Page 131 of The Dollhouse

All I could do was stare at her, barely able to hold back the frown that so badly wanted to surface on my face. I wanted to tell Willow off, to show her just what kind of man I was, but this was Zoey’s game, and we played by her rules here.

So I held back the anger, the annoyance, and simply stood there, letting Willow’s gaze eat me up.

“Me, for example,” she plowed on, her confidence knowing no bounds, as if she thought she could really steal me away from Zoey. The same hand that had run down my arm moved to touch my chest, dipping low enough to trace my belt buckle. “I’m much more fun than Zoey. I could show you—she’s still in class for a few hours. We have nothing but time. She doesn’t have to know.”

Okay, at that, I had to take a step back from her, putting distance between us. Not enough, though, because if I had my way, I wouldn’t be in the same room as this fucking girl. Her audacity, coming here thinking she could seduce me or something, get me to whip out my dick behind Zoey’s back. Her ex might’ve done it on multiple occasions, but that little shit and I were two very different men, which Willow was about to find out.

“That’s enough,” I growled out, my voice taking on a low and deadly tone. I sounded kind of like Roman. Like I wanted to kill. And, I supposed, I did. This girl… life would be so much better for Zoey if she simply ceased to exist, if we ended her life and took her body somewhere it would never be found. The fish in the river back home were ravenous.

Willow blinked. “I’m sorry?” As if she had never heard someone shoot her down in her life. But you know what they said: there was a first time for everything. Her eyebrows twitched, the corners of her mouth trying to stay positive and smile, but the longer she looked at me, the less confidence she had about this whole thing.

“I said that’s enough,” I repeated. “I don’t know how you figured out where we are, but there’s a lot about your sister you don’t know. She’s not the same girl she was when she left—after you fucked her boyfriend behind her back.” I noted the slight scowl on Willow’s face at that, and I smirked. “Yeah, she told me all about it. I don’t know what you expected, walking in here, trying to come on to me, but let me just say that you’re not my type.”

She huffed, “I am everyone’s type.”

“Maybe here, but like you said, I’m not like the idiots around here.” Okay, maybe not exactly what she’d said, but close enough. “I’m with Zoey, and even if you dropped to your knees right now and said I could do whatever the fuck I wanted with you, I wouldn’t touch you. Loyalty actually means something to me.”

Willow frowned, stepping backward, moving away from me. Thank God. “I can’t believe this. She can come and take the guy I like but I can’t touch you—” She obviously meant that more towards herself than me, but she’d said it loud enough for me to hear.

“Technically, she didn’t take anything,” I chimed in. “He wasn’t yours, from what I hear.”

She let out an aggravated sound, saying nothing else as she whirled around and stomped out of the sitting room, toward the front vestibule and the door. I followed her, just to make sure she got her ass out. Zoey would have a field day when I told her that her sister had shown up here out of the blue. It meant she’d purposefully skipped her classes, since she and Zoey had the same schedule.

She yanked open the door, about to step out and leave, but then her back straightened. Willow spun to glare at me, the sun shining down on her hair and making its blond lengths appear more golden. “You think you know Zoey, but I can guarantee you don’t. She’s my sister. I grew up with her. Whatever lies she’s told you about me… they’re nothing compared to the things I could tell you about her.”

I was pretty damn sure she was only saying this as a last-ditch effort to get on my good side, to make me invite her back in so she could spill the beans. She had nothing on Zoey. When given the choice between the two sisters, I’d obviously choose the side of my pink-haired, pink-sneakered girl.

“Is that it?” I asked with a frown. “Because if that’s all, you can go.”

Willow narrowed her glare, but she said nothing else. She walked away, and I stood there at the door, leaning against the frame, watching her go. Making sure she actually got off the property and didn’t try snooping around. Zoey did say Willow was more than willing to play dirty, and just from that brief interaction with her, I totally got that.

When she was out of sight, but not really out of mind, I shut the front door and pulled out my phone, texting Zoey. She was in class, so I didn’t want to call her. I’d tell her when she got home all about her sister and what she’d tried to do here.

The text to Zoey sent, I went back in the house, meaning to go upstairs and talk to Roman. However, the man himself was walking down the stairs, phone in his hand. He no longer was caught in a conversation, and the dark scowl on his face told me he wasn’t too happy with things.

“We have a job this weekend,” Roman muttered. He slid his phone into the inner pocket of his suit jacket, and he shook his head once. “We leave Saturday night. With any luck, we will be back in time for the dinner with Zoey’s parents.” He didn’t give me time to process that information, adding, “Who was that?”

“That,” I said, glancing over my shoulder as if the girl was still here, “was Zoey’s sister. I don’t know how she knew where we were, but she came to try to do the same thing she did with Zoey’s last boyfriend.”

Roman nodded, a dark, menacing expression on his face. “She tried to seduce you.”

“Yeah, kind of, after trying to get some dirt on our relationship. I didn’t tell her anything, but I did say that I knew what she did to Zoey’s last boyfriend and that her games weren’t going to work on me.” I shrugged. “She seemed like a bitch. I get why Zoey hates her.” Hell, if I was Zoey, I’d probably hate that girl even if shedidn’tsteal any boyfriends.

“I trust you contacted Zoey after she left?”

“I texted her. She’s still in class.”

Roman spoke, “Good. We will break the news to her about both when she gets back.” He let out a long sigh, the scowl on his face deepening. He enjoyed working, being the silent enforcers in the shadows for the Lucianos and killing anyone who dared to go against them, but leaving Zoey right now was clearly not what he wanted.

It wasn’t what I wanted either, but sometimes you didn’t get a choice. Though it would be nice to smell lead in the air, it was the worst time to leave Zoey here on her own. She could handle herself, yes, but that dinner on Sunday would be all about shocking her parents, delivering a nasty surprise to her sister, and generally fucking shit up. I definitely wanted to be there for that.

It was a damned good thing we weren’t leaving before Friday night, though. Friday was not something I would let Zoey do by herself, alone in this house, with that boy. My teeth ground just thinking about it. I didn’t know how the hell Zoey had gotten Roman to agree to let her do what she wanted to do—maybe she’d batted her eyelashes at him, dropped to her knees, and gave the best head of Roman’s life. Or maybe she’d told him she was going to do whatever the fuck she wanted to do regardless of if Roman let her.

She had a habit of doing that, telling him off. She had a strong mind, and she wasn’t the kind of girl to bend over and take it when it came to every aspect of her life. Sex? Yeah, Zoey was down to be submissive anytime, but the rest of her life was another story.

“At least we’ll be here tomorrow,” I muttered.

Roman harrumphed, his dark eyes narrowed at nothing in particular. “Don’t remind me.” A pensive look crossed his face, and he thought. “We should leave our weapons upstairs tomorrow, lest we get angry and try to kill the boy.”

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