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"Don't care." This is about following my gut, and my gut says that Lucia Esposito belongs to me.
Orion's eyes narrow. "You have a job to do with her."
"And I will do it." I'll enjoy doing it. Spending time with her is no hardship.
"You think she's going to let you keep her once you start charging her club protection money?" Orion asks.
"She'll have no choice." I'm not letting her go.
Besides, Lucia will be better off under my protection in the long run. A highly intelligent woman, she will realize that once I explain things to her.
Orion takes a sip of his own beer. "Tell me about the club."
"She built it up from nothing, turning a furniture store into a bangin' nightclub. Lucia has her finger on the pulse of her clientele and the area. She keeps everything fresh."
"Fuck me," my brother breathes.
But I'm not done. "She doesn't like crowds or noise, but you'd never know it by how she is with the patrons and her staff."
"He's doing that creepy shit again." Helios glares at me.
Orion asks Zeus, "Are you seeing this?"
"I told you. He was smiling the other day and he threw Zephyr across my office when our cousin suggested getting with the woman too."
Remembering my cousin's colossally fucked up proposal, I shoulder check him and he crashes back into the table.
"What the hell? I didn't say anything," Zephyr complains.
I shrug. Zephyr is the youngest of us, and sometimes it feels like he's a lot more than two years younger than me. Maybe because he didn't make his first kill until after he was legal to drink.
"Do you smile when you are with her?" Orion asks.
I give him a look. That's a ridiculous question. Of course, I do. "What's not to smile about when I'm with the sexiest, most beautiful and intelligent woman I've ever met."
My cousins gape at each other, but Zeus and Orion are fixed on me.
"She's an outsider," Orion says the same way he'd warn me Lucia had a communicable, deadly disease.
"The fuck do I care about following the traditions of theÁdis Adelfótita?" Those traditions left a ten-year-old child in the hands of monsters for a year.
"It's not just about tradition. Outsiders don't understand our way of life."
"She might already be pregnant with my baby."
"Gamo!" That's Helios.
"Did the condom break?" Zephyr asks. "Why isn't she on birth control?"
"Remember that redhead in Athens?" Helios reminisces. "She said she couldn't use anything because she was a magnet for side effects."
"Yeah, she gave a hell of a blow job though." Zephyr shakes his head.
Zeus pulls the steaks from the grill and brings the platter over. We all troop inside and gather around the table in the breakfast nook. No one says anything about eating in the dining room.
Zeus puts the platter of steaks in the center of the table beside a cucumber salad and a basket of rolls. He's frowning, but he doesn't add to the peanut gallery.
"You didn't wear a condom," Orion guesses as he sits down.
