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“Just take me home, Max. Let me listen to my lecture so I can go to bed and forget this awful night ever happened.”
He opens his mouth, probably about to come up with another bullshit excuse for why he and my brothers are overbearing assholes who treat me like I’m a second-class citizen, but he closes it without saying anything, and the rest of the drive is spent in awkward silence.
* * *
Two days later,I find myself sitting in a car with Max again. Only this time he’s driving me to the airport. My brothers were beyond pissed when I got home the other night, and I guess this is my punishment. My heart is heavy in my chest, and I fight back tears as I stare out of the window. I finger the St. Christopher pendant absent-mindedly. Apparently he’s the patron saint of travelers. It belonged to my mom, and my brothers gave me it for this trip.
Never take it off, Joey!As if some crusty old saint is going to protect me. But I’ll always wear it because it was my mom’s. And because a part of me believes that there’s something bigger than me in the universe.
“They’re doing this to protect you, Joey,” Max says softly.
I ignore him. He’s as big an asshole as the rest of them. They can dress this up any damn way they please but shipping me off to some convent school in Italy will never be what’s best for me.
“They just want—”
“Stop!” I shout. “Just stop it. You’re as bad as they are.”
Max sighs deeply, but at least he stops talking. I continue to stare out the window. My brothers couldn’t even be bothered to take me to the airport themselves. Instead they farmed me out to Max to handle. Dealing with all that female emotion would be too much for the Moretti brothers, right? They think they’re so damn tough, but they can’t handle a few tears.Cowards.
A tear runs down my cheek, and I swat it away before Max sees. It’s easier to focus on my rage toward my brothers right now. If I lose sight of that, all I’ll have left is the soul-crushing despair of being sent to live on the other side of the world with people I don’t even know.
When Dante and Lorenzo told me yesterday that I was going to Italy for three years and that I had no say at all in the matter, I thought they were playing a practical joke. No discussion. No consideration of my feelings at all. The decision was made, and it was final. I guess the joke’s on me.
The two of them barely looked at me once after breaking their news. Not even Anya fought for me, which is so unlike her. She stands up to them on my behalf all the time, but not on this. She sat quietly by and watched while they ruined my whole life.
And here I am, headed to Italy all alone. Well except for the four armed escorts who will accompany me until I reach the convent school and receive my new security detail. No family. No friends. Nobody.
“Joey,” Maximo says softly, and I realize I’m crying.
“Leave me the hell alone,” I sniff. Max moved into our house when I was four. He’s ten years older, and he always looked out for me like a big brother. Although for the past two years, I’ve fantasized about him being way more than that. I flirt with him constantly, and he pretends not to notice. His betrayal hurts just as much as my brothers’ does.
When we pull up at the airport, I reach for the door handle but Maximo locks it, preventing me from leaving.
“Joey. Look at me.”
“No.” He doesn’t get to give me some speech about this being for my own good to make himself feel better. They’re getting rid of me because I’m a pain in their ass and their lives will be easier without me in it. Nothing he says can convince me otherwise.
“Joey,” he says, his voice low and demanding.
I turn and glare at him.
“One day you will see that this was for your protection…”
“The fuck I will!”
He closes his eyes and draws a deep breath through his nose. When he opens them again, he places his hand on my chin and a jolt of electricity surges through me. He tilts my head until I’m forced to look at him. “Your brothers only want what’s best for you, and I promise you that one day you’ll see that.”
I let the tears run freely down my cheeks. Screw them all to hell. “You’re a fucking liar, Max. This is my punishment and we both know it.”
Shaking his head, he sighs. “It’s not. But sometimes the right thing to do hurts, Joey.”
“The right thing for who? Dante and Lorenzo? Because this only benefits them as far as I can see. Get Joey out of the way and forget about her, yeah?” I wipe my cheeks with the sleeve of my sweatshirt.
“I wish I could explain,” he says, his brow furrowed in a frown. “But just know that they would do anything to protect you.”
“I’m eighteen years old. I don’t need their goddamn protection.”
He grips my jaw tighter, his eyes burning into mine. “Listen to me, Joey Moretti,” he commands. “Like it or not, you will always be a target. There will always be men who will want to hurt you. To make you feel less than simply because you’re a woman who was born into power.”
