Serpent King's Bride: A Dark Mafia Romance Trilogy

“Understood.” There was a brief silence, as if he was digesting the distance in my tone. “Then what do you want, Nathan?”

I took in a deep breath, steadying myself against the counter. “I don’t believe you were behind the bombings,” I said, the words feeling heavy yet necessary. “That’s not you.”

There was an audible exhale from his end, a sound of relief—or maybe just exhaustion. “You should have known that,” Alex retorted, his voice firm, “that’s exactly what I told you.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, closing my eyes momentarily. Apologizing had never been my strong suit, but this required swallowing my pride. “I’m sorry, Alex,” I said, and I could almost feel the shock through the phone line. “I want to make this right. I want to pull the family back together.”

Silence hung between us for a heartbeat, and I could picture Alex’s disbelief, could sense his skepticism even across the wires.

An apology from me was as foreign to him as trusting blindly was to me.

His laugh came through bitter and hollow, the sound grating against my resolve. “Pull the family back together?” he scoffed. “You think it’s that simple? Our father’s already got a target on my back, Nathan. You can’t just undo that kind of damage.”

“Maybe we can,” I countered, refusing to let the resignation in his voice seep into the space around me. “If we sniff out the rat—the one who really set the bombs—we might have a chance.”

“Sniff out the rat?” He echoed, skepticism dripping from every syllable. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“Have you got any ideas?”

“Look, I’m as clueless as everyone else,” Alex admitted with a frustrated sigh that stretched through the line. “Neon and Javi have been on it since day one, digging deep, but every lead’s turned to dust. Dead ends, every single time.”

“Alright, I’m looking into it on my end too,” I reassured him, though what I really wanted was to grab someone by the throat and shake the truth out of them. There was something I needed to ask, a suspicion that gnawed at me like a rat with a wire. “Alex, did you ever see Knuckles meeting with the Lins when all this first started going down? Before everything blew up?”

On the other end of the line, there was a momentary pause—a hesitation that told me the question wasn’t one he’d expected. “Knuckles?” he finally said, his voice tinged with surprise. “No, never caught sight of that. You think he’s involved?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed, pinching the space between my eyes closed for a second. “But I can’t shake off this feeling. Something about how all this played out doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Knuckles has always been rock solid,” Alex responded slowly, considering the implications. “Loyal to the core. But then again,” he added with a tone that suggested a shrug, “these days, who knows?”

“Yeah, loyal,” I echoed, though the word felt heavy on my tongue. “Loyal” used to mean something unbreakable among us, but now it was just another word, fraying at the edges.

“Look, Nate,” Alex continued, a weariness seeping into his voice, “I’ve been in the shadows since this all went down. Same as you, I want to get to the bottom of this, but I’m just as blind here.”

“Stay that way for now,” I advised him. “We should try to keep this short, but we’ll talk soon. How can I reach you?”

There was a pause before he replied. “I’m sending you a burner email. Check your phone.”

“Got it,” I murmured as my phone buzzed with the incoming message.

“Later, Nate.” And with that simple goodbye, the line went dead.

I stood there for a beat longer, the phone’s weight in my hand suddenly magnified. The quiet of the morning seemed to press in on me, the gravity of our conversation settling deep within my chest.

That’s when I heard the soft creak of the stairs and turned to see Abby descending, her hair tousled from sleep, a sense of serenity wrapping around her like a blanket I longed to crawl under.

We were supposed to have this day just for us…but reality was already creeping back in.

“Who was that?” she asked, her voice still thick with sleep.

“Alex,” I replied, locking the phone and slipping it into my pocket. There was no mistaking the flash of concern that crossed her face, but she masked it quickly with a small, supportive smile.

“He’s safe?” The question wasn’t just about the call; it was about him, us, the whole tangled mess that seemed to follow our every step.

I nodded, ushering her toward the kitchen where the aroma of coffee promised a semblance of normalcy. “Let’s catch up over a cup.”

Sitting at the kitchen island, mugs cradled in our hands, I filled her in on the call with Alex. Her brow furrowed as she digested the news, the engagement ring catching the early morning light and throwing prisms across the walls.

“Definitely something we’ll have to look into,” she said after a moment, her mind already racing with the implications.