Page 26 of Thrill Me (Dark Odyssey 3)

It wouldn’t come for me now with this conflict in my soul.

I watched Nick go and knew as the frosted glass doors with the gold Dark Odyssey logo swung closed that no one else would be coming tonight.

Salvatore wouldn’t be coming.

And because I know what these guys are like I wonder whose bed he might be in tonight.

Tonight is the first in a long time that I wouldn’t know.

I wouldn’t be there next to him as a friend or otherwise.

Chapter Seven

Salvatore

I’d rather be somewhere drinkinglike I have been for the last two days.

I’ve purposely been keeping myself away from people to cool off. Calm the fuck down so as to speak.

However, when Vincent summons us to his office it’s as effective as Pa doing

it.

Like always I’m the first to arrive. I’m thankful to see he’s on a call so he can’t

ask me why I look like shit. I see the question in his eyes though the minute he sees me.

I just sit and stare out the floor-to-ceiling glass windows evading his pensive stare.

It doesn’t take long before I’m lost in thought. Tonight is the first that I’d see Gabe since I spoke to Mimi. It’s unusual for me to skip out on the club two nights in a row but he probably wouldn’t have noticed because he’s been at home with Charlotte,his wife.

Mimi is right. Gabe’s different now. Very different to the man she was talking about who hurt her so deeply last year.

I know this, I know all of it because I lived through it. Got a first class ticket to the horror that took my brother and changed him into the bastard he was when he screwed with Mimi.

Gabe was with Charlotte ten years ago. She got taken by Antonio De Lucca to pay her family’s debt and there was nothing Gabe or anybody could have done about it. It’s the kind of thing that happens in our world.

It’s the whole survival of the fittest thing and falling prey to those higher up the food chain.

When we tried to get her back Antonio killed all our staff and threatened a blood war on our family. He threatened with rage, making sure we knew not to come for him again or everyone we knew here in the States andItalia -family, friend and alliance would meet their end.

That’s what happened to Gabe and Charlotte, and it fucked with him. It messed Gabe up.

In their case though, miracles happened and she came back to him, ten years later when a bastard worse than Antonio killed his ass.

So much has happened, something is always happening and Gabe seemed to be on the receiving end of it. He lost his girl and years later he witnessed Frankie’s murder. Frankie died in Gabe’s arms. That type of shit can screw with a person.

Again I know that, I know it all and I’m trying to remember but none of that actually changes anything. Mimi still had to go through what she went through and it was his fault.

Vincent gets off the phone at the same time the door opens and Gabe and Nick walk into the office.

I look at Gabe and ball my fists but keep my cool. I was worrying what I’d be

like when I next saw him. If he was someone else he would have been dead well before now.

Vincent glowersat Gabe as he slaps Nick upside his head and when Nick turns I see why.

Nick has a fucking black eye I’m only just noticing and a bruise on his cheek. I shake my head at him.

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