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“No, you did not just go there. Since when has your deranged ass known what’s best for me?” I placed my hand against my chest and glared at him.
“Well seeing as I’m older than you, then since you were nothing more than a sperm tadpole, probably.”
I blinked at him not sure I’d heard that correctly. I waited for him to crack a smile or drop a punch line, but he didn’t. He’d actually said that and was being serious.
“You’re unbelievable, Judas. You really are.”
“I am pretty fucking amazing,” he replied with a smirk.
I laughed despite myself.
I seriously wondered what the inside of his head was like. I got Willy Wonka vibes, but for crime lords. He got a look in his eyes that told me whatever he was about to say next was serious.
“I worked my ass off to get where I am and for all that I have. I never wanted anything handed to me just because of who my famiglia is. I’m still not where I want to be, but when I do reach the precipice, I’d like to do it with you happily by my side.”
I wasn’t ready to have this kind of conversation with him. Right now, I could dwell in denial while I gradually came to terms with the inevitable.
He was right.
My emotions were all over the place. I had so many questions that needed answered and so much confusion about my life that if I pushed beyond what my mental capacity could handle, I’d crack right open.
Someone would have to scoop me up off the marble floor. I still found myself asking the same question I had when he took me from my apartment.
“Why?”
“You know why,” he replied softly.
I swallowed and forced my gaze away from him. I couldn’t argue—didn’t have the energy to. I’d just admitted more or less of the same to myself.
“I just want to sleep.”
“Do you want me to take you to bed?”
The look on my face had him quickly amending his question. A wise decision on his end.
“I meant, do you want me to walk you up and help you get settled in.”
I hid my smile with a yawn. “I’m not a child, Judas. I think I can get myself safely under the covers.”
“I know that smart ass. I like the idea of taking care of you. I’ll be doing it until the day we die so you should get used to it too.”
He closed the small distance I’d created between us with a few short strides and placed a wanton kiss directly on my lips, allowing me to taste myself. “Goodnight, principessa.”
I watched him retreat and pull out his phone without looking back. I almost wished I’d accepted his offer so that I wasn’t alone in this big house with my thoughts screaming at me.
Almost.
CHAPTER TWELVE
There was a memory from my childhood I occasionally thought back to. My padre asked me if I was in or out. There was no pressure to pick what he or my madre wished for me to choose.
No guillotine of disappointment would come crashing down on my neck if I opted to go a complete white-collar route. I could have told them I wanted to spend my life working for NASA then change my mind and decide to be a professor. They both would’ve stood behind me without question.
Doing anything other than this sounded incredibly fucking dull—as exciting as sorting through trash.
It definitely would have resulted in a few calls to our lawyers. We had the elite of the elite on speed dial for the entire famiglia. Those bloodthirsty piranhas were always ready to strip a case down to its bones.
If I had gone to work in a high-rise beneath someone else, beating the shit out of the boss would be expected. It would annoy the fuck out of them to handle, but they would make it go away, which is why we had them on retained salary.
If I somehow got caught with a boat full of bricked-up cocaine or I didn’t do a good enough job making someone disappear, I had them to help clear such misunderstandings
Fortunately, I was intelligent enough not to colossally fuck things up.
I knew once I chose to embrace the dark side of the Barron legacy, that was it.
My padre never asked me that one question again. He was both proud and relieved with the choice I had made even though it came with a lifetime commitment.
With this line of work, there was no going back. You couldn’t up and decide you wanted to teach science after you’d killed off some of the PTA or student body.
I took a crash course in murder, the politics of dirty money, and learned how to hold the most powerful hand you could with an equally as lethal backup in case things went awry. I put in the time and endured the grueling aspects that came with being a legends son while proving to everyone watching I would be forging my own path.
