Page 45 of A Taste Of Darkness

“You fucking slut. How are you alive?” I heard a thud in the background. “Oh, fucking shit. Did you kill our goddamn cousins?! How could you do that?!” Dante groaned loudly, angrily. “You piece of shit! Do you know what you’ve done?! First, you fucking let us think you’ve died and now you kill your own family. You’re so fucking?—”

“Woah, there, Dante. I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Why—? How are you alive? Shit, fucking, shit bitch. Why are you…why are you reaching out now?”

Jesus. I owned an elites-only club, and I heard my fair share of slurs on a daily, but Dante was topping them all.

But his reaction told me one thing; he didn’t know I was still alive. No matter why my family was currently trying to find me, he didn’t know either. Which, frankly, was very concerning to me.

If I had died, Dante would’ve followed in my footsteps. He was the second born and was supposed to be my backup if something happened to me.

For the past seven years, he would’ve been the one to call the shots because I couldn’t. As it seemed, my father really didn’t want him taking over.

“You tell me,” I said.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know what you want from us? You’re fucking dead.”

My eyes rolled. “Pretty sure I’m alive.”

“Are you… back?”

From the dead? I wasn’t sure I had such abilities. “Only to mess with you, dear brother.”

“Is everything alright?” Her sweet voice came from right behind me.

I sucked in a deep breath, tried to rebuild a wall that I never should’ve dropped in front of her in the first place, then turned around. “I’m just…” I trailed off. Yeah, that wall wasn’t going to get back up there.

My eyes couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Sterlie wasn’t dressed. Like at all. She had a way too small towel wrapped around her body; her blonde hair up in one as well.

So much skin.

My next breath got caught in my lungs like a fool.

I’d been around women before. I’d seen women naked before. Why was my entire body shutting down every single time Sterlie did something humane? Frankly, she could’ve been dressed in a burlap sack and my breath still would’ve found a reason to hit pause.

“Are you busy?” Sterlie asked as innocent as ever. “I just have a question, but it can wait.”

I removed the phone from my ear, and without saying a single word, I ended the call. “I’m all yours, cuore mio.”

While the phone call wasn’t necessarily important, it was a bad moment to end it seeing as I’d just revealed to my brother that I was still alive. But anyway, I could deal with Dante later. Sterlie was more important; she always came first.

She smiled and was about to take a seat on the sofa when she remembered she was only dressed in a towel, so instead she wrapped her arms around herself and looked up at me.

To be as respectful as I could be, I limited my sight to her eyes and smiled back at her. It was new for me—the smiling, I meant. I always respected women and their bodies, not just whenever I felt like it.

“When we go to the club, will all ten of your security guys be there, too?” she asked, slightly cocking her head at me.

I nodded. “You won’t even notice them.”

“All ten of them?” Sterlie laughed. “It’s impossible not to notice them.”

Probably, but it was safer that way. “I’m sorry, but…”

“No, I understand. It’s a club, very crowded. I was just asking because I thought you’d have more there.” Sterlie shrugged. “Just in case.”

“Do you want more security?” I thought ten was plenty, but if she felt better with more of them present I’d arrange that. Then again, if she relied on security guards, why did she want to go to Palermo now? She could’ve waited a couple of months until the situation was resolved.

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