Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
I shuddered. “What’s with the blood?” I finally asked Junior.
He shrugged. “Men keep killing each other, so I keep killing them to keep them from killing each other. It’s math.”
Ash burst out laughing. “Math was literally your worst subject.”
“Eat shit.” Junior groaned into his hands. “Ninety percent of the De Langes are loyal, they want to re-establish more than their own name, we’ve built up the ranks to what they were before, but something seems off, some of the men seem… too arrogant, too unafraid of me, and I’ve given them plenty of reasons to be petrified.”
“Please list them and in graphic detail,” Maksim said in a bored tone. Ah, good, he was back into his other personality, where he wanted to hear all about the darkness so he could feed his soul.
It was still weird to me at times that he had two personalities, also known as dissociative identity disorder, then again, at times I think it helped him compartmentalize all of his past memories along with things he’d had to do in order to survive.
Valerian ran his hands through his light brown hair, a new black tattoo was etched near his thumb, the guy only got ink if something bad or good went down, I made a mental note to ask later. “Listen, I need to get home, if there are no more updates…” He started to stand.
“We’re at peace.”
Santino, Maksim, Ash, Junior, and Valerian all glanced in my direction. My voice wasn’t confident like it normally was.
Santino groaned into his hands. “You Americans and your fears. We’re at peace, you should drink wine and be happy.”
“Says the assassin that had to flee his own Family,” Maksim muttered under his breath.
“For good reason.” Santino pointed out. “Plus, someone had to save your sorry asses.”
“Boo.” Junior gave us a giant thumbs down. “Don’t act so pretentious, little Italy, it makes us think you’re working with a small dick.”
“How old are you again?” Santino asked.
Junior grinned. “Old enough to kick your ass, young enough to survive if you try to kick mine.”
Ash nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair. See, he can math!”
“God.” Maksim hung his head in his hands. “Can’t we just go home? We don’t have any more threats, things have gone silent, most of us have very attractive women to go home to, some even have tiny little villains they claim as their children.”
All of us turned to Junior.
He flipped us off. “Bam-Bam just has strong feelings!”
“I still think he’s going to try to murder you in your sleep, but whatever,” Ash said cheerfully.
“Okay, person who named their son Walt,” Junior said under his breath.
“Take it back!” Ash jolted to his feet. “It’s a family name!”
“From the fifties?” I asked. “Sorry, it’s a great strong name. One of killers and thieves.”
“Thank you.” Ash sat back down.
I turned to Junior again. “What’s your feeling on your men, on your stability?”
Junior swallowed. “My head tells me I’m being paranoid, but something isn’t sitting right with the Family, it’s like fear isn’t present anymore despite this shit,” He shoved the bloody shirt off the table. “It’s like they think someone’s going to protect them and that someone isn’t me, they know I’d take them out before they could take themselves or any of the other Families out.”
I tapped my fingers against the table in thought. “When does the treaty for welcoming them back into the Family end?”
“A week.” Junior sighed. “Basically, if I was a narcissistic, power-hungry idiot, in a week I could be like thanks for the money and support but no thanks, I think I’m going to war against the rest of the Cosa Nostra and see how that checks out. Seriously though, most of them are young and stupid, none of them have the balls to do it.”
We fell quiet until Junior whispered again, “I mean, unless… Ivan, but he doesn’t even want to be a part of this life. He has more money than he needs, so what would be the purpose?”
Ash exhaled. “Revenge? Or maybe just to piss us off.”
“No.” I disagreed. “He’s not that stupid, I mean, stupidity does run thick in all our blood, but I highly doubt he’d go that far, plus it would be a complete death sentence.”
Maksim was quiet before he tapped his fingertips slowly against his thigh and reached for his glass of whiskey, taking loud but small sips before saying, “Maybe death is what he seeks.”
CHAPTER FOUR
DAY ONE Sophomore and Senior year at HELL also known as Eagle Elite University. Good luck suckers.—King Campisi
Bella
“Why?” I glared at Ivan and really made a point to make the glare look terrifying despite the fact that he’d always won on the scary side of things. Maybe it was the fact that he had these perfectly sculpted, albeit heavyish, eyebrows that framed those green eyes, it didn’t help that his lashes were dark and long making every stare seem intense, at one point I just gave up and assumed his sad and happy face were the same as his angry one because of those stupid eyes.