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My eyes bulged, and I wiped my mouth with the paper serviette.
“And you’re keeping the cheesecake away, why?” I grinned at him, and he shot to his feet.
“Coming up.”
“You must all think I’m a beast, eating so much,” Stuffing a meatball into my mouth, I moaned louder. I’d found my Nirvana.
I had no idea how much I ended up eating, but when I finally paused, I’d managed to eat a portion of every dish, including tasting all three cheesecakes—strawberry vanilla, cookie dough, and pineapple cream.
“How are you feeling?” Shadow asked from across the table, his voice soft and warm. Having all three Alphas paying so much attention to me had my pulse pick up, making my heartbeat race with excitement.
“Fully satisfied. I have no idea what came over me that I ate so much.” I chased it all down with the rest of my apple juice.
“After a heat, your body is craving nutrients and energy since you’ve been going on reserves. It’s normal.” Aspen placed a hand on my thigh, the warmth of his touch soothing.
Shadow and Viper had their eyes locked on the TV screen behind me. I twisted around to hear the news reporter talking about the decrease in violence in the city of Liberty. She stated some believed there had been a ceasefire between the Matteis and Shchavlev families.
I swallowed the thickness in my throat that felt like barbed wire. My body was numb to think Axel had achieved the goal of merging both families while my gut churned at the implication. I barely knew my father, but I’d seen enough to know he’d never bend his knee to anyone, let alone a dickhead like Axel, so there was more going on than it seemed.
Struggling to breathe, there was a sudden weight on my chest.
“We have four days left of the week to prove our innocence.” The words spilled out, followed by a small trembling in my breaths. “Four days to find a way to prove that bastard, Axel, is guilty.”
The guys began talking about the peace in the city, the possibility of the families joining forces, and about needing a connection to help them get more insight into Axel.
But my mind was thundering with terror. My thoughts were all over the place as I tried to swallow the panic surging through me. We’d wasted three days because of my heat, so there was no more delay.
“Is it worth calling Rusty to find out if he knows what’s going on?” Aspen asked.
Shadow was already shaking his head. “He’d let me know if anything significant happened. We still have to prove that dickhead, Axel, planned all along to kill my great-grandfather.”
“Then let’s find someone else in the Matteis family to find a way to get dirt on Axel,” Aspen added.
“You think it’s that easy to just make connections? They trust no one,” Viper rasped, and he had a point.
As he spoke, an idea came to mind, and I leaned forward.
“I may know someone.” Suddenly, every eye was on me. “Back at the Institute, there was a girl who bragged that she was connected to the Matteis family. Amy was a horrible person, but I once saved her from Jack, one of our caretakers who was all hands on the girls. Anyway, I got her away from him one night when he was going to enter her room, and she said she owed me anything for helping her.”
“Okay, that’s an in. What’s her surname? We can try to track her down.” Viper asked.
“I only know her first name, but her details were at the Institute office. They might still be there.”
“Good. Aspen, Viper, you two head out to the Institute tonight and find out Amy’s information. Then we’ll pay her a visit. We need dirt on Axel, a connection of someone who knew his plans and is willing to speak up against him.”
“Fat chance of that,” Aspen voiced my exact thought. “But getting dirt on him might be another way to take him down.” His tone changed, the deep, serious tone lacing every word, making me anxious.
Shadow and Viper nodded, each behaving with the confidence of taking down Axel, but I wasn’t so convinced. As they made plans, everything started to overwhelm me.
I wanted the asshole found guilty and punished, but I had a sinking feeling that things wouldn’t go so easily for us. As I turned my attention back to the news reporter, who was talking about an approaching storm, I blinked several times, watching her mindlessly as a tear slid past my eyelashes.
Finally discovering true love and my found family, I wasn’t ready for the universe to take it away from me. After I’d already lost so much, if I lost my Alphas, I knew I’d break and never be able to be put back together.
Eleven
ASPEN
My world was guns and blood. It’d been how I ran the Bronze Cobras with Shadow and Viper to grow it to the size it was now, to make our millions. We were still a small fire compared to the two mafia families, which was fine. We hadn’t planned to compete with them, so we kept it low-key.
