Page 137 of Kings & Chaos

“Come on. Let’s go shower.”

I looked into his eyes, surprised to see tenderness there, and for the first time ever, I knew he didn’t hate me.

Chapter53

Willa

We crowded into the shower in one of the upstairs bathrooms and I took turns soaping them all up. They tried to return the favor, but it just turned into more sex, and I braced myself against the tile walls and their shoulders while they made me come twice more.

It was after 2 a.m. when Neo lit a fire in the old fireplace in his bedroom and we tumbled into his bed. It was too small for us really, but I was secretly grateful we weren’t at the other house, where the beds were so big we could easily have slept without touching each other.

Here we were forced to cram together, which inevitably led to more sex before Oscar and Rock dozed off on either side of me with Neo in the center of the bed, all of us naked, snow falling in the glow of a half-moon visible through the window.

I lay with my head on Neo’s shoulder and was afraid to move. Afraid I’d break the spell that had fallen over us.

Maybe it was this place. I’d known it was special from the beginning, and I looked around the shadowed room, the fire burning low, and wished we never had to leave.

“I like it here,” I said softly, not wanting to wake Rock and Oscar.

I thought I felt his arms tighten around me just the slightest bit. “I do too.” He hesitated. “I didn’t think I could. It was just supposed to be an investment in our long-term security.”

If money equaled security — and I knew it did — then the Kings had a lot of it for being so young.

“Did your dad teach you about all that stuff?” I couldn’t help being curious about how they’d built what was starting to look like a quiet empire.

He snorted. “My dad hasn’t taught me anything that matters. Actually, that’s a lie. He taught me how to hide money. And he taught me not to trust anyone. That’s a lesson that’s come in handy.”

His voice was hard, but my heart ached anyway. I let the silence between us sit, just in case he wanted to say more on the subject of Roberto.

I trailed my hands over the lines of the angel on his chest when he didn’t say anything more about his dad. “Where did you learn all this stuff then? The houses, the cars… whatever you do to get them. From Sicily?”

“Some of it.” He shifted a little under me, then chuckled softly into the room. “Believe it or not, I learned a lot from my grandmother.”

I craned my neck to look at his face, strong and beautiful in the moonlight leaking into the room. “Really?”

He nodded. “She was an old-school Mob wife, didn’t believe in leaving everything to the men, wanted to make sure the kids were taken care of if my grandfather got pinched, which he did more than once.”

“Did he know?” I asked. “Your grandfather?”

He shook his head. “He would have lost his shit. She just took a little here, took a little there… you know how it is. But instead of sticking it under her mattress, she learned how to invest it, get it working for her.”

“Did your grandfather know she was skimming?” I asked.

“No way.” He laughed softly. “Grandma Genarro knew better than to let that happen.”

It took a second for the name to register. “Grandma… Genarro?”

“My mom’s mom,” he said. “She was smart as a whip, as Reva likes to say.”

The name echoed through my mind: Genarro.

Genarro.

I saw the map in Dean Giordana’s office, the one with the four cabins, each with a name next to it.

I sat up in bed and looked down at Neo, dread thrumming like a war drum in my veins.

Next to me, Oscar mumbled, then shifted in his sleep.

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