It’s not jealousy, really, it’s more of me wanting him to accept whatever happens will happen regardless of his proximity at this moment.
She must feel the shift because she looks at me with concern. “Are you two fighting?” she asks. This girl’s heart, I swear.
“Ask him,” I mutter begrudgingly. She directs herself at Jordan and he closes his eyes.
“Your father saw me gripping his thigh,” he explains with a pinched expression. The bed squeaks as she turns and I’m sucked further in by the movement. She must have one of those fancy beds with the air pressure on.
“My father isn’t part of the Vestige,” she explains with a sense of freedom. I want that. To feel at ease with every breath. Jordan looks at her and then at me. I’m sorry, he mouths. “He saved me. They were planning on killing me.”
“Who’s they?” Jordan asks before I have the chance.
“He didn’t specify, but it seemed like an inside job.”
I’m sure I look ridiculous with my mouth popped open, but I’m shocked. Who would want to kill her and why does it seem like it’s something Jordan’s dad conspired to do.
My dad got what he wanted with Colt; I have no doubt. He hasn’t hit me since the wedding, and that says he’s a lot calmer than he has been for some reason.
“Lux,” Jordan interrupts. Three gazes connect. “Mortem…” He grabs the back of his neck. “The journal.”
My eyes practically pop out at his words. “Mortemor?”
Colt nods, “That’s his full name.”
“He’s a Grim, Colt.”
Not truly realizing what that means, she gives us a blank look. But shit, I want to shake all the information into her and tell her it’s Grim! The Grim. The one who was betrayed and wrote an entire journal in Italian because of it.
“What does that mean?”
“I know you learned about the Grims in classes, Colt.”
She nods slowly, still not understanding. “Yeah, but the only thing they said about them is that they disgraced the cause and were erased. Done deal, gonzo.”
Her explanation makes sense. They don’t want to highlight the fact that the Grims are the oldest founding family aside from the Marchettis. They’re enemies and therefore hate each other. But more than that, the Grims are powerful. So fucking powerful and now I understand why my father has been so smug.
“Why is your face scrunched like that?” she asks me, then turns to Jordan whose face seems lost in information. She grips his jaw, noticing now that he’s still a bit bruised from being hit that night. “And why is your face bruised?”
Jordan lets out a little derisive chuckle that ends on a sneer. I know already the words that will escape him won’t be nice and I’m going to punch him for it.
Before the words come out, though, the door opens and in pops Ridge’s voice before I can see him. “So, I have some free time, Colt.”
Free time?
Free fucking time.
I turn to Colt to see her cheeks have filled with color and her face is full of shame. “I’m sorry,” she mutters.
“Fuck,” Ridge says as soon as he sees us both. “Guess I can see why the old man didn’t have time to talk. The fuck did you two do to get him to Arcadia? The man hates that place more than he hates Tasha. And that’s saying a lot.”
At her mom’s name, Colt turns to him. “Did you have to come in yelling? And what about my mom?”
“Nothing, and I was excited,” he explains, and that’s when I notice his eyes are a little glazed.
“Are you sloshed?”
He glares at me and proceeds to come into the room. “Maybe, what’s it to you?”
“Well, you just came on to my wife.”
“Not yours,” he grumbles.
“She really is,” I argue, feeling jealousy rise to the surface. My emotions make zero sense to me. She could fuck Ross, Ten, Jordan, and even the twins and I’d be somewhat okay with it. But when Ridge is involved, it bothers me. It probably has to do with the fact that Colt was always meant to be his and not mine. It’s something he made everyone aware of as soon as his mom told him.
“That’s not what her pussy and ass said when my mouth was all over them yesterday.”
“Bridger!” she gasps, getting up. “Why are you two always like this?” She questions us both. Then she looks directly at me. “You act like I’m your property when I’m not. I didn’t choose to marry you Lux. No matter how good the sex is, I didn’t choose anything other than where your cocks go.” She gestures to all of us with the last sentence.
Jordan chuckles, “I would agree, but you probably didn’t even know Lux fucked Justice.”
Chapter Nine
Bridger
“You probably didn’t even know Lux fucked Justice.”
The words replay in my mind, smacking me with realization. They had a threesome and didn’t tell any of us. How stupid are they?
“Are you fucking kidding?” The words leave Colt in a rush. They did this to goad her, make her react since we were going to mess around today.
“Colt,” Lux begins to make some stupid excuse, just like he always does when it comes to his choices. If she’d have married me, like it was always intended, she’d never be in this position. Because unlike Lux, Colt is and always has been my only thought.
“Don’t,” she hisses at his response, retreating toward me. “I can’t fuck around without any of you being annoyingly jealous…” she directs at all three of us in the room “Yet here you are, giving me another fucking double standard and I’m sick of it.”
She’s not wrong.
We ask so much of her and not once do we ask what she wants. Taking is always easier when you’ve got leverage.
Jordan hides his face while Lux clenches his jaw. When she looks at me, it’s as if an idea pops in her head. Her lip tilts and the smugness seeping from her expression has me wondering what she’s planning on doing for revenge.
Turning back to them, she lets out a little huff. “Guess we’re in an open relationship now? So, I can fuck the random guards in this place, no?”
“Absolutely fucking not,” all three of us say in unison. She laughs derisively, her whole demeanor showing she’s sick of being told what she can and can’t do. That’s how rebellions start, after all.
“You can’t have it both ways.”