Page 48 of Empire of Light
I’d never been more uncomfortable in my life.
And I was comfortable anywhere.
Ever since I was young, every room I walked into, every street I walked down, I owned. All because I was a Folotto—and then later, because I was the head of the Folotto family.
Respect preceded every step I took in this world.
Entitled? Hell, yes. But it was also what was expected of me. It was how I survived my cut-throat brothers. How I forged a world of my liking for my offspring to one day take over.
But this was fucking unnerving, being in the heart of panthenite country. Being in the heart of their operations.
A Colorado mountain town in the heart of the Rockies.
My skin had been crawling since we reached the base of the mountain, itching more and more as I drove higher in altitude.
Per the very specific directions given to Ada, we’d arrived on the mountain in the middle of the night and had stopped at a house below the town of Brikton, where Triaten had been waiting in a black SUV.
The ass didn’t even roll down his window, just motioned for us to follow him as his tires rolled over the ice and snow packed on the gravel drive.
We parked along the edge of town in a lot behind a dive bar, and Ada looked over at me, a wild grin on her face as she pulled out a thick wool fisherman’s hat and plopped it on my head, pulling it down.
Her smile grew wider. “It looks good on you—rustic, like you’re going out to fell a tree or take down a bear. We should have gotten you some flannel to complete the look.” She pulled an identical thick black hat over her own head, pulling her blond hair back into a low ponytail and tucking it under her dark jacket.
“Where did you even get these?”
“In Venny’s room—she had a whole line of them, six or seven in her wardrobe. It looks like you replaced everything she’d ever bought.”
“I did, but I didn’t look at everything that came in.” I looked in the rear-view mirror, slipping my thumb under the front fold of the hat. “Why in the world would she own so many?”
Ada shrugged. “She liked them? Maybe she wanted to gift you with a matching set, so you two could go out and forage nuts in the woods together.”
I stared at the hat in the tiny mirror and it hit me. “Or they look like the hats we wore when we were travelling in the Himalayas, when I was looking for answers on how to control her.”
“Really?” Ada’s eyes lit up. She loved it when I talked about anything in my past. Always hungry for those little nuggets of my memories. Something I didn’t quite understand. The past was the past and it rarely needed rehashing. “You mean when you first got Venny?”
I glanced at her. “She told you about that?”
“She did. She knows now how out-of-control she was then, but I still think she misses that time alone with you.”
“She hated me then.”
Ada met my eyes, her look sincere, giving me the reassurance I never knew I craved about those early years with Venetia. “Yes, but you were exactly what she needed at the time. She knows that. Without you, she would never be what she is now.” She smiled, leaning over to refold the crooked line of the bottom of my hat. “Regardless, this is a good look on you.”
“You always wanted a mountain man?” My smile grew carnal. “Shall I grow a thick, heavy beard for you as well?”
Her lips pulled to the side in mock consideration. “No, please, not the beard. Stubble yes. No beard.” Her hand ran along my jawline. “This face is far too pretty to hide behind facial hair.”
I chuckled, leaning forward, and rubbed the grizzle of my current stubble across her cheek as I went in for a kiss to melt her panties.
A sudden knock on my window.
The asshole.
Triaten stared into the SUV at us, a bored look on his face, cock-blocking me, even though we all knew there was no time for my cock to get anywhere near Ada at the moment.
He made a motion with his forefinger to his lips for silence and then flicked his fingers in the air, silently telling us to follow him into the dark shadows of the town.
We made our way through town along the outskirt by the river.