Why are you still here, Jade?" For a minute I forgot she was even in my house.

“I literally just told you that your cousin who’s over a thousand miles away may be in some trouble. I've watched you zone out on me, play with your gun, and eat more yellow M&Ms than any one person should be allowed to over the last few minutes. What gives? You should be going all bad ass right about now. Calling in the troops. Making shit happen."

"All I said was research her ex for me. I never said that she was in any trouble."

Jade looks at me incredulously. I can’t even blame her. I sound like a complete liar.

“Are you freaking kidding me? You didn't have to say it. It's a given that if we're looking into someone that they may be a problem. And all I just said to you was that the Ethan kid may be in the Bahamas, and now you look like you want to kill somebody. I mean look at you. What don't I know? Why did you trash your apartment, and why are you acting like a complete nut-ball right now?"

"I didn't want–" I stop myself from saying the words.

"You didn't what?"

I grunt and shake my head no, so that Jade will shut the fuck up, but she isn't the type to take a hint. She's like a tiny little Chihuahua that latches on and doesn't let go until she gets what she came for. Blood.

"I don't know."

"I've known you a long time, Roman, and I've never seen you like this. So agitated. So indecisive. You do realize that there's no room in your world for whatever this is that you’re going through? There are no days off for you.”

"I know that Jade." I say with tension in my voice. I'm ten seconds away from pinging a yellow M&M at her annoying little head. They're both about the same size.

"I'm not indecisive about shit, Jade. Elizabeth's a big girl. If she decides to hook back up with her ex in the Bahamas then that's her business. She'll call home if there's any trouble."

Jade gives me a lengthy sidelong glance.

"Is that what this is about? You're mad that she may be hooking back up with the ex?"

I turn my head and glare hard at Jade. I already know that she knows about my unhealthy attraction towards Elizabeth, because of how I was acting at the club, but saying that shit out loud is a whole other matter.

"Don't give me the stink eye boss man. I get it. I had a crush on one of my cousins when I was in high school and had no problem letting the whole entire family know about it either. I used to follow him all over the house during family dinners like a little puppy dog, but being attracted to your cousin is just like having the hots for your best friend's boyfriend. It's completely fine and totally normal as long as you don't act on it; and you haven't acted on it right?"

I don't answer Jade, because I know that she means that as a rhetorical question. One that she wouldn't like the honest answer to. She takes my silence and my blank face to mean that I haven't crossed any lines yet and continues on with her spiel.

"I don't see how you can just sit here playing with guns and scarfing down candy knowing that her douchebag ex may be knocking on her hotel room door right this minute. You asked me to look into him and I did. I know he has some drug issues, and Elizabeth doesn't seem the type to tolerate someone like that. So why aren't you doing anything about it? Imagine Joseph's reaction if something does happen to her, while you sit here paralyzed with some sort of misplaced guilt. What a fixer."

Okay now her sarcastic ass is fucking pushing it.

"Watch it, Jade." I growl.

"Do you want me to book your ticket to the island or not?"

Of course I do.

That little fucker is there.

I can feel it.

Once Jade said the words, I knew right then and there that it was true. And if he's there, he could only be there for Elizabeth. There's no fucking way it's a coincidence. I know sneaky, lying drug addicts. I grew up with and around a shit load of them, and he is definitely one. He just goes to fancier schools and dresses better.

I lock the magazine clip of my gun into the receiver for the final time, lay my piece down on the table with a quiet thump, and swallow my last yellow M&M. I'm the hell done with self-soothing. I work better with an edge to me any fucking way.

"Book me a one-way ticket to Nassau and a room at the Atlantis."

I practically roll my eyes at the smirk that spreads across Jade's face. She loves it when she wins.

"How do you know she's staying there?"

"Juliette mentioned it."

"So you want one of the penthouse suites?"

I usually get the best that my money can buy when I travel, but not this time.

"No. Find out what tower she's staying in and book me the best room they have on her floor. It has to be on the same floor."