Page 32 of Salvatore

Chapter Ten

Salvatore

I’ve screwed up before. I’ll be the first to admit it. But this shit with Aedry is messing with my head two ways from Tuesday. A virgin. Of all things she can be, why does she have to be that?

With any other woman, I’d shrug the whole thing off. But this woman, God damn, I can’t stop thinking about her no matter how hard I try.

Four women. That’s how many have offered to fuck me since Aedry slammed her door in my face. Unlike with Aedry, I didn’t bother chasing after them when I told them to walk and they stormed away from me pissed.

Before Aedry, I would have taken each up on her offer. Hard and more than once. My hips would have pounded, their mouths would have sucked, and they would have begged me to stay. That’s how it’s always been and what’s always been enough for me.

They should have been exactly what I needed to forget everything that happened Saturday. But they weren’t. None of them held my attention.

Every thought I have wanders back to Aedry?her laugh, her smile, and that body.

Shit. When the hell did I become such a pussy? It’s like every time I close my eyes?and sometimes even when I don’t—that night in my ride plays over again. She liked what I was doing to her. I could tell by the way she arched her neck, letting me slide my tongue along her skin while my hands played with her nipples and slipped beneath her dress.

She could have told me to stop. I would have. So why the hell didn’t she? Why did she seem so willing to let me fuck her there on that damn street?

“Sal? You there?”

I’m not even listening to Lucca. “Bad connection. Say it again,” I lie.

“The boss wants you with him for a sit down. Thursday night at eight,” he says, but I can tell he knows I haven’t been paying attention.

A sit down. Aw, hell. “Where?”

“Tomasso’s.”

No wonder the maître d was so nervous when I took Aedry there. He must have known a meeting at his place was imminent. I played it off like his business was in trouble, which was a total lie. But then, it’s not the first time I’ve lied to this woman.

“You going?” Lucca asks.

What choice do I have? “I’ll be there. You?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there.”

The edge in his voice tells me Lucca’s already set to kill. That doesn’t mean I’m stupid enough to think I won’t have to. Each meeting Vin agrees to, and each step his father takes toward death, put him at risk. I’ve managed to dig myself into this shit so deep, it won’t be long before I fire a round into some bastard’s skull.

Or take one myself.

“Who’s covering Donnie?” I ask.

“He didn’t say anything about Donnie. Guess she’s on her own.”

He disconnects. I wait for the three consecutive beats that signal the line is clear before swearing. If Vincent is calling me in for a sit down, he’s either scared of who he’s meeting, what’s coming, or setting me up to guard his back full time.

If I watch Vin, no way in fuck can I end up not filling some asshole full of lead. I’d have to kill. I’d have to torture. I’d have to finish becoming one of them.

I do a mental check of the enemies Vin’s made and curse again. Yet my next few swears are all about Donnie. I walked in on Vin getting head the other night in his office. The girl going down on him on the couch couldn’t have been more than twenty. But he liked what she was doing to him and she didn’t care that I was there. He called me for some stupid shit that could have waited. I didn’t need to see what I saw. Except I think he wanted me to. Maybe even needed me to. He’s not a big guy. Someone like him needs to feel important any way he can.

My fingers flick the button to crack open the window, needing to get some air despite how frigid the fall day has become. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen this girl with Vin?her name’s Tina, I think. But every time I see her around, she has another piece of jewelry, newer clothes, and more attitude. Donnie’s on her way out and there’s nothing she or I can do about it.

Just like there’s nothing I can do about getting the hell out of Vin’s hold. I sold my soul to him to save what remained of my family. And now he wants some serious payback.

I roll to a stop a few cars down from Aedry’s little white Volkswagen. I’m fifteen minutes early until her time with my brothers end. But that’s how I planned it. For the last two weeks she’s either stayed just inside the confines of the school, or sent my brothers out on their own. Being who they are, they knew right away something had happened.

The first day I had to deal with them was the previous Monday, less than twenty-four hours after our date. Gianno had glanced back at the closing door, and so had Apollo. Gianno met me with a frown. “What’s going on?”

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