by Bethany-Kris
“Lower your voice,” Theo snapped before he snatched the items from Damian’s outstretched hand. “And it’s has, okay. He has a kid. Dino might be dead, but my nephew is very much alive and I intend for him to stay that way, D.”
Damian turned as still as stone. “And you knew.”
“Not until a few months ago.”
“But you knew, Theo!”
Theo tossed the envelope back into his car as his sister walked out of the house and began locking the door. “Keep your fucking mouth shut about it, D, or I swear to God.”
“You swear what, huh? I won’t lie to my wife. I did enough of that for your goddamn brother in this whole mess, Theo.”
There it was again. Someone else with their vague comments about Dino and the war.
Theo didn’t know what to think. “Tommas said something like that to me, too. Do you have something you want to fucking tell me, Ghost?”
“You’re not a stupid man. You figure it out.”
Theo was pretty sure he already had. “Keep out of this, Damian.”
“Don’t ask me to lie to my wife.”
“I’m not. But you know nothing about that child in those pictures other than who his father is. You don’t know where he lives, who his mother is, or even his first name. And if you go looking for him, I promise you won’t find a goddamn thing. So go on ahead and tell my sister the good news; tell her she has a nephew she can’t see or spend time with; tell her that, D.”
Damian’s jaw clenched. “You’re an—”
“Asshole?” Theo scoffed. “Figure out something new. Everyone else has used that one up on me, Damian.”
Lily started walking down the steps after finally getting the front door locked. Theo needed to end this conversation and fast.
“Let it go, D. Don’t lie, just let it go.”
“As Lily has told me, omission is the same thing. She feels guilty all the damned time about Dino, how he died, this fucking house, and the time she spent away. I would like to take that away for her. Knowing he’s got a kid for her to love and watch grow up would help Lily more than I can explain. Give this to her, Theo.”
“I’m sorry, D. I can’t. Not yet.”
“He’s just a kid. He’s not a part of this life or these families.”
Theo pointed at his chest. “I was just a kid. I didn’t have to be a part of this. They dragged me kicking and screaming into it whether I wanted to or not. Just like my brother, just like my sister, and just like you, D.”
Damian swallowed hard. “I know when you were younger—”
“If you say I had a rough go of it like everyone else does, I’ll feed you your fucking teeth, man. And you’re not to ever tell Lily about that shit, either.”
Damian looked like he was ready to choke Theo or kick his ass. It wouldn’t be the first time the two friends had fought and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
“Damian, didn’t you say we were going to be late?” Lily asked as she opened the door to the blue Porsche.
“Yeah,” Damian called back.
Neither man took their eyes off one another.
“Forget about it,” Theo murmured.
“Give me a guarantee she’ll know that boy someday.”
Theo beat back the nerves he felt at the demand. “Someday, D. Not today.”
“Good enough. Lock your car up. You’ll look better showing up with a Rossi.”
“A Capo, you mean.”
Damian chuckled. “Well, you need all the fucking help you can get.”
Just like that, the two men softened in their stances. The argument was over and Theo felt his anxiety and anger bleed away. It was why he kept Damian Rossi close. The man might be a killer and a Rossi at heart, but he was fucking loyal to the people who mattered most to him.
“We good?” Theo asked.
Damian shrugged. “Yeah. We’re good.”
“Shit, and I thought they whispered about me,” Adriano said with a chuckle.
Theo tossed back the remainder of his rum and coke. “You’re just the stain on your daddy’s reputation, Adriano.”
“Thanks for that.”
“But I’m the bomb they’re waiting to see blow.”
Adriano’s gaze swept the crowd of guests at the dinner party and found his fiancée across the room. Theo wasn’t surprised. The kid was always watching that girl and making sure no one was bothering her. For good reason, too. People could be assholes sometimes.
“You never let me apologize for Artino and—”
“Not necessary,” Theo interjected quickly.
“Isn’t it?”
“No. I figured it must have had something to do with Alessa.”
“It did,” Adriano said quietly. “He got physical with her after the first time. I couldn’t let it go down like that. Your other guy just happened to be in the way. I was pissed that night. I might have done it differently on another night, but I can’t say for sure.”
“You did what you had to.”
Theo would slit the throat of any man and watch the fucker drown in his blood for putting his hands on a female he cared about. He didn’t blame Adriano for his rash choices a couple of months earlier when he killed Dean Artino and another one of Theo’s guys. Frankly, Artino’s attitude had that one coming.
“Thanks, I guess,” Adriano said.
Theo smirked. “Oh, I’ll cash in the apology someday, to be sure.”
Adriano frowned. “Even better.”
Adriano Conti was a damn good kid. He was young, sure, but he was golden, too. Loyal to a fault. Protective over what was his. Smart on the streets.
“How much shit did the crew give you when you took Kolin’s spot?” Theo asked.
Adriano laughed dryly. “Enough. Not as much as I expected, but I’m just a kid to them.”
“You’re a kid to me, too.”
“Nobody else has much to say about it,” Adriano said, shrugging. “The important people, you know. I’m not sure if that’s because my father is the boss or what.”
“No, it’s because they know you, Adriano.”
“So why do people feel like they have to run their mouth over your title, huh?”
“Because I wasn’t like Dino and everybody knew it. Makes a person wonder, that’s all.”
“Well, with Walter Artino dead, you’ve got nothing to worry about now,” Adriano said.
Theo watched Riley Conti dance with his young bride in the middle of the room. The man had made a point of talking to Theo in front of the guests and shaking his hand. He was making every effort for it to appear like nothing was wrong.
Something definitely was. Theo just couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“Sometimes worries just switch from one thing to another,” Theo replied simply.
Adriano eyed Theo from the side. “You don’t trust anyone, do you?”
“No.” Theo hummed under his breath, adding, “Well, a couple.”
“Not my father.”
“No, he isn’t one of them.”
Adriano cocked a brow and found his fiancée in the crowd again. “Yeah, me, either.”
“I thought I saw you come in with Lily earlier.”
Theo tensed at Evelina’s sudden presence at his side, but quickly relaxed. She was damned sexy in a slinky, sparkling silver dress that fell above her knees and showcased fine legs in black pumps. Theo always did have a taste for women in heels.
Tonight wasn’t a good time for that.
He’d always had an attraction for Evelina, as far as that went, but feeding it and admitting to feeling it were two entirely different things.
“Eve,” he greeted. “No enforcers or bruises, I see.”
Evelina’s brow furrowed as she glanced up at him. “Pardon?”
“There are no enforcers three feet off your ass or any bruises on your arms, which means I can safely assume your father took your return back to real life better than you thought he would.”
“Strangely, yes.”
Theo kept one eye on the guests and one on Evelina at his side. With their backs to the wall as they stood side by side, there was nothing suggestive about their postures or conversation. Nothing that could be twisted into something bad, anyway.
Even still, being this close to Evelina reminded Theo of what she felt like under his hands and how his name sounded coming out of her mouth while she was shaking and needy. The slinky dress gave a hint of her curves and body beneath the fabric, but Theo’s memory wouldn’t let him forget what she looked like with nothing on at all.
That kind of attraction was so fucking dangerous.
“Don’t you have a crowd to dazzle for Riley?” Theo asked.
Evelina snorted under her breath. “He’s got Courtney for that now.”
“Lucky you.”
“Besides, he’ll get to show me off later,” she said bitterly.
Knowing he shouldn’t but unable to stop the urge to soothe Evelina’s irritation, Theo reached between them with his hand and stroked her side with his pinky. Evelina visibly shuddered at the touch and sighed softly. Clearly he wasn’t the only one struggling with the attraction he felt.
“We’d be bad,” Evelina said, swallowing hard. “Wasn’t that what you told me, Theo?”
“I did.”
“Does that mean we won’t get to fuck again?”
All it took was that word coming out of Evelina’s pretty little mouth, and Theo’s dick was as hard as steel under his slacks.
Jesus.
“Don’t play that game, Eve,” he warned.
“I don’t play games like these people do.” Evelina nodded across the room, drawing Theo’s attention to where Damian stood with Lily at his side and Tommas Rossi on the other. “But I figured that it would only be right for me to let you know that Tommas asked you not leave another mark on me that he can find.”
Theo’s chest felt like someone had just hit it with a sledgehammer, but on the outside, he remained passive and unbothered. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Evelina reached up and brushed her curls to the side. To anyone else, it might have looked like a normal gesture but Theo’s eyes were immediately drawn to the red mark he’d left behind on her neck. He knew there were a few other love bites on her body from his mouth, too.
“Shit,” Theo muttered, not knowing what else to say. A heavy realization settled in his gut. “Your father is going to show you off tonight because he’s going to marry you off, right?”
Theo didn’t even know how he felt about that except for the fact that he didn’t like it at all. This was the Outfit life, the mafia way, and Evelina was the daughter doing what she was told. Theo still felt like hot lava had been injected straight into his gut.
What in the hell was wrong with him?
“Tommas Rossi,” Theo said. “He’s going to marry you off to Tommas.”
“Bang on, Theo. Tommas wasn’t even angry about the mark. He basically told me to be careful and nothing else.”
None of that made sense at all.
“Why?” Theo asked. “Why in the hell would Tommas say that?”
Evelina shrugged and lifted her wine glass for a sip, although she didn’t take a drink. It hid her mouth from being seen by others as she murmured, “I’m wondering that myself. I thought maybe you could work it out and let me know.”
Theo scoffed lowly. “Right now, I’m a fucking disease to these people.”
“Can you tell me something?”
“What, princess?”
“Why would my father call you the sacrifice?”
It felt like ice had suddenly been poured into Theo’s veins. He didn’t have the first clue what that could mean, but in general, nothing good could come of that word.
“I didn’t think it was a good thing,” Evelina added quickly, “and the way you just froze up tells me I made the right choice.”
Theo forced the tightening in his throat away so he could speak. “What choice is that?”
Evelina smiled. “That girl, Theo.”
“That girl?”
“That girl who tells the man using her what he wants to know because she’s got things she wants, too.”
“And what is it you want, Eve?” Theo dared to ask.
This conversation felt ten shades of wrong, and he knew better than to indulge whatever was going on between him and Evelina. The hookup was enough of a mistake. The two days in a bed with Evelina that followed that mistake was even worse.
Except it hadn’t felt bad at all.
“I already told you what I want,” Evelina said, pushing off the wall.
A deja vu sensation passed over Theo. Like maybe they’d done this thing or something like it before at a different time.
“Which is what, Eve?”
Her finger ticked in the air over her shoulder.
“To not be a princess, Theo.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Eve, could you let the head server know we’re getting low on wine out here?” Courtney asked. “They seem to like you more than me.”
Sweet as sugar, her stepmother smiled like the poisonous snake she was.
“Have you wondered why that is?”
Courtney’s fake smile melted away. “Just do what I said.”
Riley’s words from earlier, reminding Evelina to be on her best behavior where her stepmother was concerned, rang loudly in the back of her mind. “Fine.”
Not wanting to spend more time than was necessary with Courtney, Evelina left the dining room. Tossing a glance over her shoulder as she entered the hallway leading to the kitchen, Evelina noticed Theo was still standing where she had left him.
Games, he’d said.
Evelina wasn’t trying to play games, but she wasn’t going to lie down and take whatever these people threw at her. She wasn’t going to watch them as they tore apart someone else like Theo, either. He’d done no wrong.
At the same time, Evelina felt a kindred connection to Theo. They were both being used as pawns in the games around them without having any say at all. Neither of them even knew what the game was yet, except for the fact that they were someone’s pieces to move.
The Outfit was dirty like that.
In the kitchen, Evelina found a dozen more guests swarmed around the table of finger foods that had been placed out earlier. She quickly relayed the message to the head server of the catering company and then turned to leave.
“Eve!” Abriella gave her sister’s hand a squeeze and left Alessa’s side to join Evelina. It took all the willpower Evelina had to fight off the rush of guilt suddenly swarming her insides. “How are you?”
Evelina fidgeted with the silver bangle on her wrist. “I’m okay, Ella. You?”
“Better. Still not back at your dorm?”
“No. You back at your apartment?”
Abriella smirked and shook her head. “Not after you know what.”
“Alessa and Adriano?”
“Joel doesn’t trust his left pinky right now, let alone me. I think if he could figure out a way to do it without getting my fist shoved down his throat, he’d be forcing me to the clinic every week to get a pregnancy test.”
Evelina cringed. “Yikes.”
“Yeah. It’s pretty bad.”
Without needing to ask, Evelina had the feeling that also meant Abriella wasn’t getting to spend any time with her long-time lover, Tommas Rossi. The guilt over the engagement that would soon be announced came back with a vengeance.
“But you know Joel,” Abriella said, a hint of bitterness coating her tone. “He’s happy to use others misfortune to get him what he wants.”
“My father.”
Abriella shrugged. “Adriano did the deed.”
“But you’re the one who gave the secret away,” Evelina said quietly.
“Did Alessa tell you that?”
“She did.”
“Did she also tell you why I did it?”
Evelina nodded. “You did it for her.”
“Then tone
down the judgment a little, Eve.”
Evelina checked her attitude. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Abriella glanced down at her hands and said, “I know I went about it in a shitty way, but I didn’t want my sister to suffer because she found someone she loved. I didn’t think it was fair and Adriano is …”
“A great guy,” Evelina finished for her old friend.
“For Alessa, yeah.”
“Well, my brother is nothing like my father. I’ll give him that.”
“Truth.” Sighing, Abriella smiled a little. “Listen, I know we’ve been at opposite ends of this whole thing with the families and whatnot, but I don’t want to be like that, Eve. Their issues aren’t our issues. Okay?”
Evelina’s throat closed around the lump that formed there. She didn’t know the first thing to say to Abriella. She wanted to agree; she wanted her old friend back in her life like they had been as teenagers. A bigger problem remained. Evelina knew some of Abriella’s secrets, like Tommas. How would Abriella feel about Evelina when she found out Riley was going to use the one thing Abriella adored just to keep peace between the families?
“Eve?” Abriella asked again.
Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Should she tell Abriella, or—
A familiar voice broke Evelina’s inner turmoil. Lily Rossi wrapped her arm around Evelina’s and pulled her friend close. “Where have you been all night, Eve?”
“Around,” Evelina answered, giving what she hoped was a real enough smile. “I see Damian let you away from his side for more than five minutes.”
Abriella laughed. “I bet he’s right around the corner.”
Lily tossed a look over her shoulder. “Probably. Give him a break. He’s …”
“Overprotective?” Evelina asked.
“Special?” Abriella supplied.
Lily flashed a brilliant smile. “Mine. And all of that other stuff, too.”
Evelina joined in on the girls’ laughter. It seemed like with Lily’s entrance, Abriella had dropped their previous conversation. She was grateful.
“This is a first,” Abriella said.
“Hmm, what?” Lily asked.
“You’re at an Outfit gathering and for once, you’re not drinking.”