Page 54 of The Devil's Fire

“I would love to, but I didn’t bring a bathing suit with me.”

“Oh, I have tons of new ones! Let’s find you one.” She said excitedly, and I followed her as she made her way out. I glanced over at Lorenzo, who was leaning against the counter, already studying me with a slightly amused expression.

“I’m really sorry... If it helps, I didn’t see anything.” I gave a reassuring smile. I wanted to make sure he didn’t think of me as a creep who peeped.

Raffaele burst out laughing again.

“Damn, she just called you small!” He screamed with laughter.

My smile fell.

“No! That’s not what I meant! I’m sure you’re well equipped.” My eyes widened in horror, and Raffaele was laughing so hard that he fell on the floor again.

Damiano’s eyes slightly narrowed as he tilted his head at me, and Lorenzo just looked at me while sipping his coffee.

“I’m very sorry.” And I sped out of there as fast as I could.

eighteen

Damiano

“You’re getting slow.” I slammed Raffaele down on the training mat. He sprang to his feet and threw a sidekick towards my head. I blocked his kick, kept hold of his leg, and kicked his other leg as he fell to the floor.

“All right, I’m done.” He groaned as he stayed down.

“Your reflexes are slowing down.” I told him as I walked over to the bench and grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat off my neck.

Raffaele jumped to his feet, chugged down a bottle of water, and slumped down on the bench.

“I'm gonna blame the booze for losing this round.”

“And your excuse last time? You’re lazing around.” I frowned. He might be my cousin, but he was still on my payroll, and I can’t have any of my men slacking. It was not something I tolerated.

“Hey, I was definitely not lazing around with that blonde chick yesterday.” He put his arms behind his head and let out a bragging smile.

“Don’t fuck anyone important.” I warned him.

The number of times I had to get his ass out of situations because he fucked the daughter of someone important to my business. He would play his charm on the ladies, making them think they had a chance with him when he was only after a onetime fuck. There were times when I was almost close to letting them kill him just so he would stop being a pain in my fucking ass.

“Speaking of fucking anyone important...” Raffaele started.

“Don’t.” I shot him a look, already knowing where he wanted to go with this.

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” He exclaimed, making me stare at him blankly in response.

“I do.”

“I like her. Not like that, though.” Raffaele said quickly when I sent him a deadly glare. “She’s definitely something else.”

I silently agreed. She was something else and nothing like the rest of the women who came from families who had the slightest bit of power.

“Who would have thought the daughter of Gaetano would have caught your eye? Or is she just a piece of the puzzle in the plan?” Raffaele’s brows raised in curiosity, and I shook my head at him.

“No. She has nothing to do with it.” I replied. Just as innocent as she looked, she was truly oblivious to what kind of world she had stepped into. If she had the slightest clue, she would have noticed me pointing a gun at her head in her hotel room.

“She could be faking it. It’s always the innocent ones you have to keep an eye out for. Do we really believe she didn’t know her own family name?” He questioned suspiciously.

“Her mother took her away when she was still a kid and had no idea what kind of business her father was running. If Stefano had done his job properly, he would have found her immediately.” I explained.

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