I’ll Burn Anyone (The Challenge Night Series Book 2)

by K. L Mann

  “I think you’re 11 and too stubborn to admit you’ll be married one day, and that you should know I don’t care what gender the person you marry is.”

  Well, that’s actually… sweet.

  “Not gonna happen, big bro. No one is ever going to be good enough for me, isn’t that what you and papa always say?”

  Gio is. Gio is good enough for me. He’s perfect for me.

  “Got that right,” he confirms with a nod before turning to Marco. “You know I don’t care if you’re gay either right?”

  Lorenzo trying to be a fierce ally for his siblings is quite possibly the sweetest disaster ever to occur. I’ve seen this kind of thing on social media. Parents or siblings who go all rainbow crazy when a family member comes out of the closet. It’s endearing especially from someone like my brother. The man is as seemingly emotionless as it gets and is taking the time to tell me love is love. He’s a good man despite his grim appearance, somber vibe and mega mood swings.

  “Not really into dicks, but thanks for the reassurance,” Marco drawls in return, snickering at the TV as he tunes us out again.

  “And we don’t care if you like boys either,” I add with a smile. “But I’d prefer a sister to another brother when someone is finally tricked into marrying you.”

  “Noted.” His voice vibrates against the couch, which prompts him to end out little conversation. “Goodnight siblings,” he says, striding out of the room with purpose.

  “Goodnight,” I reply before sinking deeper into the couch. Seeing the end of the movie isn’t going to happen, because slowly, I drift off into slumber. Minutes later, I feel the faintest touch of a blanket covering me and everything is peaceful.

  Chapter 9: King Caruso

  “I need to believe that no matter

  what happens in our lives, no matter

  how much darkness infects us, I need to believe

  that we can come back from that.”

  –Oliver Queen

  Arianna

  My eyes hurt as I open them for the second time Sunday morning. I wish it were all a nightmare, but it doesn’t take long for me to recognize that it was real.

  Gio knows I’ve slept with Luca, and he’s given up on me because of it. He told me to move on, he doesn’t want me. It hurts less, the sting has dulled but it still exists.

  Luca isn’t in my bed with me when I roll over to look for him. There’s a note on the pillow in his place.

  “I'm canceling Bible study until you feel better.” I giggle, realizing what he meant by his joke. Today was supposed to be much more fun than it is going so far. “I talked to Gio. He’s staying somewhere else for the next couple of days. I’m sorry he scared you. Vito is downstairs, he’ll order whatever you want for lunch. I’ll be back around dinner time. Text if you need me.

  –Jerk”

  I find my phone on the bedside table, it’s 12pm.

  Shit, I slept in for a long time.

  Arianna: Thank you. –Brat

  I text Luca quickly then dial Vito’s number.

  He picks up almost instantaneously.

  “What can I do for you, Signorina Vitale?”

  “I’m going to have Marco grab pasta from Luí. He owes me an apology,” I decide out of the blue. “Can I have him get you anything?”

  “That’s very kind of you. Whatever you are having would be great, thank you.”

  “Of course. See you in a bit.” I hang up, and then call Marco.

  I know he’ll say yes, he has to.

  “What’s up?”

  “Hey, I’m calling an emergency meeting.” I smile, using our old game to my advantage.

  “What are we? 8?” He laughs sarcastically.

  It's easy to laugh back.

  “Seriously though, I need to talk to you, and you have to listen. No judgments and no telling anyone. Super-secret sharing time. Pick up pasta from Luí first though, enough for Vito and us.”

  “Super secrets?” Marco sighs. “Alright, but only because I’ve got some of my own to share.”

  “Perfect. See you soon.”

  We used to do this all the time when we were closer. Whenever either of us desperately needed to tell each other something, we’d call ‘emergency meetings’ and talk for hours about our personal dramas.

  When I get out of bed, my body aches differently than it did this morning. There’s a dull deep pain inside of me radiating from my hips, through my pussy. I was so distracted, panicking after my nightmare and Gio uncovering my secret that I didn’t recognize this pain before.

  This pain isn’t mean or scary, it reminds me of my new friend. The one who held me for hours while I calmed down. We’ve only dropped our guards down for one day, yet somehow it feels like weeks. We’ve both thought about each other years ago, and now we have this thing.

  Ugh, I need to talk to Marco. He’s definitely going to judge me, he’s bad at that part. Though despite his uncanny ability to speak his mind regardless of it sometimes being mean, he’s normally right.

  I showered last night before bed, and despite sweating during my nightmare, I don’t smell bad. I have absolutely no motivation to get ready for the day. I run to the bathroom to brush my teeth quickly and pee. The pain hurts more as I do, reminding me yet again of Luca’s hands all over me.

  I jump into an oversized white T–shirt, my pink bra is barely noticeable through it. Black leggings and a pair of socks complete my relaxing outfit. I just brush out my hair fast and moisturize my face before throwing on perfume and climbing back into bed.

  I text Marco, feeling nervous to spill my guts.

  Arianna: Come up to Katherine’s room when you get here, I don’t want to get out of bed. But give Vito some food before you do, PLEASE. Luv ya.

  Marco: K. Be there in 10. LY.

  We don’t say I love you. It’s always been ‘luv ya’ even with Lorenzo and our parents. Most of the time Marco shortens it to LY though, he’s such a particular guy.

  My door swings open after like fifteen minutes of mindlessly watching YouTube videos on my phone. Marco is dressed like he always is, immaculately. He cares about style though, not appearances. It’s one of his more casual outfits, a leather jacket, black fitted jeans and a white and black striped v–neck.

  “Catch,” he tells me, throwing a bottle of my favorite green tea up in the air toward me.

  “You remembered,” I grin, barely catching it.

  Marco closes the door behind him and comes around to the other side of Katherine’s bed. He sets the full paper bag in the center between me and the free space for him. He takes off his jacket and throws it on to a nearby chair and I start digging into the bag, investigating.

  Marco grins, jumping on to the end of the bed, facing me while he cracks open a bottle of beer. “Alright, spill your secrets, sister.”

  “Katherine’s not here for me to talk to, so some of it is going to be TMI…” I pull out each of our pastas and hand him his.

  Marco laughs, pulling open his container of carbonara. “I’ll try not to vomit.”

  Alright, here goes nothing. “I slept with Luca... twice,” I blurt out, then shove a bite of gnocchi into my mouth.

  I don’t know how else to start this story, it’s too fucking complex.

  Marco’s eyes widen at me, searching my face to see if I’m joking.

  “You weren’t kidding, this is an emergency meeting.” He takes a sip of his beer. “But what’s the problem? Lorenzo doesn’t know, does he?”

  “No, he might soon though,” I cough. “Uhm, cause Gio knows.”

  “So? Why does Gio care? He’s turned you down for two years now.” Marco sets his container of pasta to the side.

  “I don’t know, he’s so fucking complicated. I let it slip at like 3am this morning that I had slept with someone and he freaked. He said he was going to find out who touched me, kill them, and bring me back the remnants of them. So I yelled back at him, saying it was none of his business who I finally let touch me. But he was in my
face, yelling and it terrified me. Luca heard him, and eventually admitted it was him. Gio stormed off and said I should move on, because he’ll never be with me.”

  “Hold on. Finally let touch you? As in?” He raises an eyebrow at me, tilting his chin up in question.

  “Yeah, why is that surprising? Who would I have slept with before?”

  Marco’s mouth builds a large smile before he finally laughs. “You lost your fucking v–card to Luca Caruso?” He chuckles even louder and claps his hands together sucking in air through his teeth. “You don’t understand how great that is.” He laughs some more like I’ve told him the funniest joke of the century.

  I wave my hands around in a circle. “Hey, no judging zone.”

  “So let me get this straight. You fucked Luca, twice yesterday and then this morning Gio found out, freaked out and stormed off saying he’d never be with you? All because after waiting several years to have sex, waiting for him, you gave up. What is this 1864?”

  “Yes, apparently it is. Then Luca stayed in my bed with me after he left because I had the most embarrassing breakdown. I was literally so fucking scared of Gio, it was like he actually might kill someone. So not only am I utterly confused if Gio will ever forgive me, I’m confused as to what the hell I’ve started with Luca. He left a note on my pillow for me this morning.”

  “No fucking way, let me see it.” Marco is enjoying this, like it’s a reality show.

  It’s kind of nice seeing him smile, and making light of the situation is helping my anxiety over it. So I don’t mind too much. I hand him the little note and wait for him to read it.

  “Jesus Christ, A, you’ve got this house flipped upside down in like two days,” he laughs, handing me back my note. “What does Bible study have to do with anything though?”

  “Oh shit, I forgot that part. I sort of asked him last night if I could worship him tomorrow morning… because it’s Sunday. But then you know, everything else happened.”

  “And there’s the TMI,” he fakes a gag.

  My eyes roll on their own accord.

  “So? What’s the verdict, what do I do? Do you think Gio actually hates me? And why do I feel guilty? I didn’t do anything wrong; I know that…”

  “But you feel like you owe Gio something. You feel loyal to him even though he’s never been loyal to you,” Marco points out plainly. “No I don’t think he hates you, I think he hates himself for losing part of you to Luca. He’s a stubborn asshole, you know how I feel about Gio. Luca’s a bit of a child, reckless and occasionally dumb, but has he ever been able to turn you down? The second you showed interest in him, he showed it back. I feel like that should tell you something…”

  “Alright this is making my head spin,” I huff, taking another bite of pasta. “Tell me your secret now.”

  “This is top top secret,” he warns. “No telling anyone, at all. I’m only telling you because I can’t keep it in.”

  I hold out my pinky and grin. I love secrets, secrets can be so very fun or excruciating to keep. All the same, I enjoy keeping them hidden, especially for my baby bro. Marco wraps his pinky around mine and we swear.

  “I met someone,” he admits, sipping his beer again. “She’s kind of perfect, in the way that makes me think she’s the one, except for the fact that she’s a fucking Romano.”

  “Oof,” I grimace for him. “Papa hates those guys. You hate those guys even more.”

  I know about the Romano family from the few business conversations I’ve overheard in the past. My family and theirs are what you would call arch rivals or hell, biblical enemies.

  The men in my family always whine about the Romano family's bad business practices and their shady morals. I’ve never met any of them though. The fact that all of the men in our family share the same opinion on something is very telling. I hope this girl is nothing like them for the sake of my brother's heart. His first love shouldn’t be forbidden like mine.

  “She hates them too,” he argues and shakes his head. “We’ve had a few dances at Club Lucifer but she’s not supposed to be there and I’m not supposed to be near her. It’s an epic disaster waiting to happen.”

  Like Romeo and Juliet, how awful and adorable.

  “I bet you feel better about your situation after hearing mine though,” I guess, smiling as I attempt to cheer him up.

  “Oh most definitely,” he agrees. “I’ll be here when Lorenzo kicks their asses and then when Katherine kicks his ass two minutes later for making you upset.”

  I’d very much enjoy Katherine giving Lorenzo a piece of her mind. Watching the boys fight though? I don’t want to see that, ever.

  “I just don’t get why Lorenzo is so protective. I feel like papa wouldn’t even mind if I dated either one of them.” Drinking some of my perfect green tea, I watch as his face shifts.

  “You know they fuck women together, right?”

  I nearly spit out my drink, coughing it down.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Yeah, Lorenzo, Luca and Gio. I imagine after watching your friends fuck people, you don’t want to see them hitting on your little sister.”

  My mouth gaps at him. “How the hell do you know they fuck women together?”

  “Do you really want to know how I know that?”

  Ew. Ew. Ew.

  He’s participated before?

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” I clutch my stomach. “You don’t think they’ve shared Katherine, do you? She wouldn’t hide that from me, would she?”

  “I’m gonna be honest with you, A. Katherine doesn’t seem like the type of girl that would turn down that kind of opportunity. But I don’t know for sure, maybe Lorenzo was more possessive with her.”

  “You think Lorenzo doesn’t want either of them to be with me because they have orgies?” I scoff, thinking about how stupid that is.

  “Would you want one of your friends to date me if you fucked guys together?”

  “I don’t have friends,” I remind him.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I guess I get it... So, you think I should give up on Gio?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said he’s an ass and you’d be better off with Luca. That doesn’t mean that’s what’s best…” Marco sighs. “If you're serious about wanting Gio, don’t give up. But don’t get your hopes up either. Also, don’t let him make you wait for him anymore, show him how unfair that is.”

  I huff at him.

  “Then I'm giving you the same advice. If you want the Romano girl, don’t give up. But don’t get your hopes up.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” I smile at him sarcastically. “Also, I want to meet her so I can force her into being my friend. It seems that I can only make friends via forced proximity and I want more. I can’t gossip with you about anything, your terrible at refraining from laughing.”

  He smiles slightly, allowing me to see where his guard comes down for a moment. “We’ll see.”

  Marco and I finish eating and talking about life at 2:30pm. I missed seeing him to just catch up, so saying goodbye sucks. Since things have been tense with our parents and him, I’ve had to keep my distance. I didn’t realize how long we were hanging out until I check my phone as he leaves the room.

  I have a few texts that I didn’t hear come through. Lorenzo texted me, not Katherine.

  Lorenzo: Are you okay? Why isn’t Gio staying at the house?”

  Lorenzo: Arianna, answer your damn phone.

  Lorenzo: Vito says you're eating with Marco. Reply soon, before I lose my temper.

  Arianna: Sorry, just saw your texts. I’m fine. Please don’t make a big deal about anything, enjoy your honeymoon. Katherine deserves it.

  Lorenzo: He called me drunk at 4am, Arianna. What happened?

  He texts back instantly, despite his original messages being twenty minutes old.

  Arianna: He was drunk?

  Lorenzo: Yeah, I had to send Vito to go find him. He wouldn’t tell me what wa
s wrong, just that he wouldn’t be staying at the house for the next few days. Quit avoiding the question.

  Arianna: I told you, I’m fine. He’s just upset that I kissed some guy in Club Lucifer a few nights ago. We fought, that’s all.

  Lorenzo: Swear.

  Arianna: Lorenzo, could you just trust me for once? ENJOY YOUR HONEYMOON. I just had lunch with Marco, I’m actually having conversations with other humans. Please don’t ruin this for me.

  Lorenzo: If I hear differently, I’ll be back faster than you can stammer over an explanation. Got it?

  Arianna: Got it, bossy. Spoil your wife and leave me alone before I cut holes in all of your shirts.

  There’s a text from Luca too.

  Luca: How’s everything going?”

  I don’t answer his question.

  Arianna: Did you know Gio got drunk and Vito had to go find him?

  Luca: You talked to Lorenzo then?

  Arianna: Yes or no.

  Luca: I found out after I wrote the note, if that’s why you’re asking. He’s fine now, in a hotel suite, cooling off.

  Arianna: Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so short tempered. Yes, Lorenzo grilled me. I said Gio was upset because I kissed that kid in the club and we fought. Did he interrogate you too?

  Luca: Yeah, I just told him that Gio didn’t tell me either and that he left after you two screamed at each other. I don’t think Gio will tell him, it’ll make it look like he cares and he’s clearly trying to seem indifferent.

  I just want to forget about this whole situation.

  Arianna: Can you come home sooner? I prayed to Virbius that you’d forget my emotional meltdown and teach me a new game.

  Luca: Are you sure you don’t need more time?”

  Arianna: I would still be touching myself today, sad or not. Every day, remember? It’s sort of an addiction… but you feel better than my hand.

  Luca: In that case, I’ll be back in an hour. Don't play with yourself yet, I’ll know if you have.

  Arianna: Would you punish me if I did?

  Luca: Of course.

  Arianna: In that case…

  I giggle to myself, pulling my hand into my pants, taking a picture and starting a new message. I attach the picture and hit send.