All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,2

a caring brother either.

I can’t think about their budding friendship, or the fact that Lips adjusted to having a true psychopath for a brother with such ease, so I distract myself the best way I know how.

Digging for information and sharing intel with my bestie. “Why was Illi so happy? I thought he’d be sulking about you leaving him on babysitting duty.”

Lips grins and huffs under his breath. “Well, about that… he needs a little practice at babysitting… to prepare him.”

It clicks before she finishes the sentence. “Johnny ’The Butcher’ Illium with a baby? That sounds… well, I was going to say strange but he’s probably the most qualified out of all of us to be a father.”

Lips laughs and rubs a hand over her face. “I honestly can’t believe he waited so long. He’s been ready for kids since he first saw Odie.”

I lose myself in the traffic for a moment, categorizing information and planning out what I need to do next. It’s easy to zone out in the Phantom though I do need to do better about driving myself in Ash’s sports cars a little more often so I don’t get rusty at driving a stick shift. He’s not a fan of letting the guys touch his cars but he’s accommodating to Lips and I.

Probably because I bought more than half of the cars in his garage, all of them gifts because there’s no one that I enjoy spoiling more than my brother. He always appreciates his cars so much that it’s soothing to me, like a weird sort of ritual like my cleaning and obsessive need for perfection.

Lips clears her throat and pulls me out of my own thoughts. “Can we talk about my… the other Graves kids for a second? I think we need to have a plan here.”

I nod slowly, thoughtfully because all I’ve done since the Boar told us about them is think about them and what they mean for our family. “Do you want to meet them? Do you want me to arrange something with them?”

She’s nervous about it.

I know her well enough to see her tells, all of the little ways she fusses with her clothing and picks at her nails, so even though she barely twitches I can see the nerves in her. I don’t blame her for them either.

Siblings are a touchy subject in our house.

Just because you share blood with someone doesn’t mean that they’re going to turn out anything like you. Ash and Joey couldn’t have been more different as brothers, and finding our older brother’s head in that cardboard box back in junior year was one of the biggest reliefs of our lives. Knowing that his life was no longer in our hands, but that he was gone from ever touching either of us again, was like a weight had been lifted from us both, no matter the consequences from Senior.

Blaire is another touchy sibling issue. Blaise’s baby brother is now nearly two and he’s only seen him twice in his life despite desperately wanting to know him.

Lips and I have both discussed it often.

There’s no question that Blaine Morrison’s days are numbered, we just need to make sure that his company will be under our control when he’s gone. One way or another, Blaise will get what he deserves even if he says he doesn’t want it.

“I don’t want to meet them… yet. Can we just get all of their details and the dirt on them for now? I don’t really know if I want to know them all yet.”

I hum under my breath and tap my chin while we wait in traffic. Ash, Harley, and Blaise are in the car behind us, the music blaring and I can see Blaise laughing like an idiot in the mirror. They all just look so… relaxed now. These past few years of fighting to be together and alive and whole really was like a boulder sitting on our chests and now we’re free.

Except I don’t really feel free.

I feel lost and tired and traumatized.

I feel terrified of what’s going to happen next, of who is going to be hiding in the shadows to kill us all next, of what the consequences of the Jackal’s and Senior’s deaths are going to be. Nothing ever happens without the ripples affecting everything, the Twelve can’t lose two members the way they did without repercussions.

I can’t think about what happened in the vault in the Jackal’s lair.

I cook a three-course meal for