Page 25 of The Taker

Me: Pull up Leo’s phone tap. Who is he talking to right now?

Max: ***Hello, my favorite cousin who’s more like a baby brother to my old, crusty ass. How are you? Are you able to do me a favor, oh tech savvy one?

Me: Fuck off before I tell Le Mannaie to break into your favorite bakery and burn the place to the ground. You won’t eat another bear claw for months, you processed sugar addicted fucker. Tell me, NOW.

Max: Nothing is sacred to you. You’re an unhinged psychopath. Hold on.

Me: ***I’m a Vettore. Trust me, you’re like this deep down too.

A minute passes before he tells me who.

Max: Samuel Mead, aka Sammy. A coworker of Leo’s and friend.

Max sends over a few pictures of the two of them he probably took fromSammy’ssocial media accounts. He doesn’t look like a threat—he’s too sweet and innocent looking to be someone Leo would be attracted to. My little lion likes his men big, bad, and depraved.

Regardless, he’s talking to someone shirtless, showing them what’s mine. He has to be punished for this.

Me: Get dressed, meet me at my apartment now. Leave your phone behind.

Leo rolls his eyes, sighing while he walks to his closet.

“One of my sisters is awake and roaming around the apartment, I gotta go,” he says to his little friend.

“Okay, I’ll tell you how the date goes tomorrow. Wish me luck!” Sammy ends the call.

Leo responds to my text with a thumbs up emoji, then pulls a shirt and pajama pants. He toes his feet into slippers and leaves the room.

I don’t care ifSammyis just a friend who’s obviously dating someone else. I’m still jealous as fuck the entire ride to my apartment. I talk myself in and out of murdering the guy in cold blood at least a dozen times, finally settling on letting him live…for now.

He still saw my toy shirtless. Heard his laughter. Enjoyed his smile. A smile I’ve yet to see directed at me. Those transgressions won’t go unpunished.

I text Max to ask him to find out who Samuel is going out to dinner with tomorrow and where they’re going. When I arrive at my apartment, I find Leo sitting on the couch like I instructed him to with Gio, one of my guards, in tow.

“You can wait here. We’ll be in my quarters. I’ll shout if I need you,” I tell him.

Leo follows me to my bedroom, standing in front of me while I sit to take my shoes off. I leave the door to my walk-in closet open as I change into a pair of joggers, but he doesn’t look at me. He keeps his gaze focused on the painting on the far wall instead.

His avoidance shouldn’t piss me off as much as it does. He’s a toy, someone to use as I see fit. I shouldn’t care that he isn’t as obsessed with me as I am him. But I more than care.

I want him to be as addicted to me as I am to him—for me to be his faith and the air he breathes.

I sit down on the couch and put my bare feet up, scrolling through my messages for a few minutes before opening my reply from Max.

Max: Hmmm, turns out the man Sammy is seeing is known by multiple aliases. Everything but the past few years of information on him is wiped clean…I’ll get back to you on this.

Me: Please do. If that little shit is in danger, it’s not good for Leo.

I put the thought out of my mind for now. Max is like a dog with a bone–he won’t stop until he finds out everything there is to know about Sammy’s date.

A throat clearing diverts my attention from my cousin’s text.

“Is there a reason you summoned me here?” Leo sasses.

“Is there a reason you summoned me here,sir,” I scoff. “I am technically your Capo. You may not have been initiated traditionally, but you are part ofNueva Notte.”

“Sorry. Is there a reason you summoned me here and made me leave my sisters alone in the apartment late at night,sir?”

Hearing that word fall from his lips, in that irreverent, bratty tone of his, goes straight to my cock. I love when he pushes my buttons.

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