Page 97 of Hold Him Like Gravity

“I didn’t even know alien smut existed,” I admitted. I hadn’t ever been much of a reader. I mean, sure, I went through a little teen dystopian romance phase like most girls my age had, but then kind of just lost interest.

“You never dive right into alien smut,” Saff said. “It starts with some romantasy with magical elements. Then maybe you dabble in fae. Possibly some vampire. Then, well, all bets are off once you start getting into demons, shifters, and monsters. I’m curious if Lore, Elizabeth, and Islah were as into it as I was. The aliens were a little possessive to the max. Which wasn’t my favorite. But the banging was hot. I mean, the dudes were big enough to hold the women up and fuck them. Hot.”

“Isn’t Lore Renzo’s wife?” I asked, still trying to keep everyone straight.

“Yeah. And Elizabeth is Elian’s girl. Islah is Elian’s sister. So if you can maybenottell him that I’m having his little sister read alien porn, that would be great.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” I said, deciding I already really liked Saff. She was refreshing with how open she was. How sure of herself.

“You should join us next month. It’s Lore’s pick, so it’s more romantasy, not just straight up fucking with small plot points in between. I’ll send a copy here,” she decided, already reaching for her phone before I could object. She was still tucking her phone away when Evander came walking in, eyeing her suspiciously. “Holy shit. It’s a cat. Renzo has a cat?”

“Well, he’s mine. Sort of. But his heart belongs to Renzo. He barely tolerates me.”

“What’s his name?”

“Evander,” I told her. “Do you have any pets?”

“I work too much,” she said, trying to pet the cat, who eyed her warily but let her do one little scratch before he started to hiss.

“As a capo?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Is that a common thing?” I asked. “Female capos,” I clarified. “TV and movies make it seem like—“

“A sausage fest?” she interjected. “Yeah, it usually is. There are five New York families. We are the only one with female capos. So far. I mean, maybe the others will follow suit. But they’re different families.”

“How so?”

“We’re kind of a hodgepodge crew here. Normally, it is very much sofamily. Like blood family. But the Lombardi family was in shambles when Renzo took over. Not a lot of guys who were actually blood-related to fill in. So he brought in outsiders. He was a bit of a rebel boss from the beginning, so it was no big deal to break the rules further and bring in women.”

“So all the other families you can only be in if you were born in?”

“Well, except for the Espositos, I guess,” she said, nodding. “That was a shitstorm of a situation a few years back. He had to rebuild like Renzo did. So he has more outsiders too.”

I wasn’t surprised the man I’d met on the street that night ended up being a mafia boss. That was the vibe he had. Powerful. Intimidating. In control.

“Okay. Enough mafia talk. What are we eating?” Saff asked, going to the fridge again. “Clearly not anything here,” she decided.

We went through the menu drawer, picking a restaurant, then meals for ourselves as well as Rico and Bass.

“He’s probably not coming home, but it doesn’t hurt to have leftovers.”

“Doesn’t Bass live here?” I asked.

“Right now, he’s living between the thighs of as many women as he can find,” Saff said. “Not that anyone can blame him when he was locked up for so long. But I imagine it has less to do with that and more to do with Rico wanting privacy with you.”

“I don’t want to put him out, though.” Even if it had been oddly freeing to walk around Rico’s place naked the night before, to be as loud as we wanted in bed that night and first thing in the morning.

“Trust me, he’s not upset about it,” Saff said, waving off my worries. “So… alcohol?” she asked, walking over to the cart without waiting for my answer. She didn’t need to. If ever I really needed a drink, this was it.

I knew why Rico wasn’t home with me.

He was… handling things with Kyle.

I knew a better person, agoodperson would have objections to his plan. I mean what decent human being condoned murder?

But I’d been living months thinkingI’dkilled Kyle.

---