Page 140 of Vicious Addictions

“Fine.” She rolls her eyes. “Don’t tell me. I don’t care anyway.”

“Yeah, you do,” I crack a smile since my baby sister is completely obsessed when it comes to the Outfit’s business. She reminds me so much of myself when I was her age.

Eager.

So fucking eager to get into the family business.

But if I had to move to another country and blackmail my father just to get inducted, then God only knows what Stella would have to do to get her foot through the door.

Her gender is her Achilles heel.

She might wield a knife like a pro, but that won’t open the doors she thinks it will.

She’ll need backing. And unfortunately for her, there isn’t a line of people dying to offer it.

More than a fewcaposshowed their true colors today regarding their views on a woman’s place in the syndicate. For them, she shouldn’t have one at all.

Mina is the legitimate heir and successor to the Firm and still they scoffed at her.

Stella has an even harder road ahead of her.

Because she has our mother to fight with, too.

I know all too well how that goes.

“You know we have other people to babysit, right? You don’t have to be cooped up here all day. Get someone else to do it. The room smells like death, and that shit is a bitch to wash off,” my sister says, unbothered, grabbing a few more French fries off my plate and plopping them in her mouth.

“I want to be here in case he wakes up. I want to be the first person he sees,” I grind out, still pissed with the memory of Mina’s busted-up face.

“What if hedoesn’twake up?”

“He has to.”

She squints her eyes, taking a good, hard look at Dimitri, and says, “He doesn’t look Russian.”

“Stella,” I let out an exhale. “Stop probing and go away. You’re not going to get anything from me.”

“You used to be way more fun, you know that?” She scoffs, spinning on her heel to walk out of the room.

“I used to be a lot of things,” I whisper softly to myself.

But when I see Dimitri shift slightly, I call out to her, “Stella, do you know if the Cranes have left already?”

“No. They’re still here. Why?”

“Mind doing me a favor?”

“Only if you tell me who that guy is,” she tries to blackmail me.

“How about you do your big brother a favor without adding conditions? I’ll owe you one if that helps.”

“Fine. What do you want?”

“Find Mina Crane and bring her to me.”

“Dad won’t like that, Jude,” she warns hesitantly.

“Just do me this solid,” I insist.

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