Page 27 of One of Them

“I get plenty. Don’t you worry about that,” he confidently assured me.

“Oh I don’t doubt that. Chicks love the dark, tall, and handsome combo,” I said, grinning. “Hell, I’d tap it if I swung that way.”

Taken aback, Lorenzo tried to process my words. “Christ. You are quite a character.”

I locked eyes with him, pressing for answers. “Be straight with me. Her and Ilya? It’s my sister I worry about.”

He shook his head, his gaze moving toward Taya, the midnight sky blurred below us. Somehow, she blended in and stood out at the same time. “As far as I know, only Malek ever got to her. But it was never anything outside of sex,” he revealed, still focused on the dance floor. “It never is.”

“For many of us, I guess,” I seconded his words.

“Only a fool would imagine a future in this life. You’re lucky to make it through the day,” he muttered, turning to me. “What do you want with her, anyway?”

His eyes studied me, eager to catch anything I was willing to reveal.

“Don’t tell me you’re one of those idiots who want exactly what they can’t have,” he said, shaking his head.

I ignored the obvious answer to his question. I had that in mind. Instead, I gave him a glimpse of the mess in my head. “If only I knew.”

“Just don’t end up like Malek. He’s the kind of moron who thinks that because he got to her first, he’s got some kind of claim. It doesn’t work like that,” he frowned, offering advice I didn’t ask for.

There was no need to tell me twice. Possessive declarations, public acts, whatever Malek was trying to achieve, it was a poor man’s attempt at staking his claim.

“I might obsess temporarily, but I don’t possess permanently.”

Parents sure had tried to get me to settle, tie me down to someone from somewhere. With Andrei now married, the spotlight was on me, the next in line. Mother claimed she was losing sleep over me. Father summed me up in two words: “Lost cause.” He worried I was too complicated for anyone to choose. Too fucked up, inside and out. The level of crazy no sane person picks for themselves.

Whatever they worried about, I had little care for.

Alone was what I was best at. Work kept me occupied, women kept me satisfied, and family kept me fulfilled. What more was there in life?

I turned back to Lorenzo, far too eager to shift the focus.

“There’s no one out there for you?” I asked, watching closely, testing the line between friendship and more. But that line, while thin, seemed set.

Despite the alliance, he wasn’t present in the meeting, so either Taya had confided in him or he’d seen this coming. They were close. It’s the “why” I didn’t understand.

With a sigh, he muttered, “There are too many.”

A laugh, far too loud, escaped me, but the sound was swallowed by the chaos around us. “Yet here you are.”

“Here we are.”

“Well, it’s not the worst place to be.”

Lorenzo refocused on the group of women, scanning the downstairs as if he, too, struggled to keep his gaze away.

“What’s the story with your sister?”

Unsure about the ground we stood on, I revealed very little. “We sent her to university to get her out, but she’s too stubborn.” I shook my head. “Came back with a degree and an intent to marry.”

Something we never saw coming.

“Why Ilya?” Boss’s first name slipped from the Italian’s mouth, the lack of respect for the man clear.

“Fuck if I know. But it’s her decision, and I’ll support her.”

Lorenzo studied me before answering. “Very not-Bratva of you.”

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