Bow Down And Beg For Mercy

Chapter 11

Raphael's POV

"So, nothing happened between you two? Nothing at all?" Selena asks after what I thought was the last time she would push me to lie to her. She scoots close to me, pressing her shoulder against mine as she stares into my soul, or what's left of it anyway.

"No, nothing at all." I lied.

Her lips press into a thin line. "I gave you three chances to tell me the truth. If you're going to lie to me, remove the faint smudge of red lipstick on your cheek." Her thumb harshly swipes across my cheek, showing me the tint in her finger. Sighing I turn my body to face her. "I'm sorry, I just don't want to involve you. Nothing really happened, she was just messing around."

She rolls her eyes, crossing her legs. "She doesn't seem like the type to 'mess around'. I don't mind that you lied about it, but at least make me believe you. I don't want to believe my brother is a liar because he's not." Selena is a lie detector, I don't know how she does it but she can always tell when she's being lied to.

It's her gift.

"When did you grow up?" I put my hand on head, tussling her hair that she let down. My sister scoffs at me, pushing my hand away. "Please, I'm always like this." I raise a brow at her, a smile tugging at my lips. "Oh, really? I'm sure you weren't this big that time when you drank too many slushes and couldn't make it to the bathroom." Her face glows red as her eyes widen in disbelief and her hands balling in a fist.

"You promised never to talk about it!" she exclaims, punching my shoulders, rambling on about how young she was and cannot be held accountable for the accident that happened. I barely heard the door close over the sound of her excuses.

"What's up?" I look at Jace as I hold Selena's wrists in my hand but she refuses to give up
and begins swinging her legs at me, kicking my shin. "Ow!" I drag, shoving her away from me and she runs to Jace's side. He yawns, tossing the towel he was drying his hair with over his shoulder and drags his feet, falling face first in my bed.

"What's up is that I hand to lead a search party to find any spies that may be in the area and rough up a few hooligans to make sure they don't try anything and then some stupid jerk thought it was a bright idea to take a swing at me when he was clearly outnumbered and ended up losing a few teeth. Lucky for him, I was tired, so I let him go." He lays on his side, resting his head in the palm of his hand, eyes closed.

Whenever father decides to step down and give me the position of Don, Jace is to be my right hand. We've been best friends since the day his parents died and he moved in with us. His parents were my mother's close friends and they were assassinated on their way home from vacation. The nanny that was left with him died protecting him and buying time for him to escape.

He was seven.

One of father's associates brought him to us, hoping to gain favour from my mother, which they did and were granted one of our hotels for special guests to look after. Mother saw her  best friends in him and took him in, father had no say in the matter. She raised him like her own son and we fought together as brothers. He protects Selena with his life and would not hesitate to kill for her. He earned his place in this family and even though he is not our blood, he is one of us.

"So, what about you? Did I miss any action?" He mutters, his damp black hair sticking to his forehead. The loose white T-shirt has drops of water that clings to his skin, the shirt rode up just the slightest bit, exposing the draw strings of his grey sweat pants. His honey brown eyes are fighting to stay open, his lashes fanning his tanned skin each time he forces his eyes open.

"Not really, just business talk, boring stuff." I dismiss, dodging the poor punch my sister attempted to throw, grabbing her wrist and twisting it behind her back, holding her there. "He failed to mention his new girlfriend." Selena teases, struggling against my hold until I let her go.