Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73989 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73989 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
As the months passed, I expected the intensity of my feelings to fade, but they never did. Lucien and Angelo’s father retired after Lucien’s name was cleared, and I focused on helping Lucien establish himself as head of the family and watched him fall in love with a man who was perfect for him. I fought with Lucien and Angelo against Damian Ricci, a rival who thought he could overpower us. We only had a few weeks of peace before someone else came after us. I pretended to be as angry as my cousins were, but truthfully, I liked it better when I had an enemy to fight. I needed the distraction. Of the three of us, I was the one who most enjoyed putting our enemies in their place. I thrived on violence, but this time I wasn’t prepared for where the fight would take me.
We thought we’d eliminated the problem with the Riccis, but Damien had an illegitimate son, Sergio, he’d never told anyone about. Sergio decided it was time to finish the fight against us.
One evening, I was sitting in the courtyard behind our house in the North End, feeling uncharacteristically sorry for myself. Lucien had taken Peter to DiGiulio’s, the restaurant he’d just opened, and Angelo, who’d always been my partner in crime—literally and figuratively—had reunited with his high school crush. He said it was nothing, that he was just using the guy, but I saw the look on his face when he talked about Cameron, and that night he’d taken Cameron on a fucking picnic. I didn’t think Angelo would be going out with me to troll for hookups anymore.
Why did that bother me so much? It wasn’t like I wanted to settle down with someone the way Lucien had and the way Angelo no doubt would. I wasn’t into relationships. I was into fucking men and women, walking away afterward, and not thinking of them again. Except with Joe I hadn’t been able to do that. I’d been thinking about him even more since Angelo had started whatever it was with Cameron.
My phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. The guard Angelo had assigned to watch Cameron’s bakery let me know someone—likely Sergio—had set a fire in the kitchen at Santino’s sandwich shop. The Santinos had been doing business with us for generations, and our family owned the building the shop was in. It was only a few doors down from Cameron’s bakery. I jumped up and grabbed the keys to my bike as I told the guard to stay put and watch out for trouble at the bakery.
I parked my bike in the alley behind a neighboring business and headed to where a crowd had gathered in front of the shop. Crime scene tape closed off the area, and firefighters and police were working the scene. Since our family owned the building, I needed to find out who was in charge so I could make sure we weren’t connected to the incident. Also, the man behind the attacks had been leaving notes at each of his stops. If there was one at the scene, I needed to get a picture of it, which meant I’d have to sweet talk a cop.
I worked my way up to the yellow tape and was just about to duck under it when I saw him. Detective Joseph Daniels. I’d known sooner or later our paths would cross again, but I really hadn’t wanted it to happen at a crime scene. If he found out there was a connection between the shop and my family, he was going to poke his nose into our business, and I was going to have to do something I’d regret.
Joe turned my way. When his eyes met mine, I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t even breathe. I wondered if he was getting hard like I was. I wanted to confront him, to tell him I didn’t give a fuck about our agreement, but this wasn’t the time or place. I had to figure a way out of the mess I’d brought on myself and my family, but I couldn’t do that at a crime scene, so I did something very unusual for me. I turned and walked away.
When I got back to my bike, I called Angelo. I hated to fuck with his evening, but I had to let him know what was going on. He was going to have to be the one to run interference with the cops. No way in hell would I get anything out of Daniels. He’d probably be an ass to Angelo, but at least Angelo wouldn’t have to drag him into an alley and fuck him before he was able to talk.
I told Angelo I’d meet him at the bakery. When I got there, I found a container of cannoli on the counter. I was helping myself to one when Angelo and Cameron walked in.