Page 5 of Blue in the Deep Blue Sea

I leaned to watch them disappear below deck, then let out a slow breath, biting the knuckles of my clenched fist as my eyes rolled.

“Do they look like sisters?” I asked, tilting my head.

“They’re twins,” Gianni said, resting a hand on my shoulder. He paused, then said. “Identical.”

I exhaled.

“You have to stop doing this,” he said. “You’re getting wasted every single day, and it’s starting to mess with your vision and your memory.”

“The more you talk, the more you sound like your sister.” I raised a brow.

He laughed. “She’d probably prefer seeing you like this,” he said with a chuckle. “Trust me, she’s nowhere near worried about you.”

“Does she know you’re here?” I asked. “Last time she called me, she threatened to call the cops for endangering human lives.”

“You?” He laughed. “With what? Your dick?”

I laughed too. “I told her if she was that concerned about me, I’d show her what a good boy I could be.” I chuckled. “She never called again.”

A burp escaped me, my stomach twisting.

“You’re disgusting,” he muttered, finally sitting down. “She’s right, though. You might not be endangering anyone else, but you’re sure as hell doing it to yourself.”

I waved the thought away.

At this point, even if I died and disappeared, no one would really care. They’d miss my money more than they’d miss me. It was one of the saddest, most pathetic truths I’d ever had to swallow.

Maybe I deserved it.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll stop.”

I raised two fingers in a salute.

“For you,” I whispered, kissing his cheek. “Bro.”

He shoved me away, scrubbing at his cheek with a look of disgust. Gianni was too Italian, too proud to let his best friend kiss him on the cheek. I was too British to care.

“You’re unbelievable,” he muttered, getting to his feet.

As he pulled his hand from mine, the back of it caught me square in the right eye.

“1Cazzo!Man, are you alright?” His expression shifted the second he saw me squeezing my eye shut, the sting already spreading from the accidental hit.

I just laughed, pressing a hand over it.

“It’s just an eye,” I said. “God was gracious enough to give me two. I’ll survive.”

He shook his head with a weary sigh.

Just as he straightened to his full height, a man in a leather jacket approached. His black hair was slicked back, and the sharp scent of cheap cologne mixed with the alcohol in the air, turning my stomach. I’d seen him a few times with Gianni before, but he’d never told me his name. Just that he was someone he knew.

The moment Gianni noticed him, his whole body stiffened. The easy grin vanished.

“Dante,” he said, forcing out a nervous chuckle. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see if we’re good for tonight.” He laughed, a crooked smirk pulling at both corners of his mouth.

Gianni nodded.