Page 77 of Dirty Behavior

His eyes flicked to my face, settling into a hardened gaze. Each pupil glossed over, turning from vivid color to emotionless defeat. “You weren't listening before, no one was.”

“Then why are you out so soon? It doesn't make sense?”

“Dante, they didn't have shit on me except for a picture of me handing Fillipo a box from that trailer we lifted. They got me on petty theft because they had nothing else. That's it, the other guys weren't so lucky. Remo fed the rest of the guys to the police like he was serving them a damn buffet of mafia meat. He screwed us, it's that simple.”

“Fuck, Sesto, I didn't know. The news—”

Cutting me off, Sesto sliced his hand through the air. “The fucking media are sharks, they said whatever they wanted to and it was only because of who our father was. That was it.”

Was—It was hard to hear him say it like that. My fatherwas,he no longeris.A sharp thorn dug into my chest, twisting ever so slightly. Enough to make it sting, but not enough to make me fall apart.

I felt awful, angry with myself for having doubted my brother to begin with. He was right, I should have known he wouldn't have done that.

But everything just played out that way, even my father thought he rolled.

Remo did a great job working our dad.

How the hell was I supposed to know?

I should've listened.

My stomach ached from the acid bubbling and scorching my insides. He was my brother, I shouldn't have done that to him. The least I could have done was taken the time to listen before believing every rumor that fell in my lap.

Choking the steering wheel, my lips turned razor thin. “Why the hell didn't I see it?”

Sesto's hand latched onto my shoulder, squeezing hard. “Don't, it doesn't matter. Right now we need to get your woman.”

“I'm going to kill that son of a bitch for what he's done.”

I wasn't about to get into detail with my brother about who Ivy was, we could do that later. That was all in the past, shewasmywoman, and hearing Sesto say it like that felt good.

Ivy didn't belong to Remo, he had no stake on her.

She gave herself to me and only me.

I didn't have to force it, I didn't have to use wicked mind games and torture to take her purity. Ivy had allowed me to have all of her, she made that choice. Exactly as it should be.

“Dante, when we get close, I'm going to need you to listen to me. I've been watching his place for a little while, been planning on taking him out myself. Looks like we're about to have a bonding experience.” Sesto let out a laugh, hitting me in the arm.

“You're a fucking tool, you know that?”

“Ah,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Mom did always want us to be closer, maybe this is her doing. What gets you closer than killing a man together?”

“That's sick man, I don't think this is what mom had in mind.” I wanted to laugh, but I didn't have it in me.

All I could think about was getting Ivy away from the horror she was about to endure. I hated knowing that after everything I had done to keep her safe, the fucking piss stain had dragged her back.

This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to put her back together, mend the falling pieces of her past and rebuild the woman she was.

And Remo was about to shatter every promise I had made to her. There was no laughter brewing inside. The only thing I had was an empty black hole of hatred.

“No, but she'd be happy we did it together.” Smirking, he let his smile grow into full teeth. “Slow down, slow down, pull in here.”

“Here?” Turning the wheel, I slowed to a stop. “But we're still a mile away.”

“Exactly, the dude's got guys set up on the roof outside and I'm sure inside too. Either way, we need the element of surprise, we can't stroll in under a fucking spot light.”

“When did he start putting guys on the roof? Remo never did that before.”

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