Page 23 of Blood Ties

At the entrance to my condo, I stopped in my tracks and stared at him. “And I would let you. That’s how confident I am.”

I could’ve been wrong, but I thought he might’ve chuckled as I turned my back to him and went inside.

When I heard Nivea moan in pleasure, my spine stiffened. I stalked to the kitchen, then blinked at what I saw.

Kendall, Alia, and Nivea were eating cupcakes and they all froze with pink and purple frosting on their lips. “Hi Alessio,” Kendall mumbled over her mouthful of cake and frosting as she waved.

That’s when I saw Vittorio and Gabriel sitting at the breakfast bar eating their own cupcakes. They gave me a chin lift as if it was perfectly normal for them to be sitting in my condo eating pink fucking desserts.

“What the hell is going on in here?”

“Kennall mae cub-cooks,” Nivea explained as she worked to swallow the ridiculously massive bite of cupcake.

“Any extras?” Matthew asked as he moved around me.

Kendall gestured to the container on the counter. He helped himself.

All I could do was stand there with my mouth parted as my brothers, their women, Nivea, and her father stuffed their faces. Like someone wasn’t trying to kill my woman.

My head jerked back at that thought.

No.

Nivea wasn’tmy woman.

I didn’t have women that I claimed, I had women I fucked.

Liar, because you knew she was yours the minute you saw her. A little voice whispered in my head.

Once Matthew was licking the last of his frosting from his fingers, he told Nivea, and the rest of my family, the plan.

Nivea went to the bathroom, and I glanced Matthew’s way. “Matthew,” I began.

“Matt,” he corrected.

“Matt. What if Jade didn’t kill Justin either?” I asked.

“I don’t care. She hired you to kill my daughter. She signed her death warrant with that. Problem?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Good.”

“Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?”—Arctic Monkeys

When we left Alessio’s condo, he was wearing my dad’s hoodie and jacket and I was wearing his. My hair was pulled back so none escaped the hood. When we got down to the underground parking, we got in one of Alessio’s vehicles and I hid in the backseat. That way, as we pulled out, he appeared to be driving alone.

We drove across town and into a nicer neighborhood, where we pulled into the attached garage of a house. Then we switched to another vehicle. That process was repeated again before I was allowed to sit up in the front seat.

By the time we pulled into a garage of a smaller house in the suburbs, it was nearing dawn. “We’ll be staying here.”

We went inside.

“So how long do we need to be here?” I asked as I dropped my bag to the floor and my ass to the bed. Alessio was standing in the doorway. What I really want to ask was if he was sleeping with me.

“We’ll be here long enough to get some sleep. Then we’ll be leaving for my brother’s house on Lake Geneva.”

“Oh. Okay.”

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