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That is the last time I will ever let that man use me. The sooner I can get out of this goddamn house, the better.
Chapter15
Dante
After an incredibly tense and emotional conversation with my older brother about how our little sister managed to fly halfway across the world without him noticing, I call Joey to my study.
“Is Lorenzo super pissed at me?” she asks, all wide and innocent-looking. But she’s capable of causing more trouble than both of us brothers combined.
“Yeah, he’s pissed. But I guess he’s kind of distracted right now.”
“I know. Anya is sick again and I don’t think Lorenzo even wants to acknowledge it,” Joey says with a shake of her head as we sit facing each other on the opposite sides of my desk.
“Well, it took him a long time to accept it the first time around,” I remind her, remembering my older brother’s violent outburst and epic rages when his wife was diagnosed with cancer four years ago.
“I know. What if he loses it again?” she asks.
“He won’t.”
“Yeah.” She chews on her bottom lip. It’s a habit she’s had since she was a little kid. She does it when she’s nervous or worried. She’s only twenty-one and the baby of the family. Lorenzo and I have always looked out for her and protected her from the worst of our father’s rage and cruelty, but she soaked up plenty of it anyway. Kids do, don’t they? Like little sponges. She resents our protection, obviously, and I get that. She feels claustrophobic,a prisoner.But one day, she will see that it’s all for her own good. Everything we have ever done for her has been only out of love and concern.
“She’ll beat it again, Joey,” I tell her.
“What if she doesn’t, Dante?” she asks, her eyes brimming with tears.
I shake my head because I don’t have an answer for that. Our mother died of cancer when she was thirty-seven. I was thirteen, Lorenzo was seventeen, and Joey was only four.
“Anyway, tell me about Kat,” she says, changing the subject. She has a wicked grin on her face. My sister can be as sweet as sugar when she wants to be. Innocent and vulnerable in a lot of ways, but she also has a cruel streak a mile long. She just gets a kick out of hurting people — even the people she loves.
“Her brother stole money from Pop. I can’t find him and she doesn’t know where he is. So it was either kill her or bring her here to work for us.”
“So?” she replies with a frown. “Why not just kill her?”
I glare at her. That question brings up so much emotion and I don’t want her to see even a sliver of it. The truth is I’ve killed people for less. Not innocent women though. I’ve certainly never killed a woman with crystal blue eyes that can see into my soul and has an ass that haunts my every waking thought.
“She has nothing to do with her brother being an asshole, Joey. We don’t just go around killing people for nothing.”
“Not for nothing if he stole from us, though? Family is family,” she replies with a shrug, as though taking a life costs nothing. I hope she never has to learn the harsh reality that it costs something that can never be regained. “You just going to keep her here forever?”
Yes. For fucking ever and then some.“No.” I rub a hand over my jaw. I really have no idea what I’m going to do about Kat, especially now that Joey is back. She adds an extra element of complication. She will make it her mission to push Kat’s buttons at every possible opportunity, and I will wind up being stuck in the middle of the two of them. “Just until she can work off her brother’s debt or comes up with something that helps me find the piece of shit.”
“Yeah, right,” she snorts.
I scowl at her. “What?”
“You’re fucking her.”
“Guiseppina!”
“Aren’t you?” she asks with a smirk.
“None of your damn business,” I snarl.
She sits straight in her chair and stares at me, her huge brown eyes wide. “Oh my God, you like her!” she says with disgust and a little sadness too. My little sister is not used to competing for my affections.
“She’s working here for a few months and then she’ll leave,” I lie, but I say it with such conviction I almost believe it myself.
“Whatever you say, big brother,” she says with a sweet smile. Devious little witch is already up to something.
