they have to work to make it work. He isn’t an easy man to live with and he knows it. He tries, but he can’t undo the damage done to him. Steele is insane sometimes and Breezy is strong enough to call him on it. She chooses her battles, but she doesn’t let him get away with being a dictator. Ice has it the easiest because Soleil is a pleaser, but then he gives her the world. He would stand on his head to give her whatever she wanted. The two of them are making their art work for them together in a business, but even Ice can get out of hand sometimes and Soleil seems to be able to bring him back. But the absolute bottom line is this, we can’t be without one another, not even Czar. Blythe knows it. All the women know it. They choose to live close because they know we need each other.”
Lana rubbed her left temple. “I want everyone happy, Absinthe, I really do. I want to see every single one of my brothers and Alena find that perfect person, but to be left behind, to be alone and know I always will be, it’s just too much. I can’t watch that. I’m not that big of a person. I wish I was, but I’m not.”
“You have a headache, babe? I shouldn’t have asked you to stay.”
“No, I get them sometimes, just like all of us. It’s nothing. I wanted to stay. I like your librarian. I think she’s perfect for you.”
“Stop overthinking all this. You’ve always done that. You’re the one who likes to plan out every detail.”
“Like you.”
That wasn’t exactly the truth and both of them knew it. His older brother, Demyan, had been the meticulous planner. Absinthe had always gone on his gut feelings. As always, when he allowed himself to think about his brother, his stomach churned and his lungs burned for air. His heart accelerated and the pressure in his chest increased until it felt like a thousand-pound weight was sitting on him. He broke out in a sweat. Shit. He was finished with that.
“Honey.” Lana’s voice was pitched low.
He forced air through his lungs when it felt impossible to make that happen. Movement at the window across from him caught his eye. Scarlet had risen from her chair and moved right up to the glass. She appeared to be peering out, looking out toward the garden, right at him. Night had fallen, streaking the sky with gray and then deeper bluish black, making it impossible to see through the draping trees and thick shrubbery where Lana and Absinthe were hidden, but he still felt as if she could see right through it all straight to him.
He made an effort to breathe, to push his brother behind the doors in his mind, close and lock them. He couldn’t afford to think too much about him or what happened to him. Or why. “Damn it, Lana. Like I said, we’re never going to be all right. The damage they did to us will always be there no matter what we do.”
Lana had turned her head and was looking at Scarlet as well. “Is it possible that she felt you, Absinthe? That she felt you upset? Can you already be that connected?”
He took his time answering. “I don’t honestly know. We definitely have something unexpected. It’s growing stronger every time we’re together. Our minds kind of tune to one another. I’ve never felt anything like it before. There’s a definite connection and I know she feels it as well, but just because I’m upset … that seems a little farfetched.”
Scarlet turned away from the window to take her seat. Dessert and coffee were served to the two women. She smiled up at the waiter and he responded with something that made her laugh.
“I don’t know, gut-wrenching, visceral, not just upset, Absinthe. I would have to say there’s a difference and if you’re connected, she just might feel that. You feel it when any of us are upset even over a distance.”
“I’ve known all of you since childhood.”
“You said she’s much like you.”
Absinthe had to give that some credence. Scarlet was a lot like he was, at least the closest he’d ever met to anyone with the same gifts. They weren’t exactly the same and she wasn’t as adept at using them, but no one else had even come close to having anything like his talents. He had no idea what