AllFreeNovel
Share Us
There was no telling how many people had been intimidated by that stare of his.
It wasn’t going to work on me. I’d been faced with bigger foes than him. I might not feel the worry or fear that I should with him because I can remember the feel of his hands on my body. The memories of him in that swimming pool live rent free in my head.
“He has his limits? Really? He’ll murder, maim, and destroy families without a single thought. Drugs, gun running, and gambling are no problem. But you expect me to believe that prostitution is off the table because it goes against his moral code? I don’t think so.” The more we talk about Gio the angrier I get.
I’m woman enough to admit that I’m a bit unreasonable when it comes to the mafia boss and my thoughts of him.
“It doesn’t matter what you believe. I’m guessing that you now know the information you were given was bad information,” Cole said as he slid closer to me on the couch. I could feel the heat from his body along my side, and I wasn’t unhappy about that fact.
His nearness was distracting me from the anger that had taken up residence in the pit of my stomach at the mention of Nico’s father. I wanted to sink down into him and let him do anything and everything he wanted to me until my brain shut off, and I was no longer thinking about all the things that plagued my mind for the past eleven years.
“I’m aware the information was incorrect. Don’t worry. I’m working on figuring out where the miscommunication came from, and I’ll handle it.” It was proving to be harder than I originally thought to find the man who told my uncle Tony about the girls. It didn’t help that my uncle wasn’t being forthcoming with the man’s name or where I could find him. He wasn’t offering up any contact information or really anything at all about him.
Unfortunately, that was rousing the suspicion of Jasper, Alicen, and Milo. Which in turn made me all that more suspicious of him. There was something going on with him, but I hadn’t had time to figure it out with everything that I had going on. Soon I would need to make the time.
“We’re going to figure it out with you,” Dante’s deep quiet voice said from his spot on the other side of me. I liked the feeling of being sandwiched in between them. It was giving me all kinds of ideas that had nothing to do with the conversation we were having or the thoughts I was having about my uncle.
“I don’t need your help. I certainly don’t want you nosing around in my business.” The thought of them figuring out the full extent of my intentions towards Gio worried me. Nico wouldn’t have any issues slitting my throat if he knew how I planned to watch Gio bleed out the same way I’d been forced to watch it happen to my parents.
“You don’t really have a choice in the matter. If you wanted to go at this alone, you should’ve been better at keeping yourself hidden from us. Now we know who you are and what you’ve been doing since you arrived in Chicago. There’s nothing that you could tell us or offer that would keep us out of your business.” Enzo crossed one leg over the other and sat back in his chair. There was a fire in his eyes that burned along my skin as he stared at me, but there was also a look of contempt and frustration on his face. He wasn’t happy about having to keep tabs on me.
Enzo was a no-nonsense kind of guy, and to him it would be so much easier to just kill me and be done with the entire situation. I wasn’t sure what was keeping them from doing just that, but I was curious about it. If the tables were turned, I wouldn’t hesitate in killing them all. It didn’t matter that my body wanted them. This life was about surviving until I could accomplish my goals. A little bit of sexual attraction to a group of devious thugs wasn’t going to stop me from doing what needed to be done. Even if that meant killing and burying them just to be rid of their aggravation.
“I won’t agree to this. I won’t run all my plans by you for approval. I’ve been dealing with my own shit all by myself for a long time. I don’t need a keeper, and I won’t let anyone get in the way of what I’m after.” Pushing myself up from the couch I rounded the furniture intending to walk right out the door.
This trip had been a big fucking waste of time.
“What are you after? Whatever it is involves my father. If you think I’m going to let you run around unchecked so that you can plot and plan out my father’s assassination you’re out of your fucking mind. I’d sooner kill you as Enzo suggested.” It was just speculation based on a handful of gathered facts, but it hit dead on what I had planned. Nico was now standing, fists clenched at his sides, jaw flexing and tense with his barely contained anger. He didn’t appreciate me turning my nose up at their orders.
To fucking bad.
He needed to get used to it. I wasn’t one to follow the orders of anyone but myself. My uncle had been trying to give me orders since I was a child and that didn't work out for him. Jasper had even attempted his hand at gentle suggestions that I’d thrown right back at him. If I wouldn’t listen to either of them, I wasn’t going to listen to a hot-headed boy who was the son of my enemy.
“If you were planning to kill me you would’ve done it already. You certainly wouldn’t have brought me here to your little home away from home. I had thought better of you, but you’re just handing me more information about yourselves every time I turn around. I know shit ton about all of you, but I didn’t know anything about this place. Now I do thanks to your own stupidity. Never hand out free intel about yourself Nico.”
The click of my heeled ankle boots on the floor was loud in the quiet room. I could feel the waves of tension rolling off all four of them. They weren’t used to anyone pushing back against them. I wanted to laugh at them. Really truly laugh. Pushing them had been all I’d been doing since starting school with them. They should be used to it by now. It really shouldn’t be such a shock to them that I wouldn’t agree to their ridiculous plans.
As I wrapped my hand around the brass doorknob, the definite sound of the deadbolt clicking in place echoed in my ears. Turning my head, I looked at Nico over my shoulder and found him still standing in the same spot as before. However, now he was pointing a remote control at the front door.
The little shit had locked us in here.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I kept my hand on the knob but turned more fully to face him. I cocked an eyebrow at him as I watched him slip the remote into the front pocket of his ripped faded jeans.
“You tend to walk away from me when we’re having a conversation. I knew you’d probably stick to that same routine, so I took some security measures. You won’t be leaving this house until we come to an agreement about what’s going to happen from here on out.”
A jolt of pleased surprise filled my chest as I stared at him. It took a lot to catch me by surprise, but these crazy boys kept right on doing it. It was no wonder I seemed to find myself distracted by them when I shouldn’t. Drawing in a deep breath, I shot them a cocky smirk that I knew would piss off at least one of them.
They wanted to play this game? Fine. I hope they were ready for the long game, because I wouldn’t be the first to give in.
“Got any popcorn? Maybe a few beers. It’s going to be a long night, and I’m getting hungry.” I returned to my seat between Dante and Cole, kicked off my boots, and pulled my feet up underneath me.
