Page 24 of Vicious Little Princess

Julian:Call him yourself. Kind of busy with my IG right now.

Nico:I can’t. His phone is on your pillow along with his wallet. You know, the brown suede one I got him for his birthday a couple of weeks ago?

Frowning, I swung my head and sure enough, there was Milo’s stuff on the pillow. I guess he’d grabbed it off the other bedside table right there intending to pocket it once he’d gotten dressed, but then dropped it in the process of pulling on his clothes and forgotten to pick them back up when we’d been talking.

Julian:Oops. He’s not here in my dorm room, anyway. Went to the cafeteria to get us some food.

Nico:I see.

Julian:Is this urgent?

Nico:Was expecting his company on a hunt.

Julian:Targeting Ray Simmons? The guy who threatened you and disrespected you?

Nico:Yeah.

Julian:Worst person he could have crossed, huh, mafia prince?

Nico:He’ll learn that lesson soon enough.

Julian:I told you I can help you with that, N.

Nico:No. You’re not getting involved in any of this.

Julian:Mafia justice?

Nico:If you really need to call it that.

Julian:I do. But you don’t need to keep me out of it.

Nico:Yes, I do.

Julian:Nico.

Nico:Once you cross that line, there’s no way back. This is us protecting you, J.

A knock sounded at the door.

Julian:Gotta go. Someone’s here. Probably Milo realizing he forgot his wallet.

Nico:Can’t be. He just walked into the cafeteria. Don’t open it.

I rolled my eyes at his paranoia.

Life as the son of a mob boss in our home city would do that.

But we weren’t there now. We were hundreds of miles away at college together, away from all of that and the nightmare that went along with it for him and Milo. And for me—just not the mafia angle. That wasn’t what gavemenightmares. Unfortunately, I had my own shit where that was concerned.

See where my thoughts went when I was left alone without enough distractions? I mean, it was probably nothing to do with any of that. Nico likely didn’t want me to open the door because it could be one of my fuck buddies knocking. That happened quite a bit. We were in college and I was living my best life, so, yeah; I had a lot of fun and even more sex. But I wouldn’t invite somebody else in while I was with Milo. And Nico should know better than that by now. I was aware that it bothered Milo seeing myhorde of sex buddies, as he called it, up close, so I kept it separate and away from him. When he was with me, it was just the two of us.

I rolled off the bed and crossed to the door, noting that it was locked. I hadn’t even seen Milo do that. Sweet fucker, always protecting us. He’d forgotten his own damn wallet, but he’d remembered to do this for me in a bid to keep me safe.

I was just a couple of feet out from the door when another few knocks came, these much more aggressive and exhibiting an urgency too.

It had me hesitating on opening it.

“Who is it?” I called out.

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