Page 10 of Beastly Armory
It’s almost dawn when I stumble to the gates of Von Dovish Estate, clutching my side that’s been in a constant cramp for the last four miles. I’m so tired, all I want to do is bathe and sleep, but the adrenaline keeps one foot in front of the other.
Nothing like almost dying to make you want to live.
Where the Freidenberg manor is a tortured Gothic Tudor and the Donovan monstrosity is all modern, our home is cozy French Country. The high white plaster walls surrounding our property greet me before I reach the wisteria covered gatehouse.
Our old gatekeeper shakes his head with disappointment at my approach, then sneaks a pointed look at his watch. Hopping into his golf cart, I stumble forward andlet my body slump into the passenger seat. The whir of the little engine leads us down the winding lane in no time. “Thanks,” I say as he heads back to his station with a small wave.
Opening the double glass entry doors, my lungs finally fill fully with air as I relax to the scent of roses and wood polish. I’m home. A housekeeper has already taken up the flowers that normally sit in the entryway vase and vacuumed the blue Persian Souf rug covering the black and white marbled floors. It’s late, but I know I need to check in with my brother.
Climbing the wide stairs, I turn right and trail my fingers over the white wainscoted walls all the way down the hall. Cal lives in his room, but I don’t bother knocking. He wouldn’t be fucking anyone, the hermit. He covers up his mousy brown hair with his dirty black hoodie, and despite my dramatic flop on his Louis XIV bed, he doesn’t swivel in his chair to look at me. Which means he already knows what I’ve been up to. Even though his body frame doesn’t move an inch, I can tell he’s disappointed.
In front of him is a wall of monitors, where he studies the replays of tonight’s excursion at the Crimson Angel. His shoulders are slumped as if he has been at this for a while, possibly since I arrived at the lounge.
The side of my face scrunches. “Echoes told you?”
Flatly, he responds, “She didn’t have to.”
“Alpha said?—”
Swiftly, he spins in his chair, his green eyes bloodshot from the blue lights of the screens. If his eyebrows got anycloser together, they’d become one. Both hands come up and lower the hood of his sweatshirt as he runs his fingers through his waves. It needs a trim. Despite being twins, only our defined cheeks, big eyes, and cupid’s bow lips are similar. I take after our mother. Cal always looks afraid.
“Alpha has nothing to do with this. Alpha, Delta, hell, Foxtrot are none of your concern.Please, Livia. I’m begging you to let this go.”
He never says my name, at least never my full name. “Calum, I’ve told you before. We’ve been sitting ducks without weapons. If not Strauss, then Donovan, or now, maybe evenFreidenbergcould take us all out at some point. We’ll be no better than Max’s family, and then what? No more Von Dovish clan!” Sure, the skirmishes between clan crews have been raging for years, but now that Max is back… this could cause us all problems. Strauss won’t like it and he may just decide to end us all.
Spreading his long fingers out to his sides, he explains, “Our business is enough. We’re comfortable. We provide for everyone’s families on the west side. We’re safe.” Cal stands as I sit up on the edge of the bed, rubbing the blue velvet of his comforter idly to soothe my irritation. He slowly eases next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “I’ve got us. We don’t need to resort to violence, weapons, or anarmoryto protect ourselves. Look at tonight, you almost got raped… or killed.”
“I didn’t.” My mind races elsewhere, calculating which informant snitched on me.
“But you could have.”
A heavy sigh escapes my chest, directed at my brother. We have had the same conversation for years. He’s never going to get past his pacifism, and I know what we must do to survive. Shrugging off his arm, I stand. “Did you watch everything?” My eyebrow raises, embarrassment flushing my cheeks at the reminder of tonight’s activities.
His wide lips curve into a frown. “Did I watch you have sex with Mr. and Mrs. Dean? Hell no. I think I would gouge out my eyes out after seeing something like that.” Relieved, I grin as I head toward the door, but he stops me. “So… Max is back.”
“Yeah, he’ll make good cannon fodder,” I snap back.
Softening his voice into that trance-like tone he tries to use, he pleads, “Liv, that’s not what I’m saying.”
I stretch my neck from side to side. “I don’t want to even think about it.”
“You’ll have to, eventually.”
Twisting the cool doorknob in hand, I say, “No, I won’t.”
“Liv,pleasedon’t let our father’s indecencies stop you from your future. Fromourfuture. For the future of West Side.”
Without looking back at him, I head out of his door and slam it with a loud bang behind me.
I’m not going to think about Maximillian Freidenberg. I’m the one who needs to focus on our safety. Danger is at an all-time high right now with the lion’s return, and that makes us an involuntary target.
Cal always has his head in the clouds, living in some carefree world that doesn’t exist. He’s my brother, my twin, and I love him, but he’s not strong enough to do what needs to be done. We need to invade the arsenal and get those weapons. It doesn’t even have to bethatarsenal andthoseweapons. It could be any of the ones Strauss took over… If only I knew where they were.
Citizens of Gnarled Pine Hollow have been prey for at least two decades, ever since the Freidenbergs left. Everything I’ve been through to take over the industry they abandoned has made my resolve solidify like the diamonds sitting in our family safe. I’m not giving up, no matter how much my brother protests. I thought my biggest hurdle was Strauss, but now I’m wondering if it’s my own flesh and blood.
Cal is too passive. He sits behind his computers and thinks he has a handle on everything. He says he can see what’s coming by reading those black and white digits floating down the monitor like water droplets.“The future is in those zeros and ones.”I don’t know anything about computers. I haven’t had to. I had him. And our spies, tanks, and hackers.
Echoes, one of our hackers, has lasted the longest out of all of them and I don’t think she would tell on me. Itmusthave been Alpha, one of our spies. Well,Cal’sspy. Ever since she developed her little crush, she seems to be less of a lookout and more of a mole.