Page 77 of Devious Kingpin
“Jules? Snap out of it.” It was Ivy’s voice. I blinked my eyes, then shook my head. I had to focus on this call or we’d never get off it.
“Yes, I’m listening,” I said, mildly agitated. I really wasn’t, but it didn’t matter.
“So did you know that?” Ivy asked.
My brows furrowed. “Know what?”
“Dante’s 1934 Hudson Convertible Coupe you destroyed,” Ivy started, but I didn’t understand why she was bringing up the ancient past. “It belonged to his grandfather. Apparently, Dante’s very attached to it.”
“Was very attached to it,” Wynter added wryly. “I don’t think it’s drivable anymore. So how is the sex? Rough? Kinky?” Wynter teased. She was the reserved one in our group, so this was definitely her way of payback for all my questions.
My cheeks warmed remembering Dante cuffed to the bed. The way he watched me with burning heat in his dark eyes as I came against his face. That image would be forever ingrained into my memory.
“Ohh, definitely kinky,” Davina chimed in with a devious smile. “Just look at that blush on her cheeks.”
“Don’t tell me your sex lives are so boring you have to get details on mine,” I drawled in a dull tone. “Maybe you should have thought twice before jumping into the marriage bed.”
Snickers came over the line. “Oh, look who’s talking,” Davina snorted loudly. “The girl who jumped into a marriage with the same man she’s been avoiding for two years.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, the alcohol was strong and my friends abandoned me for the night. What was I to do?”
“Not get married,” Ivy grumbled. “Now I’m the last single lady in our group and my family’s nagging me with prospects.”
“Tell them you’re too busy with our school project,” I offered. “It’s a true statement. They broke ground and have started building.”
“Jules, I’d have to be the one digging the ground with my own hands and building brick by brick for that to be a valid excuse. Trust me, I’ve offered the contractor my feeble skills.” Ivy sounded seriously desperate. “I got rejected when my qualifications had nothing to do with construction.”
St. Jean d’Arc School was well on its way to becoming a real thing. It had started with the blackmail and robbing my dad’s safe, then counting cards in Chicago, and ended with robbing an armored money truck from Priest’s club.
Bottom line, when Davina’s ex-boyfriend blackmailed us, it showed us how unequipped we were to deal in the underworld. So we decided to start a school that would prepare both boysandgirls for their life in the underworld.
Nobody should be as unprepared as we were.
“Are the prospects at least decent?” Wynter asked compassionately. “I just don’t get it. Why do they demand you marry? You’re barely twenty-three.”
It made no sense to me either.
“Marry Priest,” I offered jokingly. “Then every one of us will be married to a DiLustro. Well, except for my stepmom.”
Davina glared at me through the small screen. “Shut up, Jules.”
I grinned mischievously. “Yes, Stepmom.”
Twenty minutes later, distractions started happening. My little half brother wailed and that distracted Davina. Basilio must have gotten home because suddenly giggles and blushes started, next thing I knew, Wynter excused herself. It left Ivy and me alone at the end.
“Are you okay?” I asked her. Davina and Wynter were always the reasonable ones in our group. Ivy and I were more on the reckless side. “If you need me, I can visit Grandfather and then rescue you from your family home.”
She chuckled. “Only if you come dressed as a boy, ready to marry me.”
This time I chuckled too. “I’m afraid it’d be considered bigamy.”
She locked her eyes on me through the screen.
“What the fuck happened in Vegas, Jules?” Nobody had bothered to ask me. Not that I had much to tell them. I woke up married. I didn’t remember anything aside from dancing with Dante, then doing shots. “We’ve gotten plenty drunk in the past,” she continued softly. “We’ve drunk hardcore stuff, and you never blacked out. We’re Irish for Christ’s sake. We can hold our liquor.”
I sighed. It made no sense to me either.
“We danced. We had shots. After that, everything’s a blur,” I told her. “I woke up married.”
