Diamond Fire (Hidden Legacy, #3.5)(25)

Adriana, the tall blonde, took a step toward Xavier, her face stamped with anger. Spanish words flew out. “Why are you doing this? She is a nice girl. Leave her alone.”

They were talking about me.

“Shut the fuck up,” Xavier said.

Elba giggled from her spot on the fountain, the gold bracelets on her tan arms sliding back and forth as she waved her hands.

“I mean it.” Adriana crossed the space between them and got in his face. “Leave Catalina alone. She is working really hard. She doesn’t know you’re a snake. Find someone else to screw around with.”

Xavier crossed his arms. Adriana was tall, but he was taller by at least four inches. “Or what? What are you going to do? Let me tell you what you will do: nothing. You’ve been doing nothing. None of you are doing anything about this wedding. He’s going to marry that bitch.”

My heart hammered in my chest. My cheeks were getting hot. Adriana was right. He was a snake. And I almost let him bite me.

“What do you care?” Samanta, the one with curly dark hair, said. “Let him get married.”

He turned toward her. “If you stopped shoving food in your mouth long enough to think, you’d figure it out. You want to explain it to her, Elba?”

“Rogan leads a dangerous life,” Elba said. “He has powerful enemies. Think about it—he’s old, like thirty something, and this is the first time he tried to marry someone. His mom is in a wheelchair because people kept trying to kill his dad. On top of that, everyone knows he’s a sicko. Then this bitch, a complete nobody, shows up and now he’s marrying her without a prenup.”

“Exactly,” Xavier jumped in. “He dies one day after the wedding, she gets everything, and we get nothing. Let me explain it to you in small words, so you can understand. Our grandparents are drawing money from family investments. They are not getting that much, one-two mil a year each. Our parents have to work. By the time the grandparents die off, and our parents start drawing their share, they will be getting even less money, because there are more of them. We’ll have to work and when it’s our turn, there might not be anything left over. You know who has money?”

“Rogan,” Elba said. “A nice pretty billion.”

“Rogan will get himself killed sooner or later. My dad says he made a lot of powerful enemies this last year. Arrosa is old. All we have to do is wait.” Xavier snapped his fingers. “And we’ll inherit. But for that to happen there needs to be no wife and no heir.”

“What are you going to do, Xavier?” Adriana sneered at him. “Even if you break up the wedding, are you going to follow him around with a rubber to make sure he doesn’t make any kids?”

“That will be later. Right now, we have a more pressing issue. He is marrying that bitch.”

“They are Primes,” Samanta shot back.

“Yeah, last time I checked, Xavier, you weren’t a Prime.” Adriana crossed her arms.

“Neither are you,” Xavier said. “I looked up their records and they just became a House this year. She’s a truthseeker, there is a pattern mage, but everybody else’s records are sealed. They are upstarts. If they had useful magic, they would’ve announced it. What kind of Prime doesn’t disclose their magic? Trust me, they’re trash. Have you seen Catalina scurrying around with her tablet, like a mouse with a piece of old cheese? She’s a Prime? Please. A Prime geek. She knows she doesn’t belong here. She told me she feels ‘uncomfortable.’ She’ll feel uncomfortable when I kick her and her sister off the grounds.”

I saw red. I actually saw red, as if someone suddenly jerked a translucent red curtain closed in front of me.

“I’m going to shove a gun up his ass sideways,” Leon snarled.

Xavier paced back and forth. “All that’s required of you is to keep your mouths shut and stay out of my way, while I romance that rat. She’s got the entire wedding and probably half her family secrets on that tablet she carries with her. I’m going to get that tablet.”

“You really are an asshole,” Adriana said.

“Don’t worry,” Xavier said. “Even though great-grandfather kicked your mom out of the family for being a lesbo, you and I can work something out when we inherit.”

“Xavier!” Samanta glared at him.

Elba grinned. “Don’t be jealous. If I were you, I would be doing everything I could to help us. The way Lucian sleeps around, you’ll have to share your inheritance with an army of bastards.”

“Ugh!” Adriana spun and walked away. Samanta looked after her, glanced at Xavier and Elba, and hurried after Adriana.

“Don’t worry,” Elba said. “Samanta is a coward, and Adriana won’t say anything. She’s bought Isabella’s pills off me a couple of times. She’s got ‘anxiety’ and if her mom finds out, she’ll skin her alive.”

Xavier grimaced. “Good, keep them under control and I’ll handle the rest.”

The recording stopped.

“I’ll fucking kill him.” Leon growled. “I’ll drown him in that damn fountain and then I’ll CPR him back and drown him again.”

A pit had opened in my stomach. I tasted acid on my tongue and swallowed it back down. Hot tears wet my cheeks, burning the skin. It was as if I had been poisoned and my body was desperately trying to expel it.