Page 17 of Kings & Corruption

Or all of them.

The guys probably kept the stuff around for their many conquests. The fact that it all looked new and unused just spoke to the fact that it was the beginning of a new school year.

Probably bought a value-size pack of condoms too.

The tub was tempting, but exhaustion was starting to weigh on my shoulders. I just wanted to get clean and fall into the giant bed waiting in my new room, so I grabbed the shampoo, conditioner, and bath wash, which combined cost more than a ticket to Costa Rica, and headed for the shower. I promised myself I’d christen the giant bathtub soon, but it felt heavenly to wash the day’s stress away under the hot water pouring from the high-powered, full-body shower jets.

By the time I finished, I was relaxed and beyond ready for bed even though the sun had barely started to sink behind the trees. I slathered on a layer of the silky lotion that matched the shower gel and breathed in the scent of coconut and vanilla, then put on a pair of underwear and theCiao, Baby!T-shirt I’d bought in Rome.

Sex is amazing but have you ever slid into one-thousand-thread-count sheets fresh from the best shower of your life while wearing nothing but panties, a well-worn T-shirt, and body products that cost as much as a car payment?

I sank into the down pillows with a sigh.

Chapter8

Rock

“It wouldn’t kill you not to be a dick you know.” I stood with my back to the counter, arms folded over my chest as I stared at Neo. Motherfucker was tearing meat off a store-bought rotisserie chicken and pretending he wasn’t all kinds of agitated, but I knew better.

“Just being myself,” he said.

“Exactly,” I said.

“I don’t want her here,” Neo said, carrying the chicken carcass to the trash can.

“Don’t put that—” I sighed and scrubbed my face with one hand as he dumped the bones into the bin.

He pulled the bag and knotted it even though it was almost empty, then carried it to the door leading to the garage. “Enzo!” he barked.

Enzo appeared from the living room, and I gotta say, I didn’t love the look on his face. No one liked being a new recruit, but everyone knew you sucked up. You did what you were told — with a smile — until there was some other rookie to boss around.

Enzo walked around the house like he owned the place.

“Take out this trash,” Neo said. “Now.”

Note to Enzo: You don’t own the place.

I thought the asshole — Enzo, not the other asshole, Neo, who I loved like a brother — might be clenching his jaw, but I could’t tell. His expression always looked like a piece of fucking granite.

For a second I thought he might refuse, and I was almost eager for the chance to watch Neo put a fist through his face. But Enzo bent over to pick up the bag like a good fucking soldier and headed for the back door leading to the outside trash cans.

“We’re going to have to watch that guy,” Neo said.

“No shit,” I said, “but that has nothing to do with Willa.”

He was avoiding the subject even though she was the one subject he wanted to talk about most. It didn’t matter that Drago and I were the only two people in the world who knew that, it was a fucking fact.

“Nothing to say about Willa fucking Russo,” Neo grumbled. He washed his hands in the sink and grabbed a handful of paper towels to dry them off.

“I know you don’t want her here,” I said, “but she probably doesn’t want to be here either. Have you thought about that?”

“Doesn’t matter what she wants.” He said it coldly, matter-of-factly.

I couldn’t blame him. It was true. What any of us wanted was so far in the rearview it wasn’t even worth talking about.

But that didn’t mean we needed to make it harder on each other, a position which, I admit, was informed at least a little bit by my soft spot for Willa Russo. Who could fucking blame me?

“I’m just saying… lighten up,” I said. “Give her a break.”

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