Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 573(@300wpm)
She tried not to roll her eyes at that comment and scolding tone.
“I’m trusting you won’t give my sister any trouble?”
I’ll fucking give you some trouble, bitc—
“Yeah, yeah, I think we got it from here,” Kat shooed her brother out of her office, sensing the tension. It was like she knew Valerie and her imp so well already.
Waving her hand, she gave Sal a big, satisfying smile as the door slammed right in his face.
Already, Valerie could tell she and Kat were about to become fast friends. They looked opposite but weirdly the same. Different but similar. Yin and yang.
“Sorry about him,” Kat apologized on his behalf. “I think he’s just been a bit stressed lately. Just work, I’m sure.”
Interesting … Or a breakup perhaps?
Kat got right to it, showing Valerie how to sort through some paperwork that had piled up and in which files in the cabinet she should place them.
After giving her the rundown on her detailed, color-coded filing system, Kat finally asked, “Any questions?”
“Yes, I do have one …” It was a lot to take in, but Valerie only had one question in mind. “Does Sal have girlfriend?”
Only an hour had passed before a text came through on his phone. Seeing it was his sister messaging him, he instinctively knew exactly what it was going to be about.
“Fuck.”
After reading the words, Get here now, he left his security office to head to Kat’s. By the time he got there, she was outside the door, waiting for him.
“Don’t worry; she’s in there,” Kat immediately spoke, sensing he thought she had run off.
“Why the hell have you left her alone?” Sal harped; they both knew she was a flight risk. The only reason he trusted his sister to watch her was because, unlike him, Katarina had grown up as a Luciano with his other brothers, Dominic, Angel, Matthais, and Cassius. She not only kept all of them in line from time to time, but hell, she kept her poor husband, Drago, practically whipp—
“What do you think she’s going to do? Jump out the window and fall one hundred fifty feet to her death?”
Her deadpan face had Sal taken aback, knowing his sister had a point there.
“She’s the one making me suicidal, not her.”
Sal’s hand went to massage his temples. He was already getting a headache from his lack of sleep. He didn’t need this. “Christ. What did she do? I’m sure she had a hard time following direction—”
“Oh no.” Kat stopped him right there. “She can follow directions just fine and did everything I asked immediately. I was behind filing two weeks’ worth of paperwork, and she filed them perfectly within thirty minutes.”
Sal wasn’t exactly seeing the problem, then. “Okay …?”
“She’s spent the last thirty minutes with her feet up, asking me things like, Does Sal have a girlfriend? How can I join the mafia? Or, do you have any Twizzlers?”
“Goddammit,” Sal huffed, going back to rubbing his temples. “Well, maybe you can find something else for her to do—”
“Oh, no, no, no.” Kat waved her hands violently against that idea. “Listen, love her to death, and I can’t wait to hang out with her outside of this office, but … she can’t work here.”
Sal desperately tried to take a deep and calming breath but gave up. “Okay, I understand.”
“Sorry, Sal.” She looked at him pityingly but not too pityingly that she would change her mind. “I just have way too much work to do, and she’s a bit distracting.”
Knowing his sister was trying to be nice by saying a bit, he knew it was more like a lot a bit. “Tell me about it,” he mumbled under his breath before shoving open the door to find Valerie shooting staples out of a stapler. “Let’s go.”
Putting down the joke of a loaded weapon, Valerie hurried out of the office. “Something wrong—Bye, Kat! See ya later!” she tossed over her shoulder to the waving woman when Sal grabbed her hand and dragged her along down the hallway.
You could say that. YOU.
But Sal didn’t say those words out loud. Too afraid he’d lose his temper with any of her responses that always held a bit of sarcasm. Trying to cool himself, he knew this wasn’t like him. He was the cool, calm, collected, and responsible one in the family, and Valerie was driving him insane right along with her.
“Jesus, Sal.” She snatched her hand out of his grasp and put her foot down. “Where the hell are we going?”
Truthfully, he knew he wanted to take her right back to his place here at the Casino Hotel and fuck her brains out again, but that fact scared him.
Absolutely terrified him.
Never in his life had he ever fucked a woman twice.
Sure, he had stopped looking women up on the web when he wanted to sleep with them; otherwise, he’d still be a virgin. But he always broke and did so after the first encounter. Sal knew his downfalls, and becoming easily attached was one. He had his childhood to thank for that.