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“Does it look like she wants to tell you anything? Get the fuck away from her,” I growled at the back of Angel’s head. He’d moved closer to Alicen to the point that she was pushing herself up against the wall so tightly she could almost become one with it.
“Alicen, get away from them,” the sound of Milo’s voice boomed around me as he rushed over to our friend. Squeezing himself in the small open space, he grabbed onto her arm and dragged her away from the wall. He didn’t stop his moments once she was free. He kept right on going down the hallway until they were safely inside the cafeteria.
I wasn’t sure if she’d told Milo what was going on with her, but I did know he would keep her safe while I dealt with the two assholes who thought they could bully our friend.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re doing, but you’re going to stay away from her. For that matter if you don’t watch yourselves, you’ll be staying the fuck away from all of us.” I wasn’t opposed to putting them down if I had too. I didn’t give a shit if it brought Santiago and his entire syndicate down on top of me.
There weren’t that many people that meant anything to me in this world. I’ve done a fan-fucking-tastic job of keeping people at an arm’s length in my life. Somehow, and for some reason, Alicen, Milo, and Jasper found a way to get close to me. They wanted to be part of my life even with everything they knew about me. Which meant I would take care of them as much as I possibly could.
I would fight whatever battles they had. Alicen wasn’t ready to share her demons with me, and I understood what that felt like. Eventually, she would though, and when that time came, I would be battle ready. Right now, though, I just had these two fuckheads to deal with.
“What’s going on between us and Alicen is none of your fucking business. You need to stay the hell out of it. We’re not going to hurt her. We’re trying to help, but she won’t tell us what is going on. That won’t stand with us.” The rage that contorted Dom’s face as he looked at me was something I hadn’t seen before.
I didn’t know them well enough to say I couldn’t decipher what they were thinking at any given time. Not the way I could with the Valentino boys or Jasper, but I was pretty good at picking up on body language. I had to be in order to get myself in and out of some of the situations I’d found myself in over the years. That being said, Dom and Angel had always seemed like open books. The same thugs that worked for their overload mafia bosses carrying out whatever orders were given to them.
Looking at them both now as they stared down the hallway in the direction of the cafeteria, I was beginning to wonder if there was more to this entire scenario. Was there something going on between them and Alicen I hadn’t picked up on?
I’d been focused on my own shit the past few weeks. I tended to get tunnel vision whenever there was something going on I needed to straighten out. If something wasn’t going right in my plans, I wanted to sit down and figure it out so that I could take care of it and get it off my plate. Reworking all my approaches to my Gio Valentino problem wasn’t something that I could solve in a couple of hours. It was taking all my time and energy. I hadn’t been spending as much time with Alicen as I could’ve been.
Had I missed something important?
I wasn’t the girl’s mom. If she’d started some kind of relationship with them, I wasn’t going to come at her outlining all the reasons it was a bad fucking idea. She was a big girl that could take care of her own shit. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t be paying better attention from now on. I’d make sure that Milo and Jasper were keeping an eye on the situation as well. If they did a single thing to hurt her even the slightest, I would know about it, and I would end them before they could even plead their case to me.
Slamming my body into Dom’s, I pushed him up against the wall with a hand around his throat. I squeezed my fingers together around his larynx cutting off his air supply. I watched in fascination as his face began to turn an interesting shade of red. Being smaller with less muscle mass than him, I needed to use any and all of the tricks I’d learned over the years to keep him in place so that he would listen to what I had to say.
“Whatever is going on with her is none of your business. I said that already, but I’ll repeat it as many times as you need to hear it. If she wants or needs your help, she’ll come to you. Otherwise, stay the fuck away from her.” I could see a blue tinge start to color his lips.
I could keep my hand where it was until he lost consciousness. I could keep strangling him until he was dead. Both options seemed like a good idea at the moment. I was already over my limit of shit I wanted to deal with today, but I knew in the end it would end badly for me. I wasn’t getting updates over to Santiago with any kind of urgency or with any information that would help him out.
He was already about done with me and this partnership my uncle had worked out between us.
Oh fucking well. I was done with it the moment I learned about it.
I had no need to work with him. He didn’t bring anything to the table. All he caused me was more fucking headaches. Such as the man whose eyes were starting to roll back into his head.
With a huff of irritation, I released him and took a step back as his body slid down the wall to the floor.
“Don’t forget what I said. Next time I won’t stop until you’re dead. Leave my friend alone.”
Moving through the hallway I reached the door to the cafeteria and that’s when I felt someone watching me. It wasn’t unusual. Everyone was watching me all time here. I knew that gaze. Turning to look over my shoulder, my eyes connected with Dante’s. A small monstrous smirk pulled at his full lips. He’d enjoyed the show.
There was no stopping me from returning his smile with one of my own. One that said I was thirsty for blood, and if he wasn’t careful, it would be him I would be after next.
Pushing through the door, I found where Milo had taken Alicen and made my way towards them. She might not want to tell me what’s going on, but I would be talking to her about how much Dom and Angel had been messing with her whenever I wasn’t around.
I was getting about time to put those boys in their place.
