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“Zitto,” Saint barks. I have no idea what that means, but I assume it’s something along the lines of shut your trap, so I do, temporarily.
“You did not tell him to call Viktor, and if you keep talking, you’ll be punished too.”
Usually, I’d have some quick-witted quip about punishments, but now doesn’t seem like the time. There are four mobsters circled around me and the one I’m talking to looks like he’s going to tear off the other’s head.
“She didn’t ask me to call,” Luca says. “I called on my own. I was afraid you two were blinded by her, so I made a decision based on that. I was wrong.” Luca looks toward me. “She’s a good person.”
“Viktor,” Everleigh says, her voice low, “we’re taking her back with us, right? We can’t leave her here with these guys. They’re crazy. Tell them it doesn’t matter who called.”
Saint twists toward Everleigh and shoots her a look that I’ve never seen before, not just from him, but from any living thing.
“She’s not going anywhere,” he snarls. “She’s ours. We’ll care for her.”
Viktor turns toward Saint with agitation. “If you need to addressher, you addressme. Don’t look at Everleigh. Don’t talk to Everleigh. Don’t breathe in her fucking direction.”
“Well,” I say, trying to cut the tension, “while all you boys are having a pissing contest, I’m going to catch up with my girl.” I grip Everleigh by the arm and drag her back toward the bedroom across the hallway. It’s not as large as the one I’ve been staying in, but right now I’m not sure size matters.
“Stand outside the door and keep an eye on them,” Saint snarls. I can’t see who he’s talking to, but I imagine it’s Dante. He wouldn’t order Viktor like that, and Luca is the object of his anger.
“What are you doing?” Everleigh throws herself onto the queen size bed and lays back, staring up at the ceiling, her long white sundress spread out beside her. She’s gorgeous, always has been, but now, there’s a glow about her, one I can’t explain. I suppose it’s happiness. “These guys are weird. Are you okay?”
“Weirder than Viktor?”
She rolls her eyes.
“They aren’t going to hurt me, trust that.” I lay back on the bed with her, gripping her hand in mine. We have been friends for years, but we got extra close when her fiancé disappeared a few years ago. Since then, her life has been turned upside down. I should pin her down and ask her a thousand questions about how to manage myself around big men with guns, but she’s already rattling on about medical stuff again.
“That Saint guy said you have cancer. Is that true? If it is, Viktor said we could find you help. He’ll find the best guy and—”
“No,” I say, letting out a sigh. “I’m not going with you and Viktor. Just before you guys got here, I was doing this weird sex thing with Dante and Saint and I have to see how that goes.”
“You’re not choosing fun sex over your life. I know how free you like to be with your body, but you need medical help! Besides, apparently some billionaire is after you for that safe deposit box you took for me. Lucy… I…”
“You have nothing to do with this. It’s a different safe deposit box. Trust me, we’ll figure that out. As for doctors… doctors can’t help me.” I sit up from the bed. “I’ve been down that road. It’s a dead end.”
“Viktor knows everyone. He can pull strings; he can find you a doctor that will.”
“Saint has said the same thing. I know they could find me some fantastic doctor, but I don’t know if I want it.”
She sits up from the bed and joins me at the edge of the mattress, her eyes on mine so intently that I swear I’m in an after school special about wearing protection or saying no to drugs. “So what? You want to die?”
“No! I want to live. I want to live the life I was supposed to live.” I stand from the bed and wiggle my hips back and forth playfully. “And I want to go out fucking three mobsters like a fucking queen.”
Her eyes roll so far into the back of her head that I’m starting to think my mother was right all those years about them sticking. “You’re insane! I’m not letting you do this. You’re—”
“You don’t get a choice in the matter, Everleigh. I know what my odds are. They’re small. What I want… is a few crazy life experiences, a giant bottle of vodka, and every orgasm I have coming to me.” I laugh, but she doesn’t laugh back. In fact, her eyes are doing that water dripping thing that I’m never sure what to do with.
“So that’s it? This is the last time I’ll see you? You’re just going to die out here in some mafia mansion fucking three strangers?”
I smile. “If I’m lucky.”
She doesn’t like my blasé attitude. Her eyes are getting quite the workout with all the rolling they’re doing.
I wrap my arm around her shoulder. “I love you Everleigh, like a sister, but I’m not leaving with you. I’m not going to sit in some chair on the deck of your boat, while you are doted over by the three men you call yours, all while everyone feels supremely terrible that I’m dying. I’m not going to some fancy doctor that will promise me the world, only to be disappointed or terribly ill, and I’m not rushing back to Clearwater to tell my mom that I’ll never see her again. I need this. This moment, with these guys, whatever it is.”
She wipes the tears from her face and nods. “I know you do.”
“Okay then, go tell your man that he can stop fighting for me so I can save Luca from getting his ass kicked by Saint.”
