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“What in the ever-loving fuck, Nicu?” he asked, staring at me incredulously. Crossing his arms over his broad chest, he continued, “Do you even know how much trouble you’re in? You busted down the door of a ?ef’s house, barged in, and attacked his eldest son.”
He leaned in and sniffed me. “Not drunk. Are you high or something? Swear to God, Alex is going to skin you alive.”
I sat up and wiped the blood still trickling down from an open wound near my temple with my sleeve. Besides the pain, I was pretty fucking pleased with myself. I always felt good after releasing the burgeoning pressure of fury that needed an escape. I’d achieved my goals. I’d gotten to burn off my rage with the fight, and I’d gotten Jewel away from Cristo.
“No, I’m not fucking high,” I scoffed. “You don’t have a clue as to what’s happening here.”
“Then fucking enlighten me, frate, because you’re not leaving this room until I have some answers.”
“Don’t tell me you’re sticking up for these assholes? Now that you’re married to her, you’re taking their side?” I yelled.
Luca did that thing he did with his eyebrow, raising it as if to mock me. “Are you fucking serious right now? Just because Nelu and I aren’t at each other’s throats doesn’t mean I’m on their side. Don’t go making this about me when you’re the one who fucked up. I didn’t go storming into a ?ef’s home. For once, the tables are turned. The Golden Boy’s screwed up, and I want to know why.”
“Don’t call me that,” I grumbled, ashamed of the nickname from my childhood. It reminded me of my father, and I didn’t want reminders of him. His favoritism sat heavily on my shoulders after the revelations of how he’d cheated on Mama and abused Luca.
“This hasn’t happened since we were kids,” Luca powered on. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten how things went down back then.”
I groaned as memories of my past reared their ugly heads, killing my high. Fuck, I forgot how annoying Luca could be when he pulled his big-brother shit. Of course, he’d bring up the time before I found an outlet for my excessive, destructive energy. I was constantly getting into trouble for pulling pranks and other mischief-making or, alternatively, getting into fights in school with other mafie kids. I couldn’t keep still, and school couldn’t hold my attention. Despite being a menace, I never got punished, because I was the apple of my father’s eye. I was grateful to him for not making a difficult time harder. I was torn after finding out my father was such a flawed creature. He was a great father to me, but one that I no longer knew how to love.
Unlike my brothers and Tatum, I wasn’t a straight-A student. There was a good chance I had an undiagnosed learning problem, but my father had scoffed at any attempts by teachers to broach the subject. Not only was it considered shameful in our culture, but his infertility problems exacerbated his reluctance to admit there was a problem. Tasa and I were proof of his virility, and if I turned out to be a fuckup… Well, that was unacceptable.
Education was an integral part of our mafie society, of our survival in our criminal enterprises. We’d learned from the Bratva, the Russian mafia, where nuclear physicists were as pedestrian as pebbles on a mountain path. People looked down on me because I was the only son who hadn’t gone to graduate school, even if I’d graduated college with a major in organic chemistry and a minor in chemical engineering. Everyone thought Alex had let me get away with something. It hadn’t been that simple. Only after seeing how much I struggled did he let me off the hook.
Considering how adamant he was about education, people assumed he’d given me a break because I was the spoiled youngest prince. That was not how Alex operated. He’d conferred with Luca and Tatum, who’d been intimately aware of my behavior as a kid, having come to my rescue more than once. The three of them had made the final decision to put me out of my misery and direct my energy into work that played to my strengths.
I moved to stand, but Luca ordered, “Sit right where you are. You’re not getting out of this until I get an answer to every one of my questions.”
“Is that so?” I scowled up at him.
“You’ve hated Cristo for years and somehow managed not to kick in the door of his house and beat him to a bloody pulp.”
“I did get him good, didn’t I?” I said with a grin. The blood in my mouth had probably stained my teeth red, but I didn’t care. Throwing him my cell, I grinned wide and said, “Take a pic of me like this.”
“So you can post it on Insta and antagonize him even more? I think not. Out with it, Nicu. You’re sweet on Cat’s friend, so I’m guessing she’s the trigger of your Tasmanian-devil rage.”
My smile dropped. I swiped a hand over my face. “Jewel and I are together.”
Both his eyebrows rose at that one. Leaning against the locked door, he motioned with his hand for me to continue.
“We hooked up the night you took Cat home.”
“Is that so?” he inquired politely, a deadly cold tone beneath his innocent question.
“Don’t look at me like I’ve disrespected her, asshole. You’re the one who blood bonded with my fiancée.”
He scrubbed the five o’clock shadow on his chin. Every Lupu brother had that, but his scruff was blond, unlike the rest of us.
“Alright, alright,” he conceded, but jabbed a finger at me. “Don’t act like you weren’t relieved about it.”
“I was, but I didn’t dishonor her by fucking her best friend. She was in your bed that night.”
“Fine,” he bit out. “Carry on.”
I gave him a one-shouldered shrug. “She kicked me out because she felt like she was being disloyal. Kept me at a distance for what seemed like forever. I saw her again at your engagement party. We fucked there.”
“Christ,” he muttered.
“Please, motherfucker. You did the nasty with Cat during my engagement party.”
