When Mario waltzed back in with his sons by his side, I was sitting up in the bed. Bastian scanned the scene immediately, like a sponge soaking everything in. He’d grown up to be the tall, dark, and handsome Italian the whole city loved. Most everyone knew of him and his charisma, and he’d become the infamous heir to the mafia throne. He’d also kept a bit of his charm with me, was there when I needed him. Cade idled behind, like a feline never really concerned with what anyone else was doing. Maybe that was the benefit of being younger with less responsibility.
“Bastian has news,” said Mario.
Mario’s oldest son stared at me. “You’re too valuable to be doing what you’re doing.”
His words pummeled me, made me feel like something more than I was. More than just someone who did a job for them.
“I’m fine. Nothing happened.” I shrugged and tried to shake off the feeling of belonging. “I wasn’t paying attention when I should have been.”
“Even if you had been, it still could have happened because you’re close to us, to me. We didn’t consider the repercussions. You’re a threat to many, and now you’re extremely exposed.”
I shrugged. “I can handle it. If you need me to call Georgie to—”
Bastian cut me off. “Move in with me.”
Rome whipped his head around. “What?” he bellowed as my stomach bottomed out.
It was something I couldn’t fathom, an invitation to move to the top of the mob family just like that. I hesitated.
“Katie”—he emphasized my name—“move in with me.”
My stare jumped from him to Rome to Mario and back to Bastian.
“Why?” The question fell from my lips in confusion.
“Maybe I don’t think you belong on the arm of our enemies,” said Bastian. “Maybe you belong on my arm instead. We’ve staged you dating me before to lure targets. Moving in will piss them off more.”
Rome huffed and his shoulders tensed, but he didn’t object. I rolled my eyes. “We’ve only done that once or twice.”
“You’ll be protected under my roof and it’ll be best for all of us.”
“I get to decide that,” I grumbled.
Mario scoffed. “No, I get to decide that.” He cleared his throat. “Along with Bastian, of course. He’s handling things here and he’s right. Take some time at his place, huh? Let’s regroup at the next meeting.”
“I don’t want that. Rome told me Georgie’s government, Mario. I knew that; I had that information primed for you. He thinks he can bring you down and sideswipe Stonewood Enterprises in the process.” I pushed when I knew I shouldn’t. We’d partnered with the biggest investment firm in the city a long time ago. If Georgie’s people were going for that company, they meant business. “The government has been working on tapping phones, tailing you, finding ways to get you behind bars quickly.”
“Georgie’s only making that play so those damn Russians can get an upper hand,” Bastian said, head tilted as if the only thing he didn’t know were my thoughts.
“You think the Russian mob is involved?” I whispered. Another mob family working with the government and Georgie’s gang meant navigating a lot more than I first imagined.
“I know they are. We’ve been working tirelessly to tighten up loose ends. We stumbled upon the information through those channels.”
“Then we’ll need everyone,” I said. Bastian opened his mouth to respond, but I cut him off. “Including me. I’ll play to Georgie’s weaknesses. We’ve got to get as much information as—”
“Georgie’s weakness is his manhood, Katie,” Bastian said softly. “You on my arm will be bait enough to send him spiraling out of control. Men in love slip and falter, even when they know their love is misplaced.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Rome said, and his hand went to my thigh under the thin white sheet. His touch was hot, searing, and reminded me of how his hands had felt on me just hours before. My pussy clenched like now was a perfect time to lust after him.
It wasn’t.
Bastian stared down Rome with a sort of death glare I’d only seen him shoot at his enemies. “Get off her bed,” he growled.
Rome’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t move. “What?”
“You heard me.”
Mario shook his head and tsked. “Bastian, we talked about this on the way over.”
“We may have talked about it, but we didn’t discuss it with Rome.”
“Discuss what?” asked Rome.
“Your complete lack of foresight when it comes to our targets. You put her and this family in unnecessary danger,” said Bastian.
“He had his hands on her.” Rome’s voice was low, and his eyes scanned the room. “Mario, you think that’s okay?”
“It’s not my father’s choice anymore,” said Bastian. “It’s mine. Dad’s got business in New York, which means I’m handling it here. And you don’t get to fly off the cuff just because you think one of the family members can’t handle themselves. It was unnecessary and reckless.”
Rome narrowed his eyes and stood up slowly, on his own time. He straightened, and I felt them all shrink back, even if it was just a slight recoil. Bastian was the firstborn son of the Italian mob boss. He’d seen and experienced a gruesome, bloody life. But most of that blood had been spilled by Rome.
Rome enforced, he killed, he bled out victims who had wronged the family, and he’d never, ever misjudged a man’s weakness. Even to the most powerful man, he was a menacing, brutal creature. If you weren’t afraid of him, you were stupid. Bastian was anything but that.
Rome brushed imaginary lint from his shirt before he gently asked Bastian, “You know who you’re talking to?”
Bastian ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t do that, Rome. Don’t warn me. I’m your brother.”
“No. Cade’s your brother. I’m your muscle, your protection, and also your weapon. I’m this family’s monster. And if your protection finds something necessary, you better find it necessary too. Your life depends on it.”
“Is that a threat?” Bastian took a step forward, and I found myself jumping off the bed. Bastian couldn’t get in a fight. Especially not one he would lose, because then Cade would be in charge.
“Are we really arguing about a little rough-up from Georgie, you two?” I smiled at them both and eyed Rome with a look that said back the fuck up. He was dealing with the city’s mob boss.
He canted his head quickly, and his neck popped. Cade and Mario—who’d taken a seat on the sofa across the room, as if to watch the two duke it out—stayed silent.
“It’s not little, Katie. And everyone needs to know their place,” Bastian stated, but I kept my eyes on Rome. His anger was palpable, vibrating off him in waves maybe only I could feel.
The thing about Rome and I was, we didn’t really have a place. Our true families had died, and we had died with them. Now, we wandered around without souls attached to us, trying to be a part of something. We weren’t actually blood family, although the oath made it sound that way, and we never actually abided by Mario’s rules. They were loose instructions to us at best, and we navigated just well enough that they let us hole up with them until we met our maker.
Neither of us needed to meet that maker just yet.
Calm the fuck down.
“Bastian’s right. If on your arm is where you need me, I’ll be there.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. It shouldn’t have been, but Rome’s shoulders bunched like all of a sudden we had something new between us.
I’d only had him between my legs. And he didn’t belong between my ribs and in my heart, I reminded myself. What we’d done in that bar would be forgotten just like he forgot other women.
“It’s where I need and want you,” Bastian emphasized. I snapped my gaze to him, trying to read his soft, definitive tone. “We’ll get you set up at my place tomorrow. You can’t stay at a hotel, and you’ve obviously worn out your welcome at Georgie’s. Your apartment isn’t safe anymore. So you come live with me.”
“I’m fine with staying at—”
“My place. This week. Until then, lay low.” With that, Bastian spun in his Italian leather loafers and walked out.
Cade and Mario got up and hugged me, whispering goodbyes, telling me to get rest. Mario grumbled to Rome that he would discuss everything further with him the next day.
Only one man remained. His massive back rose and fell to the rhythm of his rapid breathing.
“Rome,” I whispered, knowing that saying his name was like poking an angry dragon with a mouth full of fire right then.
“You’re agreeing to jump right into another lion’s den after almost having your head bashed in?” he said under his breath without turning around. “You’re agreeing to more danger when I just saved your ass?”
“Bastian isn’t dangerous.” I crossed my arms. “We both know for a fact that Bastian would never physically harm me. And I’m sure those men would have held me hostage. Although, I would have found a way out.”
Rome whipped around. “Do you hear yourself? The head of our Chicago Family isn’t dangerous? You’d be fine held hostage? Have you lost your fucking mind?”
“Me?” I shot back. “You put yourself in harm’s way every day.”
“I’m trained to do that. I knew how to kill a man before I was a teenager. This is my family, my life.”
One part of me wanted to go to him and hold the boy that he was, to soothe the scared child who must have seen way too much, because I knew exactly how a child felt. Foster care for me hadn’t been pretty. I’d been beaten, assaulted, and consistently taken advantage of. I knew what it was like to lose innocence too quickly. But the other part of me wanted to slide out the knife from under my clothing to hold at his throat.
“This is my family and life too. How dare you insinuate that it isn’t? I’ve done just as much—”
“As me?” He laughed, but it was so cold it sent chills down my spine. “You didn’t lose a baby or your father for the family. My mother died because of mob ties too. It kills us all. My blood is their blood. They bleed, I bleed.”
“They but not me?” I whispered because feeling excluded from what I constantly tried to be part of stabbed closer to my heart than I wanted it to.
“They don’t care about you, Katie. Get out now.”
“How can you say that? Bastian just asked me to move in with him.” I threw it in his face, close to tears I didn’t even know I had in me.
“Bastian would kill you. By escorting you around, that’s basically what he’s doing. The government and Georgie know you have intel. They fucking know you do.”
“I barely got anything on them.”
“But you heard conversations, you knew the whispers. You’re a witness now, and you’re a catastrophic danger that is on the arm of the enemy. The family is flaunting you in plain sight as bait. Antagonizing a monster will get you killed. You got out tonight because Georgie wasn’t finished with you. He wanted to figure out a way to shut you up and keep you as his before the government found out that you knew everything. Now, with you on Bastian’s arm . . . well, they’ll torture you for that.”
His words scraped at my soul. They gutted me and crushed all my hopes.
I closed my eyes and stood tall, took that deep breath I needed and let it go along with the other shit he was spewing my way. If what he said was true, it didn’t matter. I’d climb to the top, prove I was a worthy partner, and be better than them all.
“I’ll be fine.” I shrugged him off in the way I knew he hated.
Rome’s eyes bulged, and then before I could take another breath, he grabbed me by my neck and shoved me hard into the window. The glass and his hand on my neck were the only things keeping me from falling fifty stories to my death. “You’re never fine, Katie. You’re in danger here, right now, even with me.”
“Am I?” I whispered.
He loomed over me and squeezed my neck so tight and so long, my vision blurred.
“You’re a menace to yourself,” he murmured before he let me catch my breath, but when I gasped, he kissed me like I was his to do with as he pleased.
I gripped his hair and jumped up to wrap my legs around him. He tasted like he was mine to do with as I pleased, too.
Our problem—we weren’t anyone’s. We were dead inside.
so spicy