“One day, Junior, the fighting will be over.”
“Promise?” I could barely get the words out. My body hurt in places I didn’t even know existed.
She gripped my hand in hers. “I promise.”
I tried not to think about her promises just like I tried not to think about her kisses; it pissed me off knowing she lied. Knowing that when it came down to it, she didn’t trust me the way I’d trusted her, didn’t understand that we were still on the fucking chessboard playing a game we had to win.
I tried to shove my feelings aside, but that’s the really inconvenient thing about emotions, they tend to just pop up out of nowhere when you’re constantly around the only person who has the ability to make you feel less shitty.
We had an hour before family dinner, everyone had already gathered at Nixon’s, wine was passed around by the bottle, and I was already bemoaning the fact that we had to tell the bosses what was going on.
And there was no way of doing it gently, not with this crew.
It was too noisy to think, and I had too many damning memories of that house, of being with Serena, sneaking off to her room.
My body felt tight.
I needed to fight someone.
Preferably her.
I touched my neck, couldn’t believe that psycho had bitten me. Then again, it was Serena, and she didn’t like losing.
I almost smiled but kept it reined in. The last thing I needed was for her to see me touching my neck with a dopy lovesick grin on my face.
Not only would I never hear the end of it, but I’m pretty sure she’d pull a knife on me for making her remember all those stolen moments we were never supposed to have had.
“Hey.” My dad rounded the corner into the kitchen. His brown eyes had a hard glint to them even though Mom was holding his hand. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.
She was the light to his dark.
Which just reminded me that I had nothing tethering me to anything good, maybe there really was something wrong with me, wrong with my blood, wrong with the way my brain worked, with the way my heart wanted what it could never have.
“What’s up?” I tried to appear casual as I went in for a hug with Ma, she held me tight as always, barely coming up to my shoulder as she squeezed me and then sighed. “What?”
“Who bit you?” She just had to ask, making all conversation cease in that ginormous kitchen, including the chatter of the younger kids, who seemed to stop playing altogether and gawk in my direction.
“Yeah, Junior,” Serena bit into a red apple that matched her lipstick and winked. “What happened to your neck? Get in a fight?”
“I wouldn’t really call it a fight since you never play fair.” I grinned and flipped her off.
“You?” My dad’s expression was priceless. “Bit him?”
“Hey.” Serena chewed and hopped off the countertop. “He said first blood, I agreed.”
“I meant with a knife, you psychopath.” I clenched my teeth, and there we were, yet again, head to head in the middle of the kitchen.
I lost count how many times family dinners started with both of us staring each other down, ready to draw blood until one of us gave in or begged for mercy.
“Up top.” Chase walked by both of us and held up his hands for high fives.
Serena hit his hand then scowled in my direction. “Why does shit for brains get a high five if I’m the winner?”
I tapped Chase’s hand and shook my head. “Aw princess, your panties in a bunch?”
She flashed red.
And I suddenly wondered if she’d put a new pair on or was still strutting around remembering what it was like during class.
Shit, I needed to really not focus on what she was or wasn’t wearing beneath her skirt.
“Because he fought you, a girl. I’ve never been so proud to be an uncle.” Chase winked, and then something sinister flashed across his face. “You know what they say about love and hate—”
“Can we eat yet?” Tex barged into the room. “I’m starving, and Breaker just told me that something went down at school today.”
“Not it!” all of us yelled again in unison.
The moms simultaneously took a step back like they wanted no part of this conversation if it was going to end in bloodshed.
I sighed and eyed Ash, who eyed Claire, who gazed over at Serena with a pleading look.
“Yeah, we can do this all day,” Ash said under his breath.
“Loser of the fight gets the short straw.” Serena beamed at me.
I let out a strangled cough. “Fine.”
We all moved around the huge table and took our seats; Violet was next to Asher. Maksim had pulled out a chair beside Izzy; they were probably going to talk about school the entire time, knowing him. It was baffling how good looking the kid was at eighteen and disgusting how he was already a college sophomore. He flipped me off with a wink. I sighed and glanced away. Either he was good at reading minds, or he was good at reading me, probably both knowing him.
Breaker pulled out a seat next to King and watched our exchange with a smirk. Everyone else, meaning the younger ones who weren’t in their senior years of high school or college, got to sit at the other table, and I was suddenly thankful that the smaller ears weren’t going to hear what we needed to discuss. Though I guess it didn’t matter, they were always listening, always asking questions, always saying they couldn’t wait to be made.
I could never decide if I was proud or sick when I thought of the violence they would grow into.
Their table was weapon free, littered with plastic forks, and enough juice to feed a small army. Thank God we got the wine.
“Rules,” Tex barked.
We all sighed and took out our weapons and placed them on the table so everyone could see—just in case another fight broke out, which almost always happened considering we were hard-headed Italians and discussions were more like yelling matches where we tried to talk over one another until someone finally stood, raised a gun, and pulled the trigger.
“So.” Tex leaned back, in his chair like the fucking king of the Cost Nostra he was and grinned. His reddish-brown hair was messy like he’d run his hands through it more than once, and he was wearing a tight black shirt that did nothing to hide his ridiculously buff body. In a word, he was fucking terrifying. “It must be bad since nobody wants to talk about it.”
I grunted, and then I explained everything Breaker had discovered only to get nervous when the room grew quieter and quieter.
“What’s your plan?” Chase interrupted, unbuttoning the front of his suit and taking off his jacket. His expression was hard; his blue eyes flashed with something that I recognized in my own soul—the need for revenge, the need to inflict pain. He was in politics now, though, and he wasn’t allowed to get his hands as dirty as he’d like, so he had to live through us vicariously.
“Easy.” I grabbed the knife I’d set on the table and thumbed it with a grin. “We lure them into our web by way of partying, gain as much intel as we can, and we keep the Families safe.”
Tex looked at each of the bosses, Chase, Nixon, my dad, Dante, Sergio, Andrei. All of them wore similar expressions of trepidation. “What’s the ruling?”
Dante, the youngest, spoke first. “Be discreet.”
Tex snorted out a laugh. “And by discreet he means, try not to chop anyone’s heads off mmmkay? If you need clean up, you know who to call.”
“One more thing,” Chase spoke with quiet authority. “You remember how to ID them, right?”
“Of course,” I said confidently. “They’ll be the ones that want in the most.”
“Yes.” My dad looked up from his plate. “Junior, are you sure you can do this? Maybe it’s best if—”
“Are you shitting me right now?” I yelled, jumping to my feet as my chair toppled backward. “Why would you even ask that?”
My dad said nothing.
It was Andrei who spoke. “Because…” His blue eyes f
lashed. “You could be killing one of your cousins in cold blood.” He gripped a knife in his hand, then held it to King’s throat before anyone could do anything. “His age, one of them could be his age, and if he attacks, if he tries anything, you’ll have to pull this blade across his soft skin—killing an enemy is one thing, killing an enemy that looks like your family, that has the same blood running through their veins… is quite another.”
My nostrils flared. “And yet I was ready to kill Serena this afternoon—”
Nixon jumped to his feet.
My dad followed, his right hand moving to his gun like I was the one who needed protection.
I rolled my eyes. “It was an example, chill out, old man. I’m just saying, don’t doubt me, and don’t doubt us. It’s fucking insulting, especially since you created us.” I leveled each of them with a glare. “You did this, so I’d really appreciate it if you’d stop looking guilty for forcing us to survive in a world full of people who’d rather see us dead.”
“I think—” Tex grinned at me like he appreciated my sociopathic tendencies. “—we have our answer then. It’s settled. We eat, and the children… hunt.”
I sat back down. My dad didn’t grab his gun, but something shifted in Chase’s glance as he stared at me then over at Nixon.
I was trying to figure out why they were looking at me funny when I glanced over at Serena and noticed her eyes were glassy.
Shit.
I’d hurt her feelings.
And for some reason, she chose this moment to crack, to show them that it affected her, that I affected her, which meant one thing.
To protect us both.
To honor the love we once had.
I would need to become her greatest enemy.
“Hate you for as long as we both shall live…”
We’d been slipping.
And we couldn’t.
Not now.
Not when we had enemies at our door.
“That time of the month, Serena?” I lifted my wineglass to my lips and earned a scowl from her before a knife got thrown in my direction. “Missed.”
Ash groaned. “Nope, no, she didn’t. Little warning next time?”
He pulled the knife from his arm as blood dripped down his biceps.
Everyone chuckled.
“Maybe if you’d stop trying to feel up your girlfriend under the dinner table…” Chase teased, earning a smack in the back of the head by Luc. “Hey, that hurt!”
“He’s too young for that!” Her eyes were crazed while Breaker snorted into his cup. “What? Why are you snorting into your cup? Are they sexually active?”
“I love today.” I burst out laughing.
And then Ash threw down the gauntlet, his eyes flashing. “He stole a girl’s underwear today!”
“Up top,” Tex put up his hand.
“How do you even know that?” I wondered out loud.
“Junior!” Ma chucked a roll at my face. I ducked, but it narrowly missed my right eyeball. “That’s so rude!”
“He’s a guy.” My dad winked.
I winked back.
“Stop that! Stop the winking!” Ma shushed him, and somehow it worked. He kissed her on the cheek and was silent.
“Saw them in your coat pocket while you were fighting Serena on the lawn. Actually, I noticed that Serena—”
“Has syphilis, yes, it’s very sad.” I interrupted.
Serena’s face went up in flames. “Are you high?”
“YOU DIDN’T USE PROTECTION?” Nixon roared, face looking slightly possessed as he jumped to his feet and grabbed a knife while Trace did the same.
I burst out laughing while Serena chugged her wine, wiped her mouth with her napkin, and tossed it down onto her plate. “I just lost my appetite, and no, I don’t have syphilis, we know who the manwhore is at the table.”
Everyone pointed at me.
Including Breaker, who we’d nicknamed breaker of hearts.
“Bullshit! I don’t even have a girlfriend!” I roared.
“Family dinners.” Ash lifted his wine into the air. “So much fun.”
“Cheers.” Dante clinked glasses with him.
“Don’t encourage them,” El, his wife, whispered under her breath. Then she winked at Ash.
They were the youngest, meaning closet to use in age, more like older siblings than anything, and they might have encouraged a lot of bad behavior, not that we minded.
I was still traumatized from when Dante tried to explain sex to me.
And I think my dad laughed for a week straight every single time I saw a girl.
Serena was in the process of storming off while Tempest, Dante’s daughter, belted out loudly. “Mama, what’s syphilis?”
“Thanks.” Dante glared.
“I’m here to educate.” I put a hand over my heart and noticed Serena was gone.
It was for the best.
That was what I chanted to myself the entire way back to campus, in tight jeans, a shirt that showed off every single tattoo I had, and with enough ammo to take out whoever I needed to.
It was for the best, her hate.
Because if I had her love—I wouldn’t be able to become the monster my dad needed me to be—the monster she needed me to be—to keep her safe.
Chapter Five
Serena
We always arrived at the on-campus parties together. To an outsider, it looked like we just wanted to make an entrance, but to us? The new Elect on campus? It was survival.
Junior led us with Ash on his right.
Claire and I were in the middle.
And Breaker was behind watching our backs.
Violet stayed back as per usual since she was consumed with her studies. After a ton of arguing—shocker, I know—the bosses decided it would be best that Izzy stayed in the SUV and updated the bosses as we sent her text updates. She didn’t have the same stomach for violence that we did, but she loved the behind the scenes gadgetry that Sergio often mentored her with.
We left her with a gun, an earpiece, and enough Coke Zero that she’d be happy just watching the show and hanging out in the background. Plus, if we needed to get out, we needed someone who hadn’t had one or two drinks driving us.
After Junior’s outburst at the table, I’d decided to dress in leather pants and a crop top that almost showed side boob.
And if I accidentally brushed against him, reminding him of what he was missing? Well, would that be so horrible?
I was still livid he’d said I had an STD.
Granted, I knew he was protecting me—in his own masochistic way—but it still stung.
He was the guy who used to hold me when I cried.
Now he was the reason for my tears.
Talk about messed up.
My heels clicked against the cement as we neared The Spot.
The welcome back party was already raging, thanks to our new friends who literally took one for the team this morning when classes started.
It was their job to make sure we had kegs and to make sure that only those we invited were allowed inside.
Before we were born, the building had been condemned after a few murders took place there, something that Dante and Andrei still argue over.
The minute we were forced back to Eagle Elite, we claimed it as our own. So what if there were bloodstains in the concrete? Or names of people who’d been tortured written in blood on the walls?
Students said it was haunted.
And I always wanted to laugh and say that our families were the ones who haunted it.
Z was at the door. “Guys.” His eyes flickered over Ash and Junior, then settled on me, well my chest, and then my legs, until he finally focused in on my mouth. “Looking sexy as always.”
I leaned into him. “Thanks, Z.”
“No.” Junior grabbed my arm. “You can have your fun later, but fair warning, bro, her kiss is poison.”
“What a good way to go…” Z said softly, making me actually want to cover up my br
easts and lean into Junior, not because he made me feel safe but because Z looked at me like I was a thing.
And as much as I hated Junior, he’d only ever treated me as his equal, a match in every way.
I shivered.
“Maybe if you wore more clothes,” Junior hissed in my ear.
“You’re still here?” I snapped.
“Guys!” Ash clapped his hands between us. “Focus.”
We shuffled inside. Z shut the door behind us. The party was just getting started; maybe thirty students were scattered around the room.
And in the very middle.
Our thrones.
The music suddenly stopped.
Head held high, I waited as Junior and Ash escorted Claire and me to our seats. They were nothing special, just old velvet purple armchairs that had tall Victorian style backs.
Once we were seated, legs crossed, metaphorical crowns adjusted, the guys took their seats next to us while Breaker stood in front, making sure nobody approached without asking.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Sergio: Campus-wide email sent out to the school next door, they have five hundred students enrolled total—that’s small, even for a community college. Expect more than a dozen at best to sneak over. Be alert.
I quickly texted back.
Me: We’ve got this, run the facial recognition software.
Sergio: Done, I just sent the ones that were in our database.
I stared down at the two pictures.
A girl and a guy who looked like they had grown up in the perfect suburban home with a doctor for a dad and a stay-at-home mom.
The girl had a friggin’ red headband, straight dark hair, and happy green eyes.
And the guy looked about my age, similar build to Breaker, with blue eyes and reddish-brown hair. He had extremely striking features and would be easy to pick out.
“Uh…” Junior looked up from his phone. “Are we sure these are potential targets?”
“A sneeze could blow this girl over,” Ash joked.
Claire frowned and looked over Ash’s shoulder. “Maybe that’s the plan.”
I narrowed my eyes in her direction. “You mean, make them as non-threatening as possible?”
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