Reckless & Ruined

by Bethany-Kris

  Alessa smiled. “And this will be us.”

  “I can’t fucking wait, Lissa.”

  She knew that, too.

  Alessa and Adriano’s conversation quieted as the ending of the ceremony was performed at the front. Riley Conti’s young bride looked incredibly beautiful in her ball gown style dress standing next to her new husband.

  Young.

  It was worth repeating.

  Courtney was only three years older than Alessa.

  It seemed like the wedding had practically come out of thin air. Not a man in the Outfit or the families around them seemed bothered by the fact that Riley Conti was marrying a new, young woman just months after his wife’s death.

  The boss needs a wife, Adriano had explained weeks ago.

  Alessa thought it was all a little sad.

  “Did your father talk to you last night?” Alessa asked.

  They had gone to a dinner at the Conti home to celebrate the night before the wedding. Things between Adriano and his father were incredibly tense and had been ever since news of their pregnancy was announced. Riley practically turned his son away at every chance he could.

  Adriano didn’t act like he cared.

  “No,” Adriano said.

  The couple’s marriage was announced by the priest and a thunder of clapping and hollers answered the first kiss. Alessa waited at Adriano’s side as the bride and groom made their way back down the aisle. Then the guests started to flood out as well.

  Joel passed by Alessa with Abriella at his side. Her sister gave her a smile and a wave, but Joel kept his eyes forward and never gave Alessa a second thought. She wasn’t important to him anymore. He got what he wanted, in a way.

  Joel had mysteriously become Riley’s underboss. According to Adriano, Tommas Rossi was the new front boss for the Outfit. But there was a lot of love lost between the three men and issues always had a way of creeping back in before anyone knew what happened.

  Alessa and Adriano filtered out of the church with the rest of the people. Outside, she couldn’t help but notice how the people spread out into their usual groups. It gave her the chance to see everyone who had showed up to the wedding. It had been a large event with a rather big guest list. One group was missing: the DeLucas.

  “Where is Theo?” Alessa asked.

  Adriano visibly tensed. “Somewhere.”

  His vagueness only made Alessa worried.

  “Did something happen?”

  Adriano chuckled. “Shit, something has been happening for a while.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t want you worrying about the Outfit’s nonsense,” he said.

  “Too late,” she replied softly.

  Adriano drew Alessa in to his side. “It started out quiet.”

  “What did?”

  “Theo’s moves. Quiet violence, little things. A man down here with no explanation and a shootout there with no witnesses. Bad shit, Lissa.”

  Alessa shivered. “Theo did that?”

  “Is doing it,” Adriano corrected. “It’s happening more and more every day.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Adriano sighed. “It means he wants to go to the mattresses again.”

  War.

  When was this going to end?

  How many more people had to die?

  “We’re good,” Adriano said, drawing Alessa from her thoughts.

  “Are we?” she asked.

  “Very.” Nodding at his father standing with his new bride at the bottom of the church steps, Adriano added, “But Riley, he needs to be careful.”

  Alessa swallowed hard. “Careful?”

  “Yes. And he can have fun doing it alone.” Adriano smiled coldly. “I gave him everything he wanted and he did nothing for me. My father can protect his own ass. I have nothing left there to save.”

  “Don’t you?”

  Adriano shook his head and held her tighter. “Nope. I got everything I wanted, Alessa. And I’m holding it.”

  About the Author

  Bethany-Kris is a Canadian author, lover of much, and mother to three young sons, one cat, and three dogs. A small town in Eastern Canada where she was born and raised is where she has always called home. With her boys under her feet, a snuggling cat, barking dogs, and a hubby calling over his shoulder, she is nearly always writing something … when she can find the time.

  Find her at her website at www.bethanykris.com, on Facebook, Twitter, or her blog.

  Sign up to Bethany-Kris’s New Release Newsletter for instant notification when her new releases are out.

  Coming Soon

  Scarless & Sacred (The Chicago War, 3)

  Theo DeLuca & Evelina Conti

  “Eve,” Theo greeted as he saddled up beside her at the bar.

  “She’s very good,” Evelina said, nodding at the dancer.

  Theo shrugged. “I suppose. I’m not the one who vets the dancers before they get the job.”

  Evelina glanced at him. She was only shorter than him by a couple of inches in her heels, but it was enough to make her need to look up through those thick lashes of hers. “You don’t watch them while they work?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m here to work, Eve, not get my rocks off on lap dances and strip teases.”

  Evelina smiled a tiny smile. “Huh, imagine that.”

  “What?”

  “I think all those rumors about you and women are a load of crap, especially if you spend a lot of your work time in a strip club and can’t even be bothered to taste the spread. I’m sure they would be willing.”

  Theo laughed deeply. “Probably.”

  He’d had a few offers.

  Not that he took any of them.

  “Since when do you frequent strip clubs?” Theo asked, curious.

  Evelina winked. “Since someone told me to have a little fun a few years ago.”

  Well, damn.

  “Strip clubs was where you found that? This isn’t necessarily the kind of place where an Outfit daughter should be hanging out, Evelina.”

  “Not necessarily, but I learned that everybody has a job to do, Theo. This is just one of them and it’s a paycheck like anybody else’s nine-to-five.”

  “True.”

  “Are you going to send me away now?” Evelina asked.

  Theo watched her from the side, taking in the curves of her body underneath her black dress and the way her legs looked to be a mile long standing in those heels. The demure look she wore only added to the fact he found himself reacting to her just by being close. The scent of whatever perfume she wore was a mixture of heady and sweet, and it soaked into his lungs instantly.

  Yes.

  Yes, he was going to send her away.

  Because she looked like sin and she was standing in a place meant for it.

  Theo did terribly well with sinning.

  “Yes,” Theo murmured.

  “That’s a shame.”

  “Why?”

  Evelina flashed her white teeth in a sinful smirk. “Because you never gave me the chance to thank you, Theo.”

  His confusion climbed higher.

  “For what?”

  “Keeping me from getting shot.”

  “Eve, there’s no need to thank me for that.”

  “I know,” she said, “but it seems like everyone wants to blame you for it and I wanted you to know that I don’t. I wanted to tell you directly, so you could know, Theo. People think I’m deaf or something, or maybe they just think I won’t repeat what I hear. It doesn’t matter really, because when you showed up at the dinner, I figured out enough from that, anyway.”

  Theo blinked, surprised. “How did you find out I was here tonight?”

  Evelina lifted a single shoulder in response and tilted her glass up to her lips to take a sip.

  “Eve,” Theo pressed.

  “Maybe I got Alessa to get some information out of Adriano. But who knows?”

  Theo chuckle
d. “Yeah, who knows?”

  “Not me.”

  “You shouldn’t be here, Eve,” Theo warned quietly.

  “I know. I left my car a couple of blocks into the Conti side of the territory line and grabbed a cab. So even if someone comes looking, they won’t find me. Thanks for that advice on the GPS, by the way. It came in handy after all.”

  Theo swallowed hard, wondering what kind of game this woman was trying to play with him. “Did you think that this might get me into a hell of a lot of trouble, too?”

  “Maybe, but I just needed to do something different tonight.”

  “And you came to me.”

  Evelina shifted on her heels, still watching the stage and the dancer. “Why not?”

  “I have a dozen reasons why not, Eve.”

  She tilted her head just enough to catch his gaze again. Evelina held it, her stare never wavering. There was something in the hard expression she wore that told him something was wrong.

  Theo wouldn’t ask.

  He couldn’t care.

  Not right now.

  “They’re going to turn me into someone I don’t want to be,” Evelina said quietly.

  He didn’t even have to ask what she meant. Theo knew. The Outfit. It was always about the Outfit where they were concerned. Someone did that to Theo once, too.

  “I learned to like the changes,” Theo murmured.

  Evelina sighed. It came out breathy and tired, but it still made Theo ache. No, he couldn’t deny his attraction to Evelina Conti. But what he could do was control himself in her presence.

  Never think with your cock or heart.

  DeLuca rule number one.

  Evelina wet her bottom lip as she looked him over. “I think I figured something out way too late.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I don’t want to be a princess.”

  Copyright © 2015 Bethany-Kris. All Rights Reserved.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted material is illegal and punishable by law. No parts of this work may be reproduced, copied, used, or printed without expressed written consent from the publisher/author. Exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in reviews.

  eISBN: 0-9947909-8-9

  eISBN 13: 978-0-9947909-8-9

  Print ISBN: 0-9947909-9-6

  Print ISBN 13: 978-0-9947909-9-6

  Editor: Dominique S.

  Proofreaders: Eli P. & Sheila K.

  Cover Design © Jay Aheer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organizations, corporations, locales and so forth are a product of the author’s imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.