Page 28 of Toxic

Her eyes drift to mine. "Bee Rad."

"Bee Rad? What kind of a fucking name is Bee Rad? How do you even spell it?" I ask.

"Ugh. Don't be so naive! It's b-r-a-d."

"You mean his name is Brad."

She shakes her head. "No. It's Bee Rad."

"You just spelled Brad."

"B-rad. He hyphenates, okay? Jeez. Get with the program, Dante. How old are you that you're this out of touch with the world?"

My blood boils at the thought of this loser talking to my sister, much less putting his hands on her. "Only a moron would call himself Bee Rad."

She fastens her shoe and rises. "He's not a moron, and don't be rude, or I won't introduce you."

I ignore her threat and cross my arms. "Change your dress before Papà has a heart attack."

"No. It's not even that short," she claims.

"Are you serious? I can practically see your ass cheeks," I bellow.

She spins in front of her full-length mirror and glances behind her. "You're such an exaggerator."

"No, I'm not. Get changed."

"No."

"I said to change," I state, getting fed up with this entire conversation. I can only imagine Bee Rad staring at my sister's ass and licking his greedy chops.

"I'm not."

"If you don't change—"

"What? Are you going to throw me in Papà's dungeon? Oh, wait." She puts her index finger on her cheek and glances at the ceiling then innocently widens her eyes. "It's everyone's dungeon, isn't it?"

My chest tightens. A few weeks ago, Massimo wasn't as careful as he should have been when he went to torture an Abruzzo we had taken down there. Arianna was already copping an attitude with us. Numerous times, she had asked my father to join the family business, even though he and my mamma have repeatedly told her she isn't ever getting involved in it. When Massimo saw her downstairs, he took her straight to our father, who told her to forget what she saw and stay out of our business. Her discovery of the dungeon seems to have made her even more pissed off at us. And now she's dating even bigger losers.

Her comment about the dungeon is enough to make me want to go into it and kill someone. "That's enough. Change your dress or stay in your suite all night. I'm not telling you again." I storm out of her room and go down to the ballroom.

The guests have started arriving. I say hi to several in the hallway, and the moment I step inside the ballroom, I hear, "Dante!"

Sean Jr. runs over to me. I crouch down, and he leaps into my arms.

"Hey, buddy!" I mess up his strawberry-blond hair. It's the same color as his father's, and he's the spitting image of him. I tickle him under his ribs.

"Stop!" he yells several times while screeching with laughter.

I finally set him down, and he runs off toward the other children. I rise, and Bridget appears. My heart squeezes like it always does. We've come a long way. I'm happy I at least have her in my life, but I can't seem to get past my attraction to her.

Regardless, I'll never act on it. She's happy, and over the years, Sean and I have genuinely become friends. I would never hurt either of them.

"He's been looking for you since we got here," she states.

I kiss her on the cheek and hug her, forcing myself not to linger too long. "You look beautiful."

Her face lights up, and I reprimand myself when my cock twitches. She takes a sip of her whiskey and glances past me. "Thanks. Who's your date tonight?"

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