His Rose Without Thorns (Beauty and the Beast retelling)

4. Whiskey

-Xavier-

The silence was suffocating.

Even I had no words to say as I ever so slowly turned my head to face Daniel whose eyes were wide as he realized what he had just said.

My cousin would meet his father today.

"I-I mean—" he began, but it was too late. The damage had already been done. He had lied, lied to two prominent members of the Familia and I don't think either of them would've found it funny if my idiotic cousin shouted "kidding!"

"Engaged?" Jameson asked, his brown eyes wide. "Good job my boy!" he said. "Congratulations!"

I didn't say anything, I just stiffly sat there, staring at Daniel with a promise in my eyes of the most painful, gruesome death.

Theodore gaped at me. "E-engaged? To whom?" The man turned his gaze over to Jameson as if he thought I was marrying one of his daughters, but Jameson only put his hands in the air in defence.

"Um..." Daniel continued, biting his lip as if contemplating whether to keep talking or not. "She's not part of the Familia," he said. "She's not... well... she's just a normal girl..."

Theodore's eyebrows shot to his hairline. "A commoner?" he asked as if it was a crime. "Just a normal girl? A peasant? Filth on the street?" he continued. "You, Xavier Blackthorn are marrying someone worth less than one of the rings on your finger?"

My hand tightened around my glass.

"I'd like to remind you," Jameson said, looking over at Theodore carefully, his face becoming cold. "My wife didn't come from money either. Do you see her as filth on the street?"

Theodore paled. "No, of course not— I— Emily has class. She's elegant and—"

"Who's to say this girl won't be either?" Jameson asked with a raised brow. "How come we've never met her before?" The question was directed at me, but I didn't answer, staring at a sweating Daniel.

"Um, well she's still adjusting to the news of everything that Xavier told her," he said. "Besides, they just got engaged yesterday."

"Yesterday?! No wonder you're so on edge!" Jameson exclaimed. "Go to her, have fun, celebrate, we'll be on our way. I promised my Emmie we'd have a movie night

and you know where that leads," he wiggled his brows. "Congratulations again, we can't wait to meet your lovely bride-to-be!"

And with that, they were gone and I was left alone with my cousin, Kalen and Finn and the bartender who looked at each of us with wide eyes as if he too could not believe what happened.

"Fuck, boss," Finn laughed nervously, a grin on his face as he ran a hand through his curly mop of hair. "When were you going to tell us that you were engaged? Who's the lucky girl?"

I stayed silent, still staring at my cousin who was looking at me warily.

Daniel cleared his throat. "I-I—" he stuttered, his eyes wide. "I'm sorry."

I blinked at him. "Everybody get out," I hissed lowly. "Everybody but you Daniel."

My cousin swallowed thickly.

"Oh c'mon, boss," Finn said with a laugh. "I want to—"

"Out."

"Okay, geez."

Everyone left, even the barman and I was left alone with my cousin, resisting the urge to pull the gun out of the holster of my pants and shoot him dead.

"Why?" I asked simply. "Why did you do that?"

Daniel looked around the room nervously, licking his lips. "I was trying to help—"

"You lied."

"Yes but—"

"If Theodore finds out you lied he'll kill you," I said, staring at my cousin meaningfully.

Daniel shook his head. "I'm your second, he can't—"

"You're not."

"What?" my cousin asked, looking up at me with wide eyes.

I raised a brow. "Did you not hear me? You're no longer my second. Kalen is now," I said. "He will continue to be my second until I think you've learned your lesson until I feel like you can stand behind me without saying a word."

Daniel stood up. "You can't do that, we're family!"

"I think you of all people know what I think about the concept of family," I replied dryly.

Daniel's warm brown eyes watered and in that moment, he looked like his father. Not the father (my uncle) who had trained me to be a brutal monster, but the father who I had seen on the ground, begging for mercy, for his wife and son before I killed him.

I clenched my fingers into a tight fist.

"Xavi—"

"You're weak, cousin," I growled. "I have no use for weak men. Get out of my sight."

Daniel looked gutted. Utterly saddened.

He only nodded solemnly, before turning around and leaving me alone with my thoughts.

How the fuck was I going to fix this?