After an incredibly tense and emotional conversation with my older brother about how our little sister managed to fly halfway across the world without him noticing, I call Joey to my study.
“Is Lorenzo super pissed at me?” she asks, all wide and innocent-looking. But she’s capable of causing more trouble than both of us brothers combined.
“Yeah, he’s pissed. But I guess he’s kind of distracted right now.”
“I know. Anya is sick again and I don’t think Lorenzo even wants to acknowledge it,” Joey says with a shake of her head as we sit facing each other on the opposite sides of my desk.
“Well, it took him a long time to accept it the first time around,” I remind her, remembering my older brother’s violent outburst and epic rages when his wife was diagnosed with cancer four years ago.
“I know. What if he loses it again?” she asks.
“He won’t.”
“Yeah.” She chews on her bottom lip. It’s a habit she’s had since she was a little kid. She does it when she’s nervous or worried. She’s only twenty-one and the baby of the family. Lorenzo and I have always looked out for her and protected her from the worst of our father’s rage and cruelty, but she soaked up plenty of it anyway. Kids do, don’t they? Like little sponges. She resents our protection, obviously, and I get that. She feels claustrophobic, a prisoner. But one day, she will see that it’s all for her own good. Everything we have ever done for her has been only out of love and concern.
“She’ll beat it again, Joey,” I tell her.
“What if she doesn’t, Dante?” she asks, her eyes brimming with tears.
I shake my head because I don’t have an answer for that. Our mother died of cancer when she was thirty-seven. I was thirteen, Lorenzo was seventeen, and Joey was only four.
“Anyway, tell me about Kat,” she says, changing the subject. She has a wicked grin on her face. My sister can be as sweet as sugar when she wants to be. Innocent and vulnerable in a lot of ways, but she also has a cruel streak a mile long. She just gets a kick out of hurting people — even the people she loves.
“Her brother stole money from Pop. I can’t find him and she doesn’t know where he is. So it was either kill her or bring her here to work for us.”
“So?” she replies with a frown. “Why not just kill her?”
I glare at her. That question brings up so much emotion and I don’t want her to see even a sliver of it. The truth is I’ve killed people for less. Not innocent women though. I’ve certainly never killed a woman with crystal blue eyes that can see into my soul and has an ass that haunts my every waking thought.
“She has nothing to do with her brother being an asshole, Joey. We don’t just go around killing people for nothing.”
“Not for nothing if he stole from us, though? Family is family,” she replies with a shrug, as though taking a life costs nothing. I hope she never has to learn the harsh reality that it costs something that can never be regained. “You just going to keep her here forever?”
Yes. For fucking ever and then some. “No.” I rub a hand over my jaw. I really have no idea what I’m going to do about Kat, especially now that Joey is back. She adds an extra element of complication. She will make it her mission to push Kat’s buttons at every possible opportunity, and I will wind up being stuck in the middle of the two of them. “Just until she can work off her brother’s debt or comes up with something that helps me find the piece of shit.”
“Yeah, right,” she snorts.
I scowl at her. “What?”
“You’re fucking her.”
“Guiseppina!”
“Aren’t you?” she asks with a smirk.
“None of your damn business,” I snarl.
She sits straight in her chair and stares at me, her huge brown eyes wide. “Oh my God, you like her!” she says with disgust and a little sadness too. My little sister is not used to competing for my affections.
“She’s working here for a few months and then she’ll leave,” I lie, but I say it with such conviction I almost believe it myself.
“Whatever you say, big brother,” she says with a sweet smile. Devious little witch is already up to something.
It’s after midnight by the time I head to bed. I haven’t seen Kat since Joey’s arrival. I’d rather keep the two of them apart for as long as possible. Joey is a wildcard but Kat can give as good as she gets. The last thing I need is petty squabbling while I’m still trying to find out what happened the night one of my men was shot. But I didn’t see her around the house at all. The only privacy she has is in her bedroom, and I have cameras trained on the door and windows so I’m aware when she leaves the room. I know where she is at all times, but not actually seeing her for myself, it makes me feel something that I can’t figure out. Not quite sad, but something kind of like it.
I shake my head as I make my way up the stairs. I stop outside her room. I should go to bed, but fuck if I don’t need her right now.
My fingers curl around the door handle, and I go to open it, only to find it locked. She’s pissed at me. But she can get over it because I want her in my bed tonight. My cock hardens as I recall fucking her on my desk. Sinking into her hot, wet cunt without a condom felt incredible. I never want to wear them again with her and I make a mental note to get the doctor here to prescribe her some birth control.
I press my forehead against the cool wooden door. “Kat,” I call out loud enough that I know she’ll hear me even if she’s sleeping.
She doesn’t reply.
“Kat. Open the door.”
Nothing but silence.
“Open this goddam door or I will kick it down,” I hiss. “And if I do, it won’t be put back.”
Footsteps pad across the room, and a few seconds later, the door is opened a crack. “I was sleeping,” she snaps.
I frown at her. “Why did you lock your door?”
“Because I want to be on my own.”
I narrow my eyes as I search her face. She is pissed. And upset.
“Joey can be a bit much,” I explain.
She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. “I’m really tired. Can I go back to bed?”
“You can come to my bed.” I push the door, forcing her to take a step backward.
“I told you I’m tired.”
So am I, and I can’t fucking sleep without you. “I’ll let you sleep,” I whisper.
She swallows, then turns her head so she doesn’t have to look at my face. “Please, Dante. I just want to sleep alone.”
I cup her jaw in my hand, tilting her head so I can meet her gaze. A tear runs down her cheek, and she swats it away.
Fuck this. She doesn’t get to be alone. Not after she’s made me so addicted to her.
“You either sleep in my bed or I’m sleeping in yours. Your choice.”
She glares at me, her jaw clenched, as she considers her options. Realizing she doesn’t have any, she turns around and stalks back to bed. Stepping inside the room, I close the door behind me and follow her. She slips beneath the covers while I undress. Once I’m naked, I climb in beside her, pressing myself against her back.
She shuffles forward, but I wrap my arm around her and pull her back to me, burying my face in her hair. “You pissed at me, kitten?”
“No.”
“Seems like you are.”
“Sometimes, I just need a little reminder who I am to you, and you gave me that today. I’m not mad at all. In fact I should be thanking you.”
“And who exactly are you to me?”
“Nobody. Nothing. Just your latest plaything, right?”
I close my eyes and draw in a deep breath before I press my lips against her ear. “Never forget who you’re speaking to, Katerina. I will only indulge you for so long before I remind you of the man I am and the things I’m capable of.” She shivers in my arms, and damn if it doesn’t make my cock hard. I press it against her ass. “Does this feel like nothing to you?”
“I know exactly who you are, Dante Moretti. How could I forget?”
That sounds loaded with meaning, but I’m too tired to argue with her. I just want to fall asleep next to her. I close my eyes and pull her tighter. “From now on, you only sleep in my bed unless I tell you otherwise. And I’m going to get a doctor to come over soon. I want you on birth control,” I tell her.
“What? Why?”
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to, Kat.” I yawn. “Now get some sleep or I’ll reconsider my promise to let you.”
“Injections don’t agree with me,” she whispers.
“Then you can take a pill, right?”
“They’re best started after a period, so that we can be sure they’re one hundred percent effective.”
“Fine. As soon as you have your next period, then. Now go to fucking sleep.”
Even in the dark and with my eyes closed, I can sense her mouth opening to come back with something else – but she doesn’t.
I lie with my arm around her and her warm skin pressed against mine, exhausted but unable to sleep. When her breathing evens out, I roll onto my back and stare into the darkness.
