“I’ll stop by and see him soon.”
Gemma smiled, still looking off in the distance. Their family hadn’t been the same since one of Gio’s rivals ran Bobby’s bike off the road. No one knew for surewhodid it, but in our line of work, it was obvious it was a targeted attack.
Up until theaccident, Lauren all but sank her claws in Bobby, staking a non-existent claim on him. Once he became paralyzed, she set her sights on Kane.
Like I said,major bitch.
“As far as Kane and Lauren go, I’m sure they’ll have a long, miserable life together. One filled with a white picket fence and two point five kids. Kane will be fucking the babysitter while Lauren’s off racking up another credit card and mixing her pills with her chardonnay.”
Gemma laughed at the dismal future I predicted for her brother, but I wasn’t far off when it came to marriages in our world. A world where the husband ruled all. He made all the decisions and had numerous side pieces, and the good little wife spent his money to make herself feel better while keeping her mouth shut. Or she took enough pills to knock out an elephant on the regular.
That’s what it was like for my parents. Back when Mom was still alive.
Dad made every single decision in our lives and Mom was so miserable that she killed herself, leaving me and Dom behind to deal with our asshole of a father.
If she was still alive, I’d knock her on her ass for leaving me with him.
“Are we still on for tonight? Netflix and Chinese food?” Gemma asked, snapping me from my mind.
“Can’t. I have to work.”
“Work as in…”
“Yeah.Thatkind of work.”
Gemma didn’t know the extent of her father’s business, but she knew when I had to work at Ethereal, I’d be throwing my tits at strangers while wearing skimpy attire. She also knew I fucking hated it and that I didn’t have a choice in the matter.
“We can do it tomorrow,” she said as she placed her hand on my arm.
I nodded and forced a smile. “I better go. If I’m late to English again, Mrs. Harmon will give me detention for the next two weeks.”
“Ugh, she’s the worst.”
Tell me about it. The old hag had it out for me, so I had to make sure not to give her any additional ammunition. Aside from my sparkling personality and smart-ass retorts, of course.
Once I was back inside, I went to my locker to grab some books and take a little breather. I looked in the mirror attached to my locker door and spotted an ugly purple spot forming on my neck.
“That asshole!”
I rifled through my purse looking for my foundation compact. The angry hickey brewing needed to be coveredstat.
The powder didn’t do much to hide it, but it lessened it a little. I didn’t need Mrs. Harmon asking me questions about what I did on my lunch break. Some of the teachers here were serious prudes–and they loved embarrassing the shit out of us.
“Hey, Dani,” a familiar voice said.
“What Lucas,” I said, less of a question and more of a statement.
“I was thinking…I really want to try again. I was just nervous because you’re so hot. I’m not used to being with hot girls,” he grinned.
Fucking liar. His on-again off-again (I think they may be on-again) girlfriend was gorgeous. The girls he fucked behind her back at parties were tens.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay the fuck away from her?” My head snapped to the angry Italian barreling toward us.
“Uh, no?”
I sighed as Kane glared at him. “Look Lucas, we had a good run but I’m not interested. I’m sure your girlfriend would happily offer up her pussy for you to play with for a half hour.”
“Last warning, Matthews. Stay the fuck away,” Kane growled.