Page 79 of The Devil Can Be Kind

I stood awkwardly off the side of the main hall which was alight with chatter and the occasional raucous laugh. Jesse stood with me chatting animatedly to someone I assumed to be either his good friend or distant relative—Enzo. He didn’t look like a La Torre in his appearance, but something about the way he heldhimself made me certain there was some distant association in his family tree.

The apple never did fall far amongst the Cosa Nostra, after all.

Enzo was a handsome man of a similar age to me but was smaller than the usual six foot La Torre clan. Having said that, he didn’t miss it by much. Unlike a lot of the other men in the room, Enzo wasn’t wearing a plain black or white collar shirt but a bright green floral one. Though it seemed like a testament to his light-hearted character as opposed to a keen sense of style.

My awkwardness morphed into irritation the moment one particular bimbo walked her way through the ornate double doors.

Lexi was once again wearing an overly small bit of fabric I would liken only to a nightdress. The pink material barely restrained her fake boobs and left little—more likeabsolutely nothing—to the imagination.

It was in stark contrast to the sophisticated black satin maxi dress I had selected for the night.

“Excuse me a moment.” Jesse said, interrupting his conversation with Enzo and heading into the crowd in Lexi’s general direction.

“Uh oh. I see trouble on the horizon.” Enzo joked, filling the space Jesse had left by my side.

I made a noise in agreement, distracted by watching Jesse talk to Lexi. She was pouting at something he had said, and all his earlier joking had frozen into ice in her presence.There’s no love lost there,I realized.

“The Boss isn’t going to be happy about her being here.” Enzo observed, bringing his beer bottle to his lips and taking a sip.

As if on cue, Marco appeared from one of the double doors to the side of the room, leading out onto the back terrace. He did a quick scan of the sea of faces and for a second his eyes fell onwhere Jesse and Lexi were standing. His expression darkened infinitesimally, but his gaze didn’t linger there long. Flicking to me only a moment later as if he could feel me watching him.

Our eyes locked and the rest of the room seemed to fall away, muted by his mere presence for a moment. I almost didn’t notice the woman approaching him until her neon pink nails had wrapped their way around his neck.

Jealousy and contempt swirled in my chest, but it quickly morphed into smug satisfaction as Marco extricated himself from the woman and shot her a look that was sharper than freshly cut steel. Her expression soured with his rejection, and I fought the urge to smile.

“Seems like he isn’t the only one whose unhappy Lexi is around.” Enzo observed beside me, giving me a knowing look.

There was something oddly familiar about that look. “How do you know Jesse?” I questioned, certain there was a family connection somewhere between the two men.

“He’s my brother.” Enzo smiled sheepishly.

“Half-brother,” Jesse tagged on, re-joining the conversation. “On our father’s side.”

I nodded, now understanding why Enzo seemed so familiar to me. It wasn’t that he looked like Jesse, in fact in facial appearances, the men were not the slightest bit alike. It was in their mannerisms. Their light-heartedness and easy-going temperament were what marked them as family.

“What happened with Lexi?” I asked Jesse.

I had lost sight of her and Marco amongst the swathe of people.

“Sent home, Bandit. Boss doesn’t want her here and no one else does either.” He took a beer from one of the waiters’ trays as they flittered past.

The men had begun talking again for a few minutes when I spotted Marco amongst the crowd. This time he was talkingto a balding man with a pot belly. A fabulously attractive girl stood off to his side, stroking the older man’s shoulders while simultaneously shooting flirty glances at the Don he was speaking too. My lips pursed in irritation.

I didn’t know why it was bothering me, but seeing numerous women fawn over Marco reminded me of exactly why I had decided to cage my feelings away in the first place. Not that it very much mattered now. Hadn’t I decided I wasn’t strong enough to resist him any longer?Fool.

“Bandit?” Enzo asked, bringing my attention back to the two men I was standing with.

Jesse laughed around his drink. “This one,” he said, pointing to me. “She’s the Bandit. Nearly cleaned out all the expensive purses in the house.”

My cheeks flamed as he launched into the embarrassing story of my ‘great escape’ as he so articulately described it. Including how I fell into the bush and crawled my way underneath an open gate.

I couldn’t help but join in with their laughter though. Looking back at the attempt, it had been wholly ridiculous. I doubted I would ever live it down.

As time ebbed on, Jesse and Enzo got swept away by other family members, and I was left to my own devices. There were a few interested glances thrown my way by various men in attendance as well as some more vicious ones from the women. When two in particular started whispering in each other’s ears while looking in my direction, I went searching for a drink.

I cut a path through the crowd to the kitchen island, which had been set up as a bar and was littered with everything you could possibly want or need to make a decent cocktail.

Initially, I made myself something with a passion fruit I found, but upon glancing around the room and seeing Tom and Alonso stationed toward the back walls looking suitably bored,I decided to make a couple of virgin mojitos as well. Once I had shaken the concoction and poured it out into the two sugar rimmed glasses I had prepped, I took them over to the men on a tray.

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