I shrugged when my dad looked at me. “C’mon, Papa. She was begging for it. We need to break her in before she works for us.”
He slapped me again, this time harder, and on my right cheek, the one with the scar. I hated that fucking scar. Just looking at myself in the mirror melted my insides from rage.
“Have I not taught you how to respect a woman?” Dad balled his hand into a fist, his jaw clenched. “I’m disappointed with both of you.”
Our dad was in love with Nico’s mom, the whore who stole him from us as kids. Dante, Stefan, and I were legitimate heirs to the Luciano empire. Nico was only half a Luciano, the bastard son of our father’s mistress.
Even when my mom was alive, Dad kept Cara. We learned it was okay to have chicks on the side. Fuck whoever we wanted. So no, we didn’t learn how to respect women from him.
“Ava Vianello is not the enemy,” Dad said to the group, his eyes flicking between us. “Do all of you understand me?”
“Yes,” we said in unison.
He pointed at the couch for us to take our places beside Dante and Stefan. Nico and I followed suit, and then Dad sat in the armchair across from the sectional sofa.
“Ava is brilliant.” Our dad sipped from the highball glass, staring at us beneath his dark brows. “She has a mind that will make all of us even richer. That girl has a real talent for numbers. We need someone like her on our payroll.”
Dante tapped his fingers on his thigh, donning a severe expression. He was ten years older than Stefan and me and was always like a father to us. Especially when we were kids and Dad wasn’t around as much. After our mom’s murder, Dante woke us up for school, fed us, and made sure we didn’t kill anyone or ourselves. He became our parent overnight.
“She’ll go down with Giancarlo,” Dante pointed out.
My older brother would make a good boss, the perfect replacement for our father. Since he was twelve years old, he’d been part of the family business.
“No,” Dad said with authority. “I’m certain Giancarlo acted alone. If Ava knows about his scheme, she’s the key to helping us find the money. Gain her trust. Make her feel safe. She needs to feel like she can tell you anything. This is how we get to Giancarlo.”
Nico leaned forward on the couch. “What happens to her afterward? Do you still want her working for us?”
“It depends on how this all shakes out.” Dad shifted the glass to his right hand and leaned back in the oversized chair, studying us. “If she sides with us, then she’s family.”
Nico scratched the corner of his jaw, a concerned expression on his pretty-boy face. “And if she sides with Giancarlo?”
Dad tipped back the rest of his scotch and slammed the glass on the table. “Then we have no use for her.”
ChapterTwelve
AVA
Ihated them. The Luciano brothers were all assholes and deviants, making me sick for wanting them. I was disgusting for thinking about them in inappropriate ways.
I was confused.
Maybe I had brain damage.
There was no logical reason I wanted any of them. I favored numbers over words, logic over emotion. So I should have been able to separate my attraction to my new bosses.
I had to remind myself they weren’t friends or family. They were my new employers, who would no doubt torment me for all of eternity. Because once you were in this family, there was no getting out.
After dinner, I waved to my dad, thanked Mr. Luciano for dinner, and ran away from the group. I was so embarrassed I raced upstairs and got a shower, scrubbing those dirty bastards off my skin.
I paced across the massive apartment that was too damn big for one person. Going from room to room, I checked out every inch of the space, looking for recording devices and cameras. I didn’t trust the Luciano brothers as far as I could throw them. This place wasn’t a perk of employment. They wanted to have complete control over me.
The first floor had two guest bedrooms and three bathrooms. Upstairs, I had another three bedrooms and two more bathrooms. On the main floor, it was an open concept floor plan. The kitchen, dining room, and living room flowed from one room to the next and had the perfect view of the Atlantic Ocean.
It was May, the perfect spring temperature. So I pushed open the French doors off the kitchen, and the saltiness of the sea drifted into the room. I drank in the scent for a moment and closed my eyes as a cool breeze blew off the ocean.
Waves crashed on the beach. I heard the amusement rides and the people over at Steel Pier. The giant Ferris wheel lit up from a distance, the lights glowing over the beach.
I hit the switch on the wall, and the entire patio lit up, including the pool and hot tub. A string of white lights glowed across the railing connected to the apartments on each side of me.