by Bella J.
Antonio was slightly taller than Dante, and he carried himself with much more grace and poise. He had that same air of confidence around him, like our dad. He demanded everyone’s attention simply by walking into a room. From the outside looking in, it would be easy to spot who was the heir to the Valenti throne. Antonio was always impeccably well-groomed, with never a hair out of place, and always cleanly shaven. Basically, he was every Italian designer’s wet dream.
Now, Dante? Dante was what the world would call the bad boy. He was a little more muscular, and he wore his hair slightly longer, the tips touching his collar. Also, not nearly as high-strung as our older brother. Like now, for example. Antonio was wearing a black tie to compliment his perfectly pressed suit, while Dante had the first three buttons of his white dress shirt undone. He was much rougher around the edges…like Detective Stone.
Dammit. I had no idea why I’d thought of him. As quickly as that thought popped into my mind, I pushed it aside and glanced at Dante. “You had to stir shit about the dress, didn’t you?”
“I’m just looking out for my little sister.” Dante urged me to turn with him, his arm still on my shoulders. “I’m only kidding, little sister. You look gorgeous. Now, let’s go.”
“Thank you, Dante.” I smiled and placed my arm around his waist.
Dante glanced at Antonio. “And if we’re forced to kick some poor bastard’s ass for ogling hers, then we can tell Dad it was totally her fault.”
“Oh, my God.” I jabbed him in the side with my elbow. “You are such an ass.”
They both burst out laughing as we walked down the hallway, and I knew I was going to feel like a damn sardine between the two of them for the entire night.
We were about to head out the front door when my father came into the foyer, his dark gaze settling on me.
“Karina, may I have a word?” Like I have a choice. Lorenzo Valenti might let it sound like he was asking, but everyone knew he never asked. He demanded.
Dante removed his arm from my shoulder and nudged me forward. “We’ll wait for you in the car.”
Dammit.
While Dante and Antonio walked out the front door, I tried my best to glare holes in their heads, telepathically conveying the message I was extremely pissed off and I would have my revenge.
Dante winked at me as he closed the door behind him. I was pretty sure I’d never had such an overwhelming urge to beat the crap out of him as I did right at that moment.
Like a two-year-old, I stuck my tongue out at him, then heard my father clear his throat behind me.
It wasn’t like I didn’t want to speak to my father, it was just that I already knew what this was about. I’d been home for two days, and I had made it my life’s mission to avoid being alone with him since I knew this conversation was on his to-do list for some time now.
I turned and tried to muster the sweetest smile humanly possible. “Everything okay, Dad?”
He took off his suit jacket and placed it by his briefcase before taking off his tie and loosening the top two buttons of his shirt.
I kept staring at the tattoo on the top of his hand, the symbol that represented our family—the wolf. The symbol consisted of lines weaved together to form a wolf’s face, almost like a tribal sign. Both my brothers and all my uncles and cousins who decided to devote their lives to the family business had the same symbol tattooed on their hands. My mom, like all the other women in our family, had it on the inside of her wrist. Everyone who had gone through the initiation ceremony received that symbol and wore it as a sign of their loyalty and commitment to the Valenti legacy.
I was the only Valenti who hadn’t been inked with the family symbol yet—which brought us to the topic of the conversation I was on the verge of having with my father.
“Karina, have you been avoiding me?” He started to loosen the cuffs of his shirt.
“Not at all.” Yes. “Why do you think that?” I shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other.
“Well, you haven’t spent five minutes alone with me since you arrived.”
“Sorry, Dad.” I walked up to him and placed a kiss on his cheek. “It’s not intentional. I know how busy you are, and I don’t want to distract you.”
He placed a palm on my cheek and stared down at me lovingly. “My sweet bambina, I am never too busy for my princess.” He took my hand and turned my wrist up while he stared down at the skin where our family symbol was supposed to be. “Please tell me you considered my proposal?”
Right there. That was the reason I’d been avoiding him ever since I got here. His proposal.
“Dad, please.” I stepped back, and it felt like the walls were starting to inch closer, the air slowly getting sucked out of the room.
“Bambina. I’m serious. I want you here, with us.”
“I know, Dad.” I had an overwhelming urge to roll my eyes, but I didn’t. Instead, I pulled my hand through my hair and looked everywhere except at him.
He stepped forward, the determination in his eyes almost knocking me off my feet. “You do not have to become this big-shot lawyer, bambina. You don’t have to be so far away. This empire I’ve built, this is for you, for your brothers, and for our family to stay together—to stay strong and united.”
“What am I supposed to do here, Dad? Am I supposed to sit around and look pretty until some man who carries your approval decides to make me his trophy wife?”
“Bambina—”
“No, Dad. I want a life of my own, to be me, and to not live by all these rules—your rules.”
His thick, dark eyebrows slanted down as he scowled at me. “All these rules are there to protect us, Karina. They aren’t just made up for my amusement.”
“That’s the thing. Why do I need protection? Because you run some questionable businesses? Because you choose to live this way?”
“Because this is our heritage. It is our responsibility to make sure the Valenti legacy remains as strong as it has been for the last fifty years.” He raised his voice with every word he spoke, and his eyes darkened, making me wish I was able to walk out the front door five minutes earlier. Then all of this could have been avoided.
I took a deep breath and softly said, “This is exactly why I never want to come home.”
He opened his mouth, but I was out the door before he had a chance to say anything else. Enough had been said already. It was clear he hated the decisions I’d made so far in my life, and he hated that I didn’t want to do as I was told like every other damn Italian woman stuck in the same situation. I didn’t ask to be a part of all this. I didn’t ask to be a Valenti. And I sure as hell didn’t ask to be bound by all their goddamn rules. Their rules were exactly that. Theirs. Not mine.
I stomped toward the Audi parked in the driveway, headlights shining directly at me, the person behind the wheel honking the horn. That could only be one asshole. Dante.
“Hurry up, would you, princess? The cigars and booze are waiting.”
I got into the back seat. “I’m pretty sure there’s a rule somewhere that says we’re not allowed to hang out in clubs.”
“Luckily, I have Daddy’s free pass tonight.”
“Ah, aren’t you just Daddy’s little boy?”
Dante glared at me over his shoulder, and I smiled wickedly at him.
By the way Antonio peered at me from the front passenger seat, I saw he was suspicious about my behavior. But fuck him. Fuck all of them. And fuck their rules. I was so sick and tired of always hearing I couldn’t do this, and I couldn’t do that, and this wasn’t the way we did things in our family. What family? A family where we lived and died by our rules, but disregarded the rules of others by breaking the law?
Hypocrites, that was what they all were, a bunch of fucking rule-abiding hypocrites who had never earned a well-deserved dime in their lives.
The rest of the drive to the club was eerily quiet. My mood was starting to rub off on everyone in close proximity to me. I was even willing to bet my brothers knew e
xactly what I was so pissed about. It wasn’t that difficult to figure out, since everyone knew Dad had issues with me studying and trying to live my own life instead of being another puppet on a string.
Within half an hour, Dante parked the car outside the club, but as I was about to get out, Antonio turned in his seat to face me. “I don’t want trouble tonight, Karina.”
“Oh, my God, are you serious?” This is un-fucking-believable.
“I’m dead serious. You stay close. I don’t want you out of my sight.”
I crossed my arms and pouted. Yes…I pout. “Fine, bodyguard. Anything else? Would you like me to duct tape my hip to yours? Or maybe I could put a big flashing neon sign on my forehead that reads ‘I have no life!’”
Antonio rolled his eyes. “Grow up, Karina. And stop being so dramatic.”
“Grow up, Karina. And stop being so dramatic,” I mocked in my best Antonio I’m the boss voice.
Antonio got out of the car, and Dante turned in his seat, staring at me.
“What?”
“Will you be okay, Karina? You know…if he shows up?”
I knew exactly who he was referring to. The mistake I wished I had the strength to forget. The demon I wished I had the power to slay. The motherfucking asshole who played me for the naïve young girl I was four years ago.
When my eyes met Dante’s, I saw the concern in his gaze. Being the youngest of three children and growing up with two older brothers was never easy. Antonio was six years older than I was, and my father had basically drilled the responsibility of looking out for his little sister into him since the day I was born. Living with that kind of responsibility hanging over him had somehow influenced our relationship. Antonio had always seen me as the little sister he needed to take care of, the burden. Never as the grown woman I was today.
Dante, on the other hand, was only two years older than I was and more like a friend than a bodyguard. We were similar in so many ways, including our need to live our own lives. We just went about it in different ways. Dante by rebelling every now and then, and me running away to university to get away from home.
But one thing was for certain. If it weren’t for Dante supporting me, I didn’t know how I would have coped with the heartbreak and humiliation I had to endure years ago. At first, I didn’t know whether it was a good idea to tell him. But that decision was made for me when Dante found me in my car, still parked in the garage, crying my eyes out. The words just came out. I couldn’t stop myself from pouring my heart out to him that day. And thank God I did. He was my rock when I needed him most. Of course, it took a lot of persuading to stop him from slitting Enzio’s throat. I’ve never seen Dante as angry as I did that day. But eventually I made him promise to keep my secret. I didn’t want anyone else to know. It was something I hoped I would eventually be able to take to my grave…but my instincts told me I wouldn’t be so damn lucky.
I tugged nervously at the hem of my dress. “Let’s hope he doesn’t show up.”
Dante glanced out the passenger side window. “Yeah, let’s hope. I’m still not over my need to see that fucker bleed.” He looked back at me. “Come on. Let’s go and get a drink so you can calm down. Red isn’t your color.”
“Red?”
“Your neck and cheeks.”
Fuck. I always got flushed when I was angry and worked up. In fact, I got flushed when I was shy, embarrassed, or experienced just about any type of emotion. I was a flusher.
Dante got out of the car and opened my door, waiting for me to get out. Naturally, I would choose that moment to fail miserably at getting out of the car in a mini dress with my dignity intact.
“Well, shit,” I muttered.
The smug grin on Dante’s face practically begged me to punch him. That was one good thing that came out of growing up with two boys—I knew how to pack a mean punch.
Dante closed the car door. “I told you that dress was too—”
“Shut up.”
Our way into the club went down exactly as I suspected, with me sardined between two brick walls. Antonio walked up front—as always—while Dante was on my left, slightly behind me. I rolled my eyes the entire way. Probably not the most attractive thing to do, but I reckoned I was entitled to a little childish behavior.
I was seriously starting to think I’d be having much more fun if I were home and stuck at the dinner table with Mom and Dad.
Chapter 7
LORIK
It was nine forty-five, and I was sitting at the bar in Vertigo and staring at the whiskey in my glass. There was no doubt in my mind they would show up tonight. It was Dante Valenti’s birthday, and everyone knew Dante was notorious for his partying, being the wild one of the Valenti brothers. I also happened to know this was one of his favorite spots. Vertigo was known for its upper-class clientele.
It was a two-story club with a bar on the lower level where luxurious leather couches surrounded the black and white checkered dance floor. The top floor was more like a gallery that overlooked the rest of the club. That was where all the big VIP fuckers sat, pretending they were watching over their own little kingdom of drunken souls. There they were served by waitresses dressed in nothing but shiny gold miniskirts and matching bikini tops. I was also pretty sure one of the qualifying criteria for the waitressing job was you had to have a bra size of at least a double D.
The music was pumping, and the club was slowly starting to fill up as the night came alive. By now, the waiting line outside was probably stretched around the block. Lucky for me, the bouncer working at the door owed me a favor, which I decided to collect tonight, giving me quick and easy entrance.
I was glancing around the club when I heard a familiar voice next to me. I turned in my seat. “Gio?”
When Gio saw me, he rolled his eyes. “Oh, fuck me.”
“Sorry, dude. That’s not how I roll.”
“Fuck you.”
I snorted. “Why isn’t your ass in jail?”
Gio grabbed his beer from the bartender before turning to face me. He smiled that damn fugly gold-filled smile. “I have ways, my man.”
I scoffed. “I’m sure you do.”
“Have a good evening, Detective.” He tapped his beer against my glass and sauntered off into the crowd.
How the fuck that guy managed to get his ass out of jail since I arrested him that morning, I had no clue. But I was willing to bet it had something to do with the Valentis—or if Anderson was correct, the Mancusos.
A commotion started on the other side of the club, and the entire crowd seemed to come to a standstill. Ladies and gentlemen, the Valentis have arrived.
First to enter were the brothers. I knew both their faces. I’d studied them, followed them, watched them. I’d fucking stalked them over the last few months. I could recognize these guys with my damn eyes closed, if that were even possible.
Antonio walked up front while buttoning his suit jacket. With squared shoulders and his chin lifted high, he looked like the epitome of success and power. The man screamed control and supremacy. It didn’t take an idiot to figure out he was the underboss, the son to take over his father’s empire one day.
Dante, the party animal, was on the left, pulling his hands through his hair and winking at all the ladies. Can someone say man-whore?
But it was the girl next to Dante who fully caught my attention—the girl with the killer legs and curvy hips that had the potential to turn me into a raging, horny fucking animal.
Karina Valenti.
I shook my head when I noticed how her two brothers tried to box her between them, trying to shield her from the rest of the crowd. If only they knew there was no way they could hide such a beauty from everyone forever. Karina had a way about her, demanding every man’s attention without even knowing it.
I tried to move a little to the right so I could see more of her, but the elder of her guard dogs blocked my view.
Amazing how one family could hold so much power they made an entire crowd come to a compl
ete standstill with only a simple fucking entrance.
Only when they walked past me did I get a good look at Karina, and fuck me, she looked amazing in a black mini dress, flaunting those toned calves and the silky-smooth skin of her thighs. Her long, curly hair draped perfectly over her shoulders, and I couldn’t help but wonder how it would feel to fist those beautiful locks while her entire vocabulary consisted of my name as my cock filled her to the brim.
I shifted in my seat, trying to get a more comfortable position for my now rock-hard cock. Looking like that, I was surprised Daddy Dearest let her out of the house—not that I was complaining.
Okay, Stone. Focus. You did not come here to perv over the enemy’s daughter. Although I could see it as a career perk, couldn’t I? Yeah, that was how I would justify my raging hard-on currently pushing painfully against my zipper.
I shot back the last mouthful of whiskey before ordering a new one, hoping the sting of the alcohol would tame my inner beast that craved sex, sweat, and heady moans.
While the Valenti siblings made their way up the stairs to the top floor, I sipped at my newly refilled glass and watched their every move. Naturally, they were treated like fucking royalty. The waitresses all swarmed around them, shoving drinks into their hands. And, of course, they got the best table in the club, right at the front of the balcony, which definitely worked in my favor since I now had a clear view of them from where I was sitting.
Unfortunately, my gaze was glued to one specific Valenti the entire time. I simply couldn’t ignore how that damn dress accentuated every curve of her perfect body. That little black number teased me, taunted me, willing me to forget all about why I was really here—to watch and observe all of them, hoping to get some clue where everyone fit into this giant puzzle of crime.
Karina took a seat, and my eyes zeroed in on her thighs as she crossed her legs. Good God, that woman had killer legs—legs I’d love to have folded over my shoulders. I’d bet they felt like fucking silk, all luxurious, soft, and sleek.
