Page 6 of King of the Cage

Would Elio be next? My brother would have to get married soon, too. Renato would demand it for political reasons, if nothing else. Elio was second-in-command in the family. An important person.

Me? I was number three, I supposed. The third member of the inner circle. Too bad for Ren that I never planned to marry, and certainly not because he ordered me to.

“Putting up with a guy’s presence is one thing, but the real question is why bother? There’s nothing a man can do for me that I can’t do for myself, with a hell of a lot less arguing, I’ll add,” I told Sol.

She still looked longingly at our local political wannabe big shot. Enrico was small fry compared to his older brother, but that didn’t stop him from feeling like he was a big deal.

Enrico had finally gotten his shit together and was heading in our direction.

The after-party of a mob wedding was usually one of two things. Messy as hell, as made men and their molls let loose around the enemy for the night, trusting in the unspoken rule that there’d be no bloodshed at weddings. Weapons were forbidden, after all, so the odds of a shoot-out were reduced, though not eliminated completely. The second was an after party that was tense as hell, with each side eyeing the other, waiting for a slight they could take offense to.

Luckily, tonight had gone the first way. Renato and his reluctant bride had already left, taking a huge amount of De Sanctis men with them, Elio included. I wasn’t sorry to see him go. Lately, he’d been on my case about everything. Where I went, who I hung out with. Even what I wore sometimes, and what I liked to do for fun. I didn’t let men tell me what to do anymore, and I never would again. I’d spent the worst year of my life that way, and every single second of it was burned into my memory. Lately, Elio was treading dangerously close to raking up those old memories, and I had no intention of reliving them. It was past time my brother accepted that I was twenty-seven, not seventeen.

The older and crustier patriarchs of rival families had also left, and only the younger, responsibility-free members remained, living it up.

“Okay, he’s really coming over this time,” I murmured to Sol.

She straightened up in her chair, her warm brown eyes widening and then lowering into a sultry gaze.

“Rico, hi,” Sol breathed, smiling upward.

“Ciao, Sol,” Enrico said, a smirk in his tone.

Ugh. Sol could do so much better than him. Her father would never allow her to marry him. She had to know that.

Luckily, that meant I still had time to talk her around to forgetting about men altogether, getting a cozy witch’s house in the New Jersey woods, and living together with a plethora of cats.

A pink, fruity cocktail appeared in front of me.Me? Crap. A sinking feeling hit my belly. Did Enrico only bringmea drink? Why?

“Pass. I like my drinks the way I like my men. Strong, sour, and hard to get.” I pushed the cocktail glass over to my friend. “Sol will like it, though.”

“Now, come on. Try a little sweetness.” Enrico grabbed the glass and slid it back to me.

Sol blinked away from the drink and up at me. Disappointment filled her huge brown eyes. Motherfucker.

I kicked back from the table and shoved my heels back on. “Not my style, Enrico. I need to take care of some business, so can you keep Sol company?”

I made to step away from the table and bumped right into Enrico.

He gripped my hip. “Where are you running off to, Giada? Can I come?”

He had a low tone, his voice confident. He clearly found himself the most charming man in the room. All I could think about was Sol. She’d had a crush on Enrico for years, and now that he’d broken up with his girlfriend, she’d gotten excited that something was finally going to happen. And the idiot was hitting on me.

I stepped back, flustered. I didn’t want Sol to get upset.

“Look. You’re barking up the wrong tree, Rico. If you want any chance of going home with both balls intact tonight, you won’t touch me again,” I warned him, my words quiet.

I knocked Enrico’s hand from my hip, but his arm was like a snake, coming alive to wrap around me and pull me against his side. I gaped at him for a long moment, shocked out of words.What the hell?

I studied him properly for the first time and noted the telltale white powder around his nose. Ah, so the idiot had indulged a little too much and lost his fucking mind. That made sense. Otherwise, manhandling me at Renato’s wedding would be a death sentence. It might still be. Sol’s phone rang, and she answered it, getting up to take the call.

“Be back in a minute,” she mouthed at me and pointed discreetly at Enrico. “Keep him here!”

She was still hoping she’d gotten it wrong and maybe Enrico was here for her. The girl had seriously flawed taste in men. Inodded, plastering on a smile for her and dropping it as soon as she turned around.

“Look, Rico, get your hands off me before I remove them, permanently. Where did you get the balls to touch me at all?”

Whatever he’d snorted must have been a hell of a drug to make him overstep so far.

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