AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Why?’ Shepp signs with confusion, furrowing his brows.
“Because my father was just discussing marrying us off to Chloe Satin.” I cringe when I say her name, getting the same reaction from the other two. “So, shall we?” I ask, gesturing toward the door.
“My kitten is at a nice little party in Millionaires Row.” Arrow turns his phone, displaying a picture of our girl dressed in a sexy kitten outfit with a mask secured over her face.
Her head is tipped back, and her curls dangle past her shoulders in a frizzy mess. Euphoria takes over her expression. Lips popped open. Eyes squeezed shut. Hands in the air.
She looks too good to be all alone in the midst of a high school party. Especially with all the fools around her, staring her down with desire in their blown eyes.
It’s time to leave our mark.
“Then it's settled. We'll sneak away.”
I blow out a breath, getting out my frustrations. In three weeks, that will be our celebration. Our initiation. Where we will fall to our knees and bleed for our family in front of the commissioner, my father, who is the head of it all, and his four underbosses.
I inspect my second-in-command’s stoic face for a moment. Worry lines crease his brows, pulling at the large scar slicing through the right side of his face. A deep battle wound. Just one of the many wounds and traumas courtesy of his father, Thomas Mondelli, who once served mine. He was his second-in-command, ruling over Briar Cove, but now lies six feet deep.
Good riddance, asshole.
I mull over his words. He's my voice of reason, after all. Ironic? Yes. Shepp hasn't uttered a word since that fateful night when he was ten—only using his hands to communicate through sign language. Something Arrow and I have learned for his sake and ours.
He's the man pulling me back from the edge when I want to do something rash or stupid.
But this isn't one of those moments.
"Only a few more weeks now," my father, Gabriel, teases, stepping up to me with pride as the party begins.
He thinks I'm his prodigy—his only son. The next great ruler of the mafia, he has so carefully constructed before I was born and through my childhood. Boy, does he have a rude awakening for what my friends have in store for his long-running business.
"This will be you. And then, this will be your playground." He gestures to the people around us, dressed to the nines, sipping their fancy wine. Their laughs and murmurs fill the room over the orchestra that plays softly on the raised stage.
My father needlessly messes around with his wealth, throwing it here and there. Showing it off with fancy cars, jewels, and clothing.
Maybe that's why he's bleeding money through every one of his operations.
Rave, the club he owns. The Four Raven’s bar that sits downtown is nearly bankrupt. The list goes on and on. But he keeps spending as if he has it.
Slowly but surely, Shepp, Arrow, and I are cleaning them up under the guise of helping my father, of course. Right now, we've got our claws in deep at Rave, his nightclub. Gambling machines. High stakes, elite poker games. They're all played and maintained in our VIP room. One day, it will be ours. People respect us despite our age. They've seen what we can do to our enemies—a bloodbath. They also witness the good we do for this community through our charity work. We help the people of Briar Cove get back on their feet after hard times through our loans.
"And then, we can throw you the wedding of the century." His grin widens even further, borderline predatory when he claps my shoulder. "You'll make your stepmother and I so proud when you say I do."
My eyes cast toward Shepp's mother, Aurora—my stepmother. The woman barely standing on her own two feet. Her eyes glazed over even more than they were ten years ago. She's just a passenger in this life. My father says jump, and she asks, how high? But I guess that's what he thinks makes the perfect mafia wife—subservient, obedient, and pliable.
It's not how I like them. Give me a fight—someone to slap me. Challenge me, for God's sake. I don't want a useless sack of skin hanging off my every word. I want a fighter.
I smile at the prospect because my future holds just that.
"Wonderful," I say as he squeezes my shoulder again.
"Work the room, Son."
But what I heard was—leave the room, Son. So, I did. Even better, I left the property after learning what my future wife was up to and took my two best friends with me. We were miserable anyhow.
"Fuck my father," I hiss, pulling out of his grip. "I want her." My runner. My challenge. The girl who will slap me until I come.
Journey West.
My eyes set on the masked girl shining through the opened window, swaying her hips to the loud music. Dressed in a tight, black, leather corset, one-piece that shows off her lean legs and hips. Paired with fishnet tights and high heels. Fuck. I want to fucking burn it off her body and put a sack over her. No man should see what I will see every morning when I wake up.
