Embrace the Darkness (The Maura Quinn Series Book 1) - Ashley N. Rostek Page 0,136

be perfect for summer or to entice a partner,” I retorted and finished off my coffee before placing the empty mug on the table. “I got cold.”

“You look like a homeless person,” Rourke snickered next to me.

I gasped, mocking my outrage. “Rude.”

He grinned. Fingers brushed my neck as my hair was pushed away. I stilled. Looking back at Stefan, I found him staring at my neck, or more specifically the hickey blemishing my skin. I hadn’t seen it, but if my father’s brows raising was any indication of how bad it was, it had to be ugly. Stefan’s eyes shifted from my neck to Jamie, who surprise surprise was holding an unreadable expression. Stefan cocked a brow at him. Jamie made no comment and brushed him off by stabbing more eggs with his fork. Stefan sighed, releasing my hair, then returned to eating.

Ignoring them, I looked around the table. Aunt Kiara was still fixating on her coffee while Conor kept glancing at her, concerned, in between bites of food. I leaned closer to Rourke. “What’s going on? Not that I don’t like starting my day seeing your ugly mug, but what are you all doing here?” I whispered.

Rourke grimaced.

“Your auntie wanted to spend the morning with family,” my uncle answered, clearly overhearing me. “Isn’t that right, love?” He placed his hand on her arm gently. Kiara jumped, startled out of her daze.

“Wha—uh, yes,” she stammered, and a single tear fell from her glossy eyes. “It’s important to stick together—lean on each other in times of loss. Sam…he was flawed, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t love him,” she sniffled.

I cast a concerned glance at Stefan. Shit, is he okay? I wondered if there was something I could do to help him through this. I was fine. Good riddance if you asked me, but that didn’t mean Samuel’s death hadn’t hurt others. My family hurting affected me.

Stefan’s brow puckered as he watched his sister. Sensing me staring at him, he looked at me. Reading my expression, he rolled his eyes. “Don’t compare me to your aunt.”

“Do you want to spend the day together? We could go somewhere for lunch? Or we could go on vacation? Disneyland is known to be the happiest place on earth. Lord knows we need that particular feeling by the truck load. California has wonderful weather year-round. We can walk along the beach and—”

“Maura,” Stefan said, interrupting my rambling by placing a hand over mine. “We’re not going to Disneyland.”

My shoulders slumped. “Talk about crushing a girl’s dreams. Way to go, Stefan,” I grumbled sourly.

He gave my hand a tiny squeeze, drawing my eyes to meet his. He gave me a quick reassuring look that told me he was fine, and I let it go.

“We couldn’t do anything today, anyways. Rourke was about to invite you to tag along with him on his special errand,” Stefan started.

“I—what?” Rourke stared at Stefan, confused, which Stefan returned with a pointed look. “Oh, yeah. Uh, I’m delivering a shipment to a buyer. Want to come?”

Real smooth, guys. Stefan was trying to pawn me off. The sad thing was, it was working. I was itching to know how we ran guns. “Sure.”

An Escalade and an unmarked utility van were waiting for me in the driveway when Rourke came to pick me up. I didn’t know what to wear to sell guns. Playing it safe, I went with business casual by choosing skin-tight black slacks, black peep-toe ankle boots, and a canary-yellow long sleeve blouse. I had no choice but to leave my hair down. There wasn’t enough makeup in the world to cover the dark, huge hickey Jamie had given me. Asshole.

I slipped on a leather jacket as I rushed towards the door. Asher was already waiting outside. Dean had drawn the short straw and had been sent upstairs to get me once Rourke had arrived.

“Finally,” Rourke griped. I flipped him off as I bounced down the steps leading to the cobblestone drive. Everyone started climbing into their assigned vehicle. Rourke hopped into the back of the Escalade. I slid in next to him and Dean sandwiched me between them, then shut the door. Asher rode shotgun, while Rourke’s enforcer drove. Two other guys who worked under Rourke followed us in the utility van that was carrying our merchandise.

“Heard you kissed the don,” Rourke said teasingly as we drove through downtown.

I was going to string up that goon by his toes and Stefan himself wouldn’t be able to stop me. “If