My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 431

Chapter 431

Raphael

The sun was already coming up.

I knew that because the first pale streaks of morning had started slipping through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Seven in the morning.

I hadn’t slept, not even for a minute. My bedroom was silent except for the faint hum of the climate controls built into the walls. I sat on the floor beside Medusa’s enclosure with my back resting against the side of my bed.

The python was draped across my lap.

One heavy coil rested over my thigh while the rest of her body moved slowly through my hands.

I ran my fingers carefully along her back. Medusa flicked her tongue once against my wrist.

The corner of my mouth twitched, “Morning.”

She stared at me with the same blank expression she always had.

I preferred that.

People complicated things.

Snakes didn’t.

I slid my hand beneath her body and lifted her closer. She settled immediately against my chest. My fingers moved absentmindedly across the patterned scales along her neck.

“You know,” I muttered quietly, “I think it’s just us again.”

The words sounded strange out loud, almost stupid but Medusa didn’t judge. I lowered my head and pressed a brief kiss against the top of her scales.

The snake remained completely relaxed. I leaned my head back against the mattress behind me. The ceiling blurred slightly as I stared upward. My thoughts had been running in circles all night.

The same conversation, the same garage and the same look on Gianna’s face, over and over again, like a surveillance clip stuck on repeat.

I rubbed a hand across my jaw, “I lost my first friend.”

The words came out quieter than I expected. Medusa shifted slightly in my lap.

Months ago I wouldn’t have cared.

Friends were distractions. Attachments created weaknesses. Weaknesses created vulnerabilities.

That was how I had always viewed things.

Then somehow Gianna happened and now she was gone, not dead, not missing, not taken, just gone… by choice.

People left all the time, employees, associates, business partners. I replaced them every day. The Outfit functioned because people were replaceable. Everything was replaceable.

Except apparently this.

And I still couldn’t explain why.

I looked down at Medusa, “Do you know what the problem is?”

She continued being a snake.

I scratched gently beneath her jaw, “I blanked out twice in a single night”

The admission sat badly in my throat because it was true. I had replayed it all night. The sudden feeling that something was being ripped out of my chest.

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