Entwined Realms Volume One(150)
Really, that was appropriate? But she pushed down the urge to take out her earrings and gave the most obvious fake smile in return. “Yes, I’m Nalah, and yes, I came with Esh. Who are you? I don’t remember Tiffany introducing you.”
The woman didn’t bother to answer and gave a negligent wave that highlighted her manicure. “How did you get him?”
This woman was pushing every one of her buttons with the attitude. “I wish the story was exciting, but it’s pretty boring. We knew each other as kids, and we reconnected as adults.”
The woman leaned closer, eyes sharp and looking for any weakness. “And you weren’t scared off by his violent reputation?”
“He fights in the cage. So do many others. Doesn’t make him a thug.”
Stroking the rim of her champagne glass with one red-tipped finger, the woman smiled with malicious delight. “You can’t tell me you don’t know the rumors involving him and Vitto. Why, if you don’t…” she gave an exaggerated shudder. “You might feel differently about him once you hear the truth.”
All the blood fled from Nalah’s limbs, leaving them icy cold in the wake of hearing her brother’s killer’s name. She’d blocked that name for five years, never let it be heard even in the deepest recesses of her mind.
But, what were the rumors she was speaking about? Esh never fought for Vitto, not before her brother died, and there was no possible way he fought for that man after what happened with them. This woman was talking crap, and Nalah was done. “I’m not interested in rumors. Excuse me.”
The woman grabbed her arm and forced her to stay, and as Nalah’s hand balled into a fist, from the corner of her eye she noticed Esh turn towards her. The woman continued. “He’s a murderer. They say he single-handedly destroyed Vitto’s organization. They say he killed Vitto himself.”
Nalah was rooted to the ground, buzzing in her ears as the woman’s words ricocheted in her head. That couldn’t be true. Esh would have told her if he did something like that.
A large, calloused hand wrapped itself around hers, and the back of her mind registered Esh coming beside her, glaring at the woman and pulling her away, leading her out of the party and towards their rooms.
The buzzing in her head quieted until other sounds could penetrate. The soft hum of the refrigerator, the radio she had left on from earlier, a jazz song playing, low and mournful. “We keep leaving his parties. Beylor’s going to get a complex.”
He retreated to the wall, leaning against it and staying silent. He looked like a mistreated junkyard dog, watching a new arrival and just waiting for the blows to start.
The tension stretched between them, the weight of that last week – the week that started with her brother falling to his knees in front of her and ended with his body being lowered to the ground – crushing them underneath. “Is it true?”
“It’s true I killed Vitto. That his organization fell afterwards wasn’t on me.” Esh’s voice was clear and steady and neutral. It was a statement of fact, concise, the way he approached everything.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
The question hung, suspended in the air. He lifted his chin, like fighters did when they were daring their opponent to take a hit. “It wasn’t meant for you to know. I didn’t kill him for you. Unless it’s convenient for you to attack me with, you seem to forget Jac was my best friend. Vitto was an evil bastard who killed my best friend, and by doing that, destroyed my life.” In a sharp motion he brought his hand to his hair, clenching the strands between his fingers before smoothing the hair back. “Why would you think I wouldn’t kill him after that?”
“Because you don’t get involved. Because doing that marked you.”
She didn’t mean the words as an attack, but the way his body tensed told her he took them like that. “Well, maybe you weren’t the only one who didn’t care what happened afterwards, as long as the pain ended.”
No. Gods no, she never thought Esh…she never wanted him to be in that dark place, with nowhere to turn and no one to believe in him.
And she had put him there. She didn’t mean to do it. She was thoughtless, mired in her own pain, but even in her darkest times she never wanted Esh to hurt.
His gaze was sharp, defiant. “Got anything to say about that? Like, it was what I deserved? Too bad it didn’t work out that way?”
Standing like that, for one moment he was the little boy she’d known, standing rebellious and daring everyone to judge him, daring her to put him down once again for his choices, but underneath the attitude was fear. Fear he would be rejected. Fear he’d end up alone again.