“Actually, she totaled my car too,” I add.
He bursts out laughing, just as I hear the front door and a woman’s voice as she announces herself.
“I see the ice was broken,” a short woman with shoulder-length, dark, curly hair says as she walks in. “Hi, I’m Carmen. That one’s better half.” She points to her husband.
Arias’s whole demeanor lights up with her in the room, and Scarlet laughs next to me.
“Pleased to meet you, Carmen. I’m—”
“Carter Pierce. Don’t you worry, I know all about you.”
I turn to Scarlet, but she shrugs and shakes her head.
“I’m not sure what these boys told you, but I’m just gonna say this. To both of you.” Carmen props herself on the armrest of her husband’s seat, crossing her legs and staring between us. “I know what organization you’re not only part of, but founded, Carter. I know of the danger that surrounds you. Well, a part of it, anyway. But I also know Scarlet and her predilection for it. Truthfully, this”—she points between us—“connection you two have doesn’t surprise me one bit. I really want to tell you that if you put Scarlet in any danger, we’ll kill ourselves and take you down with us to avenge her. However, in reality, we know that no one can make her do anything she doesn’t want to. Stubborn like her father. Wherever she sees danger, she dives in headfirst. All I’m going to say to both of you is...be careful. Seriously. Be careful. And I hope you told this man about your CIP, because he’ll have to keep an eye on your reckless ass.”
This time around, both men burst into playful laughter, and Scarlet joins in too. The atmosphere turns lighter, the mood almost fully flipped. Even with Marc still watching me like a hawk.
For the next hour or so, I sit almost entirely in silence, observing these familial interactions. How homey and comfortable they are with each other. An ease I’ve never experienced within my own family. Not the blood relations, anyway.
Logically, I can’t miss something I never knew, yet as I watch them laugh and talk, make coffees and sort out breakfast as they throw around inside jokes from their past or the siblings’ childhoods, I realize that my logic is flawed. I missed out. And I’ll never have this for myself.
Was it all my fault?
Did I ruin my parents?
An early memory of my mother slips through my mind.
“You’re good, darling. God plants the seeds of good in each of us. Yours is in there too.”
“If that’s true, then why do I want to do such bad things?”
“Because of that terrible creature within you. The one we will soon rip out and send back to hell.”
If it wasn’t for me, my mother wouldn’t have gone on the path she went on. My parents could have still been together now. Happily, maybe.
As I witness Scarlet’s sunshine, how she casts her light on everyone around her with her perky, carefree attitude, I can’t understand how she could ever care about someone like me.
Chapter 32
Carter
Standing by the bar in Midnight, I nurse a drink after an exhausting day and an even more mentally draining evening.
Finnigan’s ear is to the phone, a stupid grin plastered all over his pretty-boy face. He’s likely talking to Evelyn, and I realize...I risk turning into him. Sans the stupid grin, obviously. But what I’m feeling on the inside seems awfully similar.
We had a lot of work to do today—damage control, research, planning and plotting, and meetings with all our team leaders—yet my thoughts strayed constantly to the dark-haired woman who has invaded my life and made herself at home in it.
Because of what happened within The Sanctum, she knew I’d be busy since leaving her house late yesterday morning, and I wasn’t sure for how long. She’s been a good girl, giving me space without question so I can work with the guys through this whole Duval mess.
But I haven’t been good at all.
I find myself picking up the phone and texting her in every free moment I have.
It’s odd. Illogical. Yet what would make even less sense would be stopping my behavior.
“We’ll get him soon. You always find something.” Maddox walks next to me, taking a long swig from his beer bottle.
I don’t turn as I take a sip of my drink, looking at Vincent, observing the deepening shade beneath his eyes. This situation has been getting to all of us. Though, lately it’s felt like one thing after the other.