Page 67 of Reign of Psychos

Maybe that could be my future. Paid muscle for rich people. The alternative was approaching Declan Kelly and asking him for a job. He’d probably have something for me.

I glanced over at Kyril. He seemed distracted, more focused on Thea than anything Cassian had to say, which wasn’t like him.

But whatever. He and I weren’t friends. Sure, there was a lot of mutual respect, but if push came to shove, I doubted any of them would care if I walked out and didn’t come back.

Except Thea.

I watched as she frowned at something Cassian said.

“Surely we won’t get visas? I thought it was really hard to qualify for a US visa?”

“Money talks, sweetheart. As a high-net-worth individual, I’m welcomed with open arms.”

“Of course you are,” I muttered under my breath. Rich fucker.

“We are investing in a casino development, which fast-tracks our application. And you, Milo, Lan, and Dario are our employees, so you’ll be granted visas on that basis.” He waved his hand dismissively. “My agent has contacts and money talks. It’s all in hand.”

“And if I don’t want to move to the States?”

Thea spun around and stared at me in shock.

“Are you leaving?” The weight of her question hung heavily in the air between us.

“I’m not sure if there’s any point me being here,” I replied honestly. We’d barely had any time together since returning from Italy. The bubble of intimacy from the night of my father’s funeral had long since faded. Thea didn’t need me. None of them did.

“There is a point, Dar! I want you with me.” Tears sparkled in her eyes as her lip wobbled. Then her gaze moved around the room, brushing over all of us. “This baby needs all of you. I can’t… I can’t do this alone,” she admitted in a rare moment of vulnerability.

“Kitten, nobody’s leaving you,” Kyril growled, throwing me a look that promised violence if I dared to utter another word. “That fucker is coming with us if I have to stuff him in a packing crate and send him via DHL!”

“I’d like to see you fucking try,” I scoffed.

“We’re all going. Even Dario,” Cassian confirmed, glaring at me.

A small nugget of warmth bloomed in my chest. Maybe I could stick it for a while. See how things panned out. And besides, Thea needed me.

I allowed a small smile to escape and then turned to her. Ignoring the other assholes, I focused on her face and said the words I’d wanted to say for weeks.

“Tesoro, ti amo e ho bisogno anche di te.”Baby, I love you and I need you, too. Thea’s expression softened at my words.

“Ti amo,” she whispered, moving into my arms and pressing her lips to mine. “Always.”

33

Kyril

The ring my father once gave my mother sat burning a hole in my pocket. It had been over a week, and I still hadn’t found the right moment to ask the question. If I didn’t do it soon, one of the othermudakswould beat me to it. Most probably Landon. The idiot had been wandering around with a sappy smile on his face for days.

Cassian looked up from his laptop. “You OK?” I nodded.

“Yeah.” He watched me for a moment and then returned to whatever shit he was working on.

Maybe I should watch some Tiktoks. Get a few ideas. See if I could figure out what women wanted from a proposal.

I opened the app on my phone and frowned as all kinds of shit appeared in my feed. Why would Tiktok assume I wanted to watch cat videos? Or worse, goat videos? Then I remembered Landon had borrowed my phone the other night.

“Landon!” He stuck his head around the door from the piano room, where Milo was teaching him to play. So far, he wasn’t having much success. The noise-canceling headphones I’d ordered from Amazon couldn’t come soon enough.

“Yeah?”

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