Page 3 of Kings & Corruption

I turned the corner from the noisy dining room and entered a long wide hall. The line for the ladies’ room came into view. Of course, it was a mile long.

“What a surprise,” I murmured.

I eyed the line, then looked under the sign for the men’s room.

Not a man in sight. Typical.

I pushed through the door. I was glad to find it empty, but that wouldn’t have been a deal-breaker. Money had been tight since my dad bailed on us, so I’d chosen the cheapest hostels I could find during my year of travel. I’d also found myself with my ass poised over fallen leaves in a Costa Rican forest and squatting over a ditch in the fields of Nepal. Using the men's room at a tony country club in Long Island was a piece of cake by comparison.

I stopped at the mirror and verified that my long blonde hair was still wound into the complicated knot insisted on by my mom. A few tendrils had escaped during the long day, but it worked. My makeup was still mostly intact, in part thanks to the semi-natural look I’d nailed with light eye makeup that highlighted my green eyes and the sheer lip gloss I’d chosen.

Satisfied, I used one of the stalls to pee and was working to rearrange my emerald green dress without letting it fall into the toilet when I heard the bathroom door open.

I hurried to finish, then unlocked the door, stepped out of the stall — and came face-to-face with Neo Alinari.

Chapter2

Willa

He wasn’t alone. Rock and Drago leaned against the counter on either side of him, all three of them in tuxes like gangsters on their way to the prom.

Hot ones.

“Well well well,” Rock said. His hair was a shade too long, more surfer than favorite mafia son, and his ice-blue eyes twinkled with something not altogether unfriendly. He’d taken off his suit jacket, which only made his perfectly cut physique more obvious under the snug white button-down. I hated myself for the heat that rose to my cheeks. “If it isn’t Willa Russo, the prodigal daughter.”

I was surprised he knew the word “prodigal” but figured now wasn’t the best time to lob the insult. I was outnumbered, and while I didn’t know exactly what that meant, I wasn’t eager to find out.

“Looks like your little sis didn’t want to wait in line.” Drago licked his full lips, and light glinted off the stud in his tongue as it clicked against the small ring in his lip, a match to the ones piercing his left eyebrow. There was something predatory in the way he focused his gaze on me, like a falcon eyeing a mouse. I forced myself not to squirm.

I was no mouse.

“Excuse me,” I said, staring right back at them. I needed to get to the sink to wash my hands, but they were blocking the long run of counter with their hulking bodies.

“I don’t think so,” Neo said.

I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t think so?”

“I don’t think I will excuse you.” Jesus, his biceps were huge, like primordial tree trunks, and his eyes were like chips of amber, hard and unyielding as they pinned me in place. His dark hair was cut short, and the shadow of a bruise darkened his left cheekbone.

Rock had always seemed like a friendly dog that could turn rabid, and Drago was a stereotypical bad boy, but it was Neo who’d always scared me most.

Not that I would ever give him the satisfaction of knowing.

I couldn’t put my finger on why he made me want to steer clear of him, which was part of the problem. I was pretty good at reading people, at figuring out what they were about, what they wanted. I knew when mean girls were insecure or just bitches. I knew when a guy lacked confidence or when he might actually be dangerous.

Neo was… blank. He had a vacuous energy that felt like a black hole. There was nothing there, but I knew instinctively it was the kind of nothing that could kill you.

“Good thing I was just being polite,” I said, advancing on them. “I don’t actually need you to excuse me for anything.”

“I think you do,” Neo said. I stopped a couple of inches from the wall of his chest, his broad shoulders blocking my view of myself in the mirror behind him. “I think you need me to excuse you for being the daughter of a traitor and a gold-digging whore.”

I stared up at him. “You’re wrong. I don’t need you for anything at all.”

Drago’s dark laughter filled the room. “Someone’s got claws.”

Anger flared in Neo’s hazel eyes. He took a step toward me and I got a whiff of expensive cologne and the tang of male sweat. It made me a little giddy with lust, and I silently cursed myself.

Apparently my body was a traitorous slut.

---