“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.