Page 29 of Made to Sin

I swore she prayed on my downfall sometimes. Though I was spared from a heavy face of makeup, Maria did not hold back on anything else. Dressed in a jean miniskirt and a pink bustier, I looked like I was attending a rodeo. Then to solidify the Western theme, she finished the outfit with a cowgirl hat and boots. This ridiculousness had to be a joke or a punishment.

I crossed my arms. “There’s no way I’m going out in this.”

“You look very cute,meu bem. If I had your body, I would dress like that every day.”

“I wish it was you instead of me too.”

I tried to unlace the bustier, ready to change, but she held my upper arm and pulled me toward the door. “Let’s go get your breakfast before you’re late.”

“I don’t care if I’m late. I doubt anyone else will notice anyway. I just want this off me.”

Maria might have been on the older side, but the woman was strong. She dragged me downstairs and onto a barstool, all the while talking. “Nonsense!SenhorCamello will notice if you’re not there to welcome his guests.”

“What am I? A hooker? Why should I care about his guests?”

She snickered. “You look like one.”

“Haha. Weren’t you just saying how you would wear it if you had my body?”

“Yes, but that’s because you have a body of a great hooker. I would know, I was friends with many of them back in the days.”

I rolled my eyes, now entirely convinced she was setting me up for failure. “Gee thanks, Maria. I feel more confident already.”

She took the sarcastic statement literally and slammed a plate of bacon and eggs in my face. “You’re welcome. Now eat up.”

I usually didn’t eat this early— mainly because I was never awake— but my stomach oddly grumbled at the not-so-delicious-looking sight. I forked a piece of each into my mouth, adding the meal to my list of regrets. The bacon was greasy,dripping with oil, and the egg was dry, the yolk cracking apart.

Maybe I was dramatic, but there were no perks of being a morning person thus far...

Well, there was one.

Bad luck was said to come in sets of three. Maria was a horrible alarm, I was dressed in a cosplaying costume, and breakfast was nauseating. By waking up early, I got today’s bad energy over with.

If what the superstition claimed was true, at least I would be spared through the event, right?

WASITWRONGTOWANTto shoot your closest cousin in the face?

The impulse rang multiple times in my head while watching Dante talk to Katarina. My hand itched to pull out the Glock tucked inside my suit jacket, but because I needed the fucker, I settled for holding my whiskey glass tighter.

My knuckles turned white as the glass threatened to shatter in my unforgiving grip. Placing it down on the table before I did, I forced myself to look away. If it couldn’t get worse, I had to focus on counting the number of branches on the tree across the field to distract myself. The things I had to do in her presence were bothersome as fuck.

After the first incidental lunch, Marco suggested our families should interact again for the alliance. Though it was an excuse to brag about his new shooting range, I agreed to keep my eye on him.

Dante came along to gather information on the Camellos, but instead of being useful, he walked directly to Katarina. They’d been talking for the past half hour we’d been here, and I’d bet my firstborn that he was getting nothing of importance from it.

I saw her a handful of times, and all our interactions had to be through some kind of cornering on my end. Yet, there she was, talking to Dante as if they had been friends for years.

I had reached branch number seventy-two when Katarina laughed a laugh that shot straight to my dick. I made the mistake of looking over at them. Her long, brown hair blew with the wind as she threw her head back with a large smile that blinded anyone within a five-foot radius.

Blood pumped loudly in my ears, blocking logical thoughts. I didn’t realize my hand had shifted to my gun until the cold metal opposed my palm’s heat. She was so beautiful, it was hard to look at her and think straight. To hell with branch counting, I needed a bigger distraction to not murder my cousin.

I shook my head at the slip-up and swallowed the rest of my whiskey in one gulp. The bitter burn washed the possessiveness down my throat but settled an uneasiness in my stomach. I didn’t like it, needing more to rid of the envy completely.

But before I could, Sofia came and sat next to me. I didn’t remember inviting her, but it was expected that she would show up at these events. Sofia and her younger sister, Liv, weren’t Benevetis by blood, but their father was my father’s right-hand man. By extension, we’d been childhood friends long enough for me to consider them a part of my family.

When their father drove their mother off of a cliff one drunken night, I paid for the funeral expenses and got them a penthouse nearby. But after a year of pretending to live normal lives, something in Liv shifted, and she took off abroad. Sofia hadn’t been the same since. While one sister left the Underworld for good, the other sister found solace in it.

Sofia eyed my empty tumbler. “What’s wrong?”

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