Heart of Stone - Stone and Fire #1 [17+] (REWRITING)

Chapter 47

huffing and puffing bc i had to get this out before my math n physics exams (im so cooked its not even funny)

Adriana's POV

"Sin incarnate," Layla breathed, "Like always."

I shot her a wink as she helped me down the granite stairs, the night sky a hypothetical storm cloud above us.

The real storm cloud stood five feet away, leaning against the black limo, his fingers on a screen the absolute embodiment of work dedication.

Aurora sighed. "Four hours at the mall, and yet another black Ralph Lauren- as if he didn't have enough depression in his closet."

I gave Enzo a critical scan, head to toe, moving on after realizing nothing was amiss. Same work persona, same expression carved into the usual mask of disinterest. He'd cleaned up well though- shaved the five o'clock shadow, brushed through his tufts of black hair, and worn the watch I'd bought him for his twenty-seventh birthday.

I'll take that as a hello, then.

Nikolas had gone to the driver's window, presumably to ensure Mikhail wasn't leading us astray from his own house, and the subject was examining from feet away.

Like two restless birds singing a song, the chattering continued behind me, and the moment I turned around my eyebrows skimmed my hairline.

Layla's pastel pink dress fluttered softly in the breeze, her hair pinned back with glittering butterfly clips that caught the dim light. Aurora mirrored her, dressed in a cool pastel blue, her darker hair styled- also with butterflies?

"The two bitches and their conspiring." I shook my head, feigning betrayal. "Should've known you both would leave me out."

Switching my gaze from Enzo to them- it was like a field split between dead flowers and a fresh, spring bloom.

"Adriana," Layla called out my name like a melody, buttering her arm up into my elbow. "It's not leaving out when you are the embodiment of one, meticulous, raging monarch."

Aurora hooked my other elbow, smiling that innocent smile. "A queen, if you will."

Enzo's voice cut through the chatter, a striking, "You're late."

"Do you ever consider normally greeting anyone?"

He tucked his phone in his pocket, opening the door for us like some undirected chauffer. And, I mean, at least he considered the dutiful gentleman act- or I would've failed him as a sister.

"And where's Leo?" I craned my neck, not seeing his mop of light brown hair anywhere. My shoulders slumped. "Don't tell me he's-"

"Basketball game," Aurora confirmed.

The boy was barely home- and that was exactly why Papa had no faith his skills would appropriate to the Cosa Nostra's empire. Instead, he was being sent after Aurora to Kingsworth, to somehow find a less shittier aspect of life in smothering girls and underground club fights.

"These men are a game," Layla muttered under her breath, and I made sure to jot down a quick mental note to pinpoint just who she was specifying then.

Although, some part of me already knew.

Tweedledum And Tweedledee were the first to slide into the leather interior. It's interluding, clean smell overwhelmed my senses, and the limo's exterior looked as if it was carved out of black obsidian, both parts shiny and luxuriously intense.

Nikolas's body was the next to slide in next to me, and in the process of his broad chest filling the car's interior, Layla and Aurora's asses became squished until the very edge of the row, my lips biting down a laugh that threatened to bark out in the silence.