Page 62 of Twisted Kings

The squeak of the screen door told me Dad had come after me. I tensed, ready for a verbal lashing, but none came. Instead, he walked over and rested his hand on my shoulder. I’d grown several inches in the last year and was taller than him now.

“I know you care about her, son, and in some ways, that makes me happy. God knows the girl has no-one else who cares for her.” He squeezed my shoulder and sat down on the stone bench. “I just worry that you’ll get in over your head. The life she has in front of her…I don’t want that for you. Your mom made me promise that I’d keep you away from Francesco. You’re a bright kid with college in your future. You have a chance to be something, do something. If Francesco gets his claws into you, he’ll never let go.”

“I never see him. He doesn’t know I exist!” I scoffed, my anger having faded in the blistering heat. Sweat trickled down my back but neither of us made a move to go back inside, where it was nice and cool.

“Maybe he doesn’t, but Torrance does. He knows you visit Thea. That man sees everything.”

My shoulders tightened. Torrance scared me with his dead eyes and random acts of violence.

The bastard killed the stray cat Thea had spent all winter sneaking food out for. I’d stumbled across him burying it. He just grinned at me with amusement while I vomited all over the place.

Thea thought it had run away. She’d been so upset, but I hadn’t had the heart to tell her what happened to the poor creature. It was kinder if she believed it had found a better life somewhere.

“He hasn’t interfered.”

“Not yet, but trust me, if he believes you are a distraction to her, he will do whatever it takes to remove you from her life.”

I should have listened to my father back then. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t be stuck on the outside while Thea barely gave me the time of day.

Seeing her with the others tore me up inside. There had never been anyone else. Sure, I’d fucked a lot of women. After I left her, I fucked every willing female I could find. None of them healed the broken fragments of my heart.

Most of them barely registered as anything other than a warm, wet hole, and there were very few I saw more than twice.

It didn’t matter where I went or who I fucked, nothing mattered. My life felt meaningless. Every day, I followed orders. Did what I was told. Hurt people.

Hurt my father most of all.

He blamed himself for what happened, but it wasn’t his fault. I hadn’t listened to him. Like all teenage boys, I thought I knew better. Thought I was invincible. Bullet-proof.

Seeing Thea, all soft and sated, killed me inside.

It should have been my arms around her tiny waist. My chest she laid her soft cheek on. My lips brushing her glossy hair. My fingers sticky with her juices.

But it would never be me.

Thanks to my stupid anger issues, I’d failed her.

Maybe if I’d questioned Torrance more that day, or bothered asking Thea before throwing everything away, we could have escaped. Me, her, and her sister. Looking back, my plan was bullshit, but I knew my father would have helped us.

He never forgave Francesco for luring me into the mafia, which was why he’d been squirreling evidence away for the last few years. Before Francesco sent me to Abernethy to watch Thea, Dad took me to one side and told me he had enough to take down Francesco, and when the time was right, he’d release it.

Francesco had no clue I was involved in Thea’s rescue. He thought I was watching the Forsyths, monitoring the fallout from the sex tape.

Iwasdoing that, but from a distance. As long as I sent him regular updates, padded with the info Milo gave me, he was happy.

Although, from what my father had told me, losing Thea and Verity tipped him over the edge. The last phone call from Papa warned me Torrance had killed half the guards in retribution for letting us onto the estate.

Soon, he’d have nobody willing to work for him.

His empire was crumbling slowly but surely.

Cassian stood, lifting Thea into his arms. She murmured some nonsense but didn’t wake.

“I’m taking her to bed. Sort the fire out,” he said in a low voice in my direction.

I tensed, unaware he’d seen me lurking in the shadows. Watching her be intimate with him crossed a line. And even if my dick liked it, the rest of me was rapidly spiraling into a pit of self-loathing.

“You’re lucky,” I replied.

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