Bro
Antonello Brothers Series
Prequel
Kayelle Allen
www.romancelivesforeverbooks.com
Copyright ©2019 Kayelle Allen
Published by Romance Lives Forever Books
http://romancelivesforeverbooks.com
Released in the United States of America
Editor: Barb Caffrey
Cover art by GermanCreative
Disclaimers
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination, or are used in a fictitious situation. Any resemblances to actual events, locations, organizations, incidents or persons – living or dead – are coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
Reviews and Quotes
To request copies for review, or for permission for quotes and all other inquiries, contact the author via email at [email protected] or via the website http://kayelleallen.com
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my husband, who supports me one hundred percent. I love you. I couldn't do this without you.
I'd like to thank my critique group, Canton Writer's Circle, for their time and energy in helping me prepare this book, and my editor, Barb Caffrey, whose expertise and enthusiasm inspires me to be my best.
Wanna see the Brothers?
Once you finish reading this book, you'll find two banners that show you what the brothers look like. One features a book for Senth and the other for Khyff.
No, don't peek now. Wait till the end.
Trust me, the brothers are worth waiting for...
Table of Contents
Chapter One - Blue Shadow
Chapter Two - The Test
Chapter Three - Hide and Seek
Chapter Four - Crooktown
Chapter Five - Tough Decision
Chapter Six - Sizing Him Up
Chapter Seven - Time is Now
The End - Or is it?
Pick up free books
Peek at Senth (but read the story first)
Peek at Khyff (but read the story first)
Before the Goodbye
Chapter One
Kelthia, Miraj City, Central City District
Sofftem 14, 4662 Tradestandard
Senth Antonello had attended classes at the Thieves' Guild Academy every day since he was what? Three? Yet the looming entrance to the exclusive Advanced Level access that he'd more than earned stood empty, while he skulked in the shadows as if he hadn't.
Plunging through that door always felt like he was flying into a beehive while sporting hornet wings.
Enough of this.
He would zip up there and let idBot scan him.
He took two decisive steps, then pivoted and took five steps back.
"Come on, Senth," he berated himself. "Go for it. Now." He turned around and faced the entrance. "This time will be different. You can do this. Just go in there."
But did he?
No.
And why was that?
Because there were times being the best got you nothing but hated and looking like a kid got you nothing but disrespect. Being the adopted son of the Guild's former grand master had distinct perks, true. It got him in ahead of others, but then that was part of the problem, wasn't it?
Daddy had clout. Daddy belonged. People feared Daddy, for good reason.
Nobody feared a clawless halfbreed who looked twelve when he was eighteen.
"I will do this. The time to act is now." He stepped up and let the automated idBot system scan him.
"Welcome, Blue Shadow," idBot's smooth robotic voice cooed. "Cleared for Advanced Level." The door unsealed.
Why couldn't people treat him with the respect of that machine? Senth released the tension in his shoulders, and rolled his head to soothe his neck.
Maybe today would be different.
Maybe undergrads would respect him for his level.
Maybe his dad would ask him how he was doing instead of going behind his back to the Grand Master.
Maybe nobody'd meow when he entered the room.
Maybe nobody'd go, "Here, kitty, kitty!"
Oh, and maybe the Empress would eliminate taxes, and while she was at it, free all the slaves. Because, sure. That could happen.
Inside, down the first hallway, monolithic carved wooden doors of the Great Hall stood open. The pickup line for upgraded cloaks wound down the stairs and then back and forth across the cavernous hall like one of those rides at Planet Fun.
Voices. Noise. Din. A hive of thieves anxious to score.
No sound suppression in the empire could mute the hum careening off these stone walls. Not today. Not with the first cloak upgrade in ten years minutes from release.
He took one last, sole-dragging step, entered the hall, and made straight for the grand staircase.
The entire queue of lower-level thieves craned their necks at whoever had entered. Their low buzz faded from front to back, and what do you know? Right on cue, a chorus of meows rose from the anonymous safety of the back row.
Senth halted and snapped his head in that direction, but the sound cut off.
No one in view so much as cracked a smile.
He tossed them a lazy salute and turned back toward the stairs. The conversational drone kicked right back in. After all, no one important had entered. Just the halfbreed.
The previous day, all Arcane, Master, and Premium level guildmembers had picked up their cloaks. Today, Advanced members had front-of-line privilege.
Senth pounded up the stairs, feeling the judgmental stares of hundreds of pairs of eyes on his back. He stepped up to the desk. "Morning. Here for my cloak."
The worker looked up, raked a glance down him. "Listen, kid, this is Advanced only. There's a line. Wait your turn."
"Yeah. I get it." Letting his fangs show, Senth gestured to himself. "I have a 'baby face.' I hear that every day, but I'm no kid. I'm old enough to join the Armada and vote."
A mocking smile painted itself across the worker's face. "If you were human."
Could he not get one day without being reminded he didn't belong?
"Plus," the worker continued, "in case you're new here, you should know you have to be a Level Fifteen or higher to get a cloak."
Oh, he was one of those? Judge the face and not the person. Time to pull out the big guns. Not his favorite way to deal, but if you had a tool that worked, you yanked it out of the bag and used it. Wasn't that the point of having a tool?
Senth leaned one hand on the desk and bent closer as if sharing a secret. "Speaking of being new here... When did you arrive?"
The guy drew back. "Transferred in from Tarth to help with the cloak distribution."
"Shh." Senth made a show of glancing around. "Quiet like, what level are you?"
The man gave him a smug smile. "My Guild ranking is Thirteen."
"Wow. Impressive. And how old are you?"
The worker frowned. "Not that it's your business, but I'm thirty."
"Yeah? You know when I hit Level Thirteen?" Senth picked lint off the man's jacket, dropped it onto the floor. "When I was nine."
The man scoffed. "Nobody's ever done that."
"Look it up. I hold the record for youngest ever reaching it." He stood straight, squaring his shoulders. "I'm a Level Nineteen now. You'll find me under Antonello, Senth, Advanced Interior Security. Or you can try Harbinger." He flashed his father's hand sign, showing the back of two fingers together straight across his waist. "Son of."
"The Harbin--" The man pushed back from the desk and tripped getting to his feet. "Oh, you're the-- You're the--" He muttered an oath. "I'll be right back with your cloak, sir. One moment." He hustled toward the storeroom.
Yep. Daddy had clout.
While Senth waited, a few other thieves in Advanced nodded to him. One of his professors, in full Guild robes and regalia, passed by. When Senth bowed, the man bowed in return. Respect. Mutual. What was so hard about showing it?
A couple females picking up their cloaks shot looks his way.
Had the women overheard his relationship to the Man?
Not that he could take up anyone's offer anyway. His father made sure of that.
Saint-Cyr didn't trust a male Kin, halfbreed or not, to wander around unShackled. Females could, sure. Females could control themselves. The drug his father injected him with kept Senth's feral side at bay, but that didn't mean he was kitten material.
He might not be able to--um--extend his claws, so to speak, but he had other...abilities. Too bad as a HalfKin he hadn't been blessed with his race's real claws. He had to make do with fingers. No advantage over humans.
Unless you knew how to use them. A thief had to be good with his hands.
He sent a slow smile back toward the women.
Once emancipated, he'd be free from the weekly injections. Maybe then he'd find a woman who wanted more than his father's influence, fame, or money. A woman who'd want him, instead.
The worker returned with the cloak. "Here you are, sir." The man placed the heavy bundle in his arms and offered a notereader. "If you'll initial here and then sign here." He pointed to the required lines.
Senth signed. "Is that it?"
"Yes, sir. Um, sir, I apologize for not recognizing you before."
"Don't worry about it. My father always says a thief should behave in public." Shifting the cloak to his other side, Senth offered a hand, and the man shook it. "'You don't know who's watching.'"
The worker gave a thin laugh. "Point taken, sir."
As if to go, Senth started to turn, but then paused. "You might want this back." He held out the man's debit bracelet.
The worker checked his wrist. Red-faced, he accepted the device and refastened it. "Can't believe I didn't feel you take that."
"Did you feel this?" He pulled out the man's ID.
After giving Senth a startled look, the worker patted pockets. With a flustered smile, he accepted the ID. "Thanks."
"No problem. I took your things on Guild property, so consider it a lesson." He tapped the man's shoulder. "One thief to another."
With a bow, the man turned away.
Senth remained where he was, waiting for reaction.
The man swung around, and with a resigned expression, shuffled back. "Sir?" He showed Senth his bare wrist. "If you don't mind."
"Sorry." He held out the debit bracelet. Again. "Couldn't resist."
"Another 'lesson,' sir?" He gave wry smile.
"What else?"
Keeping his gaze focused on Senth, the man bowed and backed away.
Senth carried the midnight blue garb down the stairs.
In the Advanced Level foyer, away from the crowd, he shook out the cloak. The garment resembled the previous cape he'd worn for years. It had the standard lining with the Guild symbol, a skeleton key behind a slashed circle. Supposedly, the cloth inside had the same ability to screen images. The back fell straight down from his shoulders to the ground. Multiple pockets allowed him to carry equipment and stash items. Hidden sleeves let him wear it as a coat.
Best of all, it had room for all his tools and lockpicks.
After slipping it on, he pulled on gloves of the same material. When he lifted the hood, the Nightstealth film embedded in the cloth activated.
His body disappeared.
For a moment, he had the sensation of floating, and he staggered and threw out his arms to steady himself. Recalling his training, he closed his eyes to reorient himself, took a deep, steadying breath and opened them.
The world stabilized.
The cloak had fooled him, but how well would that sucker work on a group of thieves who'd been training to use it for weeks? Well, like his father always said, there's no better time than now.
Senth strode right through the entrance to the Great Hall and straight to the line of waiting thieves. Taking care not to disturb the air and cause a breeze where none should be, he strolled up the line, looking each person in the eye. The thrum of voices continued, unabated. He stepped back, waved his arms. Jumped up and down.
Nada, zip, zilch, zero.
No one glanced his way.
No response.
No disturbance in the hive.
He'd been erased from the room.
Senth pumped both fists in the air.
His professors had droned on about the layers of nano-reflector-whatevers and the history of its development. Huge yawner. What mattered was it worked.
If this upgrade fooled copbots as well as it did people, he'd live up to his guild name, Blue Shadow. And how perfect was that?
Time to test it in public.
Chapter Two
Once Senth had stepped outside the Thieves' Guild, he proceeded down the street until he'd reached the required distance from the entrance. Commit thievery on the grounds and the Guild would blackball you so hard you'd--
Oh, who cared what they'd do. What worried him was his father finding out. Sure, he might toy with a worker's ID and wallet and call it a lesson, but his father would prolly not see it with the same degree of humor.
"Behave yourself in public, Senthys. Don't draw attention to yourself, Senthys. Don't do anything fun, Senthys." He resisted the eye roll that always got him in trouble with dear old dad.
Senth skirted around a businessman and backed away, the man's ID in hand. He tucked it into one of the cloak's myriad pockets. A male worker in a dirty uniform lumbered past. No trouble unclipping a debit bracelet fastened to the guy's belt.
Of course, they felt nothing--his skills ensured that, but the cloak worked so well no one even looked his way. For fun, Senth re-clipped the bracelet on the worker, and then followed the businessman a full block before tucking the ID back into the man's pocket.
How well could he evade detection after being seen? He pushed back the hood, which turned off the Nightstealth, and stepped right in front of a teenaged human boy.
Senth let the mark get a good look at his face.
The kid glared. "Watch where you're going, you half-human freak."
"Half-human? You mean HalfKin." Senth gestured to his catlike eyes. "Get it right, skinbag." He bared his fangs and hissed.
The target backed off, and then darted around him. Senth tucked the guy's debit bracelet into a pocket, and then moved off the sidewalk and raised the hood but did nothing else to hide.
The kid glanced at his empty wrist and whirled around, his gaze searching the ground. He hurried past Senth once going one way, then the other, and kept going without even a glance.
"Should I return his deb? No, I think he should've said 'excuse me, sir.' He owes me a sir-charge." He pushed back the hood and started walking.
Why couldn't he stand up to bullies at the Guild that way?
A buzz at his wrist alerted him to a message. He withdrew his mobile and set the device to read-only mode, rather than float it up on holovid.
The message required a password, which told Senth who had sent it. His Sen'dai--guild master--and father, Luc Saint-Cyr.
The Guild didn't accept non-humans, unless they were enslaved to a human member. No one could rise past level ten, unless related to a human member. Guild-arranged marriages and adoptions happened regularly. To keep the Guild happy, Saint-Cyr was Senth's lord and master and his adoptive father.
Could his Sen'dai send a note the way anyone else would? Of course not. No, the Man had to do it with mystery and ceremony.
Folks in this town never referred to Saint-Cyr by name. You heard the capital letters when they called him the Man, or they referred to him as the Harbinger. His father was the daddy crime lord all the baby crime lords wanted to be.
"Ooh, big scary Man." He thumbed off the device. "Please let this be a job and not him finding out I hack
ed Planet Fun."
He crossed the street and entered the Miraj City Bakery Café. No crowd this early, though a group of professors shared drinks at one of the tables in the back. There were no undergraduate classes this week. Cloak distribution had overturned the beehive.
A clean smell of freshly brewed coffee pulled him deeper into the room.
The android on duty rolled up to him. "Welcome, Blue Shadow. How may I serve you today?"
"Like to use your storeroom a minute." He flashed his father's hand sign. "Private business."
"Of course, sir." The droid offered a keycard.
"Oh, please. I've broken into that room so many times, I prolly owe you guys rent."
On the droid's nametag, a bar of yellow lights indicated confusion. "Pardon, sir?"
"It was a joke. Owing rent for--" Senth held up both hands. "Never mind. No key needed."
He followed the maze of corridors to the back. At the door, he pulled out his lockpick and adjusted the settings. When he pointed it at the lock, the device signaled a lockout error and the tiny screen flashed nonsense letters at him.
What in the worlds did probata mean?
He twisted the tip of the pick and floated the stats as a holovid. Probata Corporation. Wasn't that the system his prof in Premium Fingersmithing ranted about? Something about useless upgrades and pointless codes. What did she say about a bypass trick?
"Think, Senth. You sat there listening to the woman fume for two solid wasted hours."
Oh, no he hadn't.
No, that was the day Senth had flaked out of classes and spent a full day at Planet Fun with his mates. He'd recorded it instead. But had he transcribed it to his code book?
Of course not. And didn't that make this encounter so much more fun? He pinched the bridge of his nose, but his father always did that so Senth stopped it at once.
Why was a lock on a coffee shop's storeroom door harder than a security system at the planet's busiest amusement park? What were they storing in there? The Empress's private coffee stash?
Curiosity over the message from his far-from-patient father burned through his mental pockets. Wait. His father. Surely, he'd have the new codes.
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