AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dom? What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask the last person I expected to be knocking on my door at this hour in the morning.
Dominic McKinley and I met when we both started school. Now I’m in my last year, about to finally fucking graduate. Why the fuck my old man insisted that we all graduate with business degrees beats me. I mean, they don’t teach you the kind of skills our family deals in, in a classroom at university.
“Marcello, really? Fuck, it was nice knowing you, bro.” Dom laughs while shaking his head at me.
“You didn’t see me here. You don’t know me. I’m out.” The woman—whose name I now know isZoe—says to Dominic before skirting around him and hightailing it down the hall.
“What are you doing here and how the fuck do you know her?” I ask him.
“Your brother is looking for you. He thought he’d call my ass to hunt you down, because none of them could get a hold of you.”
“How’d you know where I was?” I lift a brow in question, and Dominic mimics the gesture. Yeah, he’s not going to answer that. “Then, how do you know her?”
“You heard her. I don’t.” He grins.
“You’re an asshole,” I grunt, letting the door close on his face.
Dominic reaches out and catches it before it slams shut. “Call Gio. It sounded urgent. See you at the wedding,” Dom says and then leaves as quickly as he appeared.
I walk back into the bedroom, and the name repeats in my head over and over again.
Zoe. Her name… and the wordsyou fuck like a preteen. I want nothing more than to drag her ass into my bed and make her take 'em back. My ego can’t fucking handle hearing a woman claim to be disappointed in my performance.
Picking up my phone from the nightstand, I switch it back on. I have ten missed calls from Gio, five from Santo, and six from Vin. That feeling from earlier, the one where I just know this day is going to be shit, comes back. Full force.
I dial Gio first. “Where the fuck have you been?” he asks me.
“In a hotel room. Why? What’s going on?”
“We can’t find Santo. He’s MIA, and so is Shelli. No one has seen or heard from either of them.”
“They’re probably off fucking their prewedding jitters out of their systems,” I say.
“Yeah, maybe…” He sighs.
“Where areyou?”
“We’re at the Four Seasons. Santo booked a room here last night and never came back.”
“I’ll be right there.” I hang up.
As much as I want to think Santo and Shelli are just off fooling around like usual, I don’t think they are. It’s the fucking De Bellis curse again. That’s what it is.
ChapterThree
“Where the fuck are they? I’d get it if one of them had cold feet, but both?” I run a hand through my hair. “Actually, no, I wouldn’t fucking get it. It’s Santo and Shelli. Neither of them would have cold feet. So, where the fuck are they?” I ask my brothers for the millionth time as I check the clock on my watch.
“It’s the curse,” Marcello says.
“Marcel, for the last fucking time, there is no goddamn curse on the De Bellis name,” Gio grunts in reply.
My younger brother has had it in his head that we’re all cursed and shouldn’t even consider having relationships, because it’s never going to end well anyway. Personally, I think he watches too many fucking movies.
“Fine, don’t believe me. But it won’t change the fact that we’re all doomed. You’ll find out eventually when the curse hits you.” Marcello sighs.
“It’s not going to hit me because I’m not ever going to fall in love. That shit is for people like Santo, not people like me.” Gio points a finger at his chest.
“Okay, this is not helping find him or Shelli.” I dig into my pocket and pull out my flask. It’s early in the day but is it ever too early for a healthy dose of Cinque? I’d say not. Taking a swig, I close my eyes as the smooth flavour explodes on my tongue.
