Page 41 of Spider Demon's Kiss

“I don’t have that much stuff.”

“Still, maybe it’s not a good idea yet.”

And that was where we both left it. Getting dressed and powering past him as he watched me from the bed, he didn’t ask again. And when I yelled back that I was headed to work and that I would see him tonight, we had resolved our first disagreement. Maybe being married to him wasn’t going to be as hard as I thought.

Getting into work earlier than usual, I took a moment to appreciate the quiet. This whole thing really was a mess. And I wasn’t just talking about the killer I was sharing my bed with.There was someone else who was trying to kill me. That someone could be my brother.

When my assistant popped in to give me my mail, I refocused on what I had to do today. One of the changes I had made from how my father ran things was to treat the business more professionally. We were long past the times when keeping two sets of accounting was enough. Now we laundered money by investing in real estate and crypto. The reports generated from our investments were never ending.

Everything needed my approval and my sign off. Beyond that, I needed to make sure the business benefitted from my new connection with the Yakuza. If I wanted father to accept my marriage and not try to off me, he needed to see the upside of me being with Kuroi.

“Got a second?” Lorenzo asked leaning into my office.

“What’s up?” I replied inviting him in.

Closing the door behind him, Lorenzo entered and sat in the chair on the other side of my desk smiling.

“You gonna sit there grinning like an idiot or do you have something to say to me?”

“Any new stitches last night?”

I stared at my brother wondering where this was coming from. He had been the one to stitch me up the last time I needed it. So, it was a legitimate question. But that look on his face… And how many questions would follow?

Falling asleep with Kuroi in my arms had been one of the best feelings of my life. God damn if holdin’ him didn’t do things to me. But did Lorenzo need to see that part of my life. I was his big brother and the alpha of his pack. I wasn’t ready for him to view me any differently.

No, for now, my life with Kuroi would be between the two of us. No one else needed to know or see anything. All theyneeded to know was that the Ricci pack and the Yakuza in New York were of one mind. There was no getting between us.

“No fuckin’ stitches. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Got it,” Lorenzo said becoming more serious. “There’s one other thing we haven’t talked about.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“Who tried to kill you.”

He was right. We hadn’t since realizing that Matteo was the only one capable of shooting me in the neck while I drove.

Lorenzo continued, “Am I gonna be the one to say it or are you?”

“What’s that?”

“Pa could have hired a hit out on you.”

“We don’t know that.”

“We don’t know anything. But we do know who could have shot you in the neck if that is what happened. And we know you’ve given him reason to order the hit.”

“Listen Lorenzo, I know you have your problems with Pa. But ordering a hit out on me? Come on.”

“What about Uncle Vinny?”

Uncle Vinny was like the boogie man in our household growing up. Legend had it that he crossed my father thinking he could become alpha. He should have challenged Pa to a fight. If he had, everything would have been fine, even if he had lost. Pa probably would have gotten him pretty good, but Uncle Vinny would have been allowed to stay in the pack.

But supposedly, Uncle Vinny teamed with a vampire coven to take Pa out. When Pa discovered this, he sent the pack to slaughter the blood suckers and slit Uncle Vinny’s throat. They got all of the vampires, but couldn’t find my uncle.

The story goes that when he turned up again, he was back in Italy. He was under the protection of a new pack and the onlytime we heard from him was at Christmas. He would call asking to speak to Pa and Pa would refuse.

“None of us knows what actually happened between the two of them. It could have been anything,” I told Lorenzo.

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