Page 66 of Cardinal

With a tilt of her head, I peered into her avoidant eyes. "And that applies where and to who?"

Sighing softly, she presses her face further into my hands. "Everywhere and everyone, and if they don't respect it, then I can stab them." Seeing the small smile crack with her flat joke at the end made my chest feel slightly lighter.

"There's my Juliet," I chuckled, kissing her forehead. "But I prefer if you had me or one of your bodyguards do the dirty work of spilling blood."

"Stabbing's not my thing anyway, so that's fine." She forced a chuckle out as she slid her hands down to my bare chest. "But you really aren't mad or disappointed with me?"

A sad smile ached my face as I shook my head in response to her. "Principessa, no, never for something like that. I will never get mad or upset at you for using your safe-word, ever, and that is how it should be. A safe-word is there for a reason, sweetheart, and I told you before, but I will tell you again, I never want you to ever hesitate to use your safe-word with me at the slightest discomfort."

Bringing her face up into a deep kiss, I held us together for a while until Juliet's hands slapped at my chest. Chuckling in response, I broke the kiss and breathed heavily while Juliet gasped for breath. "Jerk, my lungs aren't as big as yours." She pouted with a soft glare.

"Would you dare say I take your breath away?" I joked with a laugh.

That was too fucking cheesy, but it got Juliet to soften up and respond with her own laugh, so I felt no shame in being a cheesy fucker.

Pulling her down fully onto the bed, I pulled the sheets over us and cuddled her. "What do you need right now, amorina?"

Humming happily, Juliet buried her face into my chest. "Just hold me for a bit, then food." She mumbled against my chest. "Can we have pasta tonight? Alfredo? And salad?"

"Think the others have already ordered pizza knowing them, but if that is what my sweetheart wants, then that is what she shall get." Not like that would be a hard meal to throw together.

"Give me my money back, you brat," Ares demanded of my girl with a menacing glare after he stalked up to her.

Not bothering to look at the hulking mafia boss, she continued to tap away at her phone. "Wow, you need to learn some manners." Juliet snickered with an innocent smile on her face when she peered up at Ares from her position next to me on the couch. "But also, I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, how can an inexperienced child like me possibly manage to come close to your accounts?" Okay, now she was being a little shit—and I was living for it.

Ares's jaw tightened in a scowl as he growled at Juliet. "Why, you little…" Clenching his fists at his sides, he harshened his glare at Juliet, who smiled humbly. "You better undo what you did, or else."

Uh oh.

Juliet's whole demeanor straightened out defiantly as she stood and got up in Ares's personal space with her arms crossed. "Or else what? You gonna hit me? Sue me? Go ahead, I dare you to try something." She goaded him with a crazed grin. "I heard your car collection is a lot more extensive than Luciano's. It would be a shame if they all just drove off one night, never to be seen again. And seeing as you are broke as a joke, you can't replace them."

Maybe I should stop this before they actually rip into each other. I mean, Ares wouldn't hurt Juliet physically; he wasn't one to be violent towards females. But he had an arrogant mouth that often ran way before his brain, and the last thing I wanted was for him to say something hurtful or triggering to Juliet in a moment of anger.

"I mean, if you have such great techies on your payroll, then they should have no problem undoing whatever this hacker did to your accounts." With the smile still on her face, she gave a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders as she sat down in my lap. "Although, I would tell them to chop chop because who knows how long the money will just sit there before it gets blown on whatever whim the hacker has."

"Also, I don't know why you're accusing me. There's no way I would be capable of something like this, being eighteen and fresh. I don't have the skills, as one would say." Juliet's sarcastic voice continued to lay it onto Ares, whose face grew redder and redder by the second. "Maybe you should go find this hacker and maybe beg at their feet to undo their fuckery." She suggested with a cruel smirk.

"Luciano, your little girlfriend is just as much of a little shithead as you." Ares bit out with a frustrated shout.

Laughing in response, I merely smirked at him as I threw an arm around Juliet's waist. "Well, maybe next time you will think twice about insulting someone and undermining them because of their age." Maybe he would have thought twice about his earlier words if he had known about Juliet's antics against me, but then he wouldn't have gotten a lesson out of all this.

Sometimes Ares was much too prideful as he was aggressive for his own good, so he needed to get his ass humbled from time to time.

Being the arrogant little shithead he was, Ares refused to bow to Juliet and sulked off a little ways to get back on the phone with his men. Although, it was only a matter of time at this point until all of us got a memorable event of Ares apologizing for the books.

"Honestly, if he ends up with someone, I'm gonna keel over and die because who on this earth can put up with such an ass like him," Juliet grumbled with a slight roll of her eyes.

All of us grew quiet with somber smiles, making regret twist on Juliet's face. "Oh my God, please don't tell me I just spoke ill of the dead." Her face paled as she sunk into me to hide.

Sighing heavily, Sebastian took a swing of his beer before looking at Juliet and replying in a forlorn voice. "Ares… well, I was going to say he wasn't always like this, but that would be a lie. I guess the more correct thing to say would be that he hadn't always been this intense. He did have someone years ago, but we don't know much or anything about who the woman was. All he would tell us was that she was some simple girl who he wanted to keep out of our mafia mess and that she was murdered one night."

"Well, now I feel like a complete ass." Juliet groaned dejectedly.

After a small moment of awkward silence, we all managed to get back into better spirits by talking about the shit we did in the past and our plans for the future. It was nice until Ares rejoined with an unamused glare.

We all thought he would start up some shit with Juliet when he approached her, so we were shocked at the words that came out of his mouth. "Can you please give me my accounts back? I am sorry for being an asshole to you and saying you aren't capable." It wasn't loud, but it was enough to be heard. "I'll give you the damn list myself once we are done compiling it, just please undo whatever the fuck you did, please."

Holding up a hand to Ares, I quickly stopped him before he could speak again. "I will discuss the list issue with Juliet at a later time, so just go back to apologizing sincerely and begging." I couldn't help but smirk like a cheeky bastard with my last words as I proudly held my girl.

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