“So, what do you want from me?”
“This job won’t be easy,” he confessed. “It’s stressful. Being this close to our family will put a target on your back.”
I sat on the edge of the hot tub. “The more I think about everything that happened today, the more I realize I never had a choice. This was always going to be my future.”
He sat beside me, his fingers inches from mine. “We will protect you, Ava. You’re safer with us than anyone else in this city.”
“I’m not afraid of you.”
“No?” He tapped his fingers on top of mine. “Because I see the way you tense up around us. We make you uncomfortable.”
“I should have seen this coming.” I needed to vent, and Stefan listened in silence. “I didn’t need four years of college to work for your family. I already had the skills your dad needs.”
“You’re a smart girl.” He shoved his hand through his dark hair. “Got us all figured out. But you need to look at this situation differently.”
“I’ve already assessed every angle. Accounted for every variable. So I know there’s no getting out of this fucked up arrangement.”
“You’re in this for life.” Stefan patted my thigh. “Get used to us. We’re not going anywhere.”
ChapterThirteen
ANGELO
Everyone thought Stefan was the nice twin. The one who didn’t scare the living shit out of people. Maybe it was the scar on my right cheek or that I’d never been the same after that night. But even though we shared DNA, we were so fucking different.
Stefan sat beside Ava on the hot tub’s deck, holding her hand.Pussy. He was almost as soft as Nico. The two of them already had a thing for her. I could see it on their faces. They wanted to keep her, treat her like a princess.
Not me.
I wanted to ruin her, mark every inch of her skin with my cum. Dante was on board with my plan. He didn’t see the need to baby our girl and would punish her whenever she opened her smart-ass mouth.
I walked over to the fence which separated our penthouses. They were in the middle of a conversation about therapy.
What the fuck?
This girl was going to fuck up all of my brothers with her bullshit. If anyone needed therapy, it was me. But fuck that. I wasn’t pulling a Tony Soprano and spilling my guts on a quack’s couch.
Stefan looked over at me. “What’s up, Lo?”
Only my brothers called me that.
Most people in our organization called me Little Scarface, the stupid fucking nickname I’d earned a few years back because of Carlo Vitale. The bastard snuck up on me out back of Lucky’s. So I repaid him by making a sex tape with his dirty whore of a wife. One day, I would kill that whole fucking family.
Stefan’s eyebrows rose an inch. “Either come over here or stop lurking.”
I almost laughed. Lurking was what I did best. You’d never know I was behind you until it was too late.
No one sees a wiseguy coming.
“I’m not talking about my feelings,” I shot back. “Fucking pussy.”
He snickered. “We’re not talking about our feelings, asshole. Get over here or fuck off.” Then he snapped his head at Ava. “Don’t mind my brother. He doesn’t like people.”
Annoyed with his comment, I hopped the fence. Standing over them, I reached into my back pocket and pressed the gun barrel beneath his chin. “Wanna say that to my face,testa di cazzo?”
Stefan laughed and swatted the gun away from his face, earning a gasp from Ava. She stared at me wide-eyed, lips parting as she studied my right cheek.
I hated when people looked at the scar.