Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
She repeats the sign of the cross. “Maybe, but you…” She wags her finger at me like I’m a toddler who’s misbehaving. “Don’t waste your time like your brothers. Thirty-two is a good age to start a family. I can help you find a good girl.”
“What about Luca and Antonio?” I’m the youngest of her sons. Why the hell is the pressure to carry on the family name falling on my head?
“You think your brothers can mold around another person now? Luca is like marble, and Antonio is like steel. Don’t leave it too long… I don’t need another brick for a son.”
“Mama.” I stand and dip to kiss her warm soft cheek.
She grips my face between her palms again, assessing me with Luca’s eyes. “This life has taken a lot from me, Alexis. My husband. My son. Don’t let it steal the future of the Venturi name. It’s time.”
“I love you, Mama,” is all I can think of to reply because although there’s never a shortage of women in my bed, none has ever registered as a marriage prospect. What kind of woman can put up with this life; the risks, the dubious conscience we need to hold onto power when behind you there are even worse people looking to steal everything you have. It could only ever be a half measure of love. An expectation for someone to love the parts of me that are acceptable and look past everything else. A love like that isn’t worth it.
I think of Aemelia and the disgusted way she looked at me as I crouched at her feet to wipe her. That disgust I can deal with. I prefer it because it’s honest. The women who look at me like I’m an angel on the inside as well as the outside can never be anything but fake. Disgust turns me on because it’s something I can push against. It’s something that burns with heat like rage and shame.
Mama taps my cheek a little too hard for affection. “I’m going to be dead soon. Find someone else to love.”
***
I call Antonio from the car on my way to meet my crew. “Anything from the rat?”
“Nothing.”
“You think the message has got to him?”
“Who the fuck knows? He’s at the bottom of a well. The coin has to sink.”
“So we wait?”
“We wait.”
I’m not a patient man. Neither are my brothers, and the longer we have to wait, the longer pretty little Aemelia is going to be under our roof.
“How’s the kitten?”
“She has claws.”
I laugh at the idea that little Aemelia Lambretti might have hurt my huge, vicious brother.
“I like claws.”
“So does Luca.”
Our older brother always keeps his life private. If he has a woman, he meets her in secret, and keeps the relationship under lock and key. It’s only through throw-away comments that I suspect the kind of sex he seeks out isn’t vanilla.
“He wants to fuck her?”
“Yes.” Antonio’s tone carries a hint of disapproval, and I tap my fingers against the steering wheel, considering.
“And you? Do you want to fuck her?”
“She’s practically half my age.”
“And half your size.”
He snorts. “The little girls always like the big boys.”
Ain’t that the truth. “What about the big boy, Antonio? You thought about what it would be like to declaw the cat.”
“She’s not a bad person,” he says, his tone gentling. “If you were locked in a room, and forced to your knees, you’d have claws, too.”
“Mmmmm… you like her.”
“Idiota.”
“Hey. I know what I see with my own eyes.”
“It sounds like you like her.”
“And I’m not fucking denying it. If I could bend her over the table and fuck her until she screams, I would in a heartbeat, claws and all.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
He makes an interesting point. What’s stopping me? “She’s innocent,” I say. “Her father will value her more this way. If we take that…” Why the hell am I talking myself out of this?
“How would he know?”
That’s a very good point. “She’d lose the fire in her eyes, Antonio. You know the dead expression hookers have. You can’t hide that. And anyway, what the fuck is your game?”
He laughs and sips a drink, making a slurping noise in my ear.
“Because listening to you get excited about pussy like a thirteen-year-old is brightening up my shitty day. That’s why.”
“Like you haven’t thought about it, asshole. When she was wearing that lace dress that showed everything, you’re telling me you didn’t think about it?”
“I’m not dead.”
So I was right. “You think Carlo will come?”
“There are still people who might lean on him if he’s reluctant. His brother is still linked to the Mesinas. This won’t look good for him.”
“When I get my hands on him,” I say, gripping the steering wheel like I’m throttling his stupid fucking neck.
“Join the queue. There won’t be a piece of him left that’s big enough to interest a rat.”