“Nothing.”
“Doesn’t look like nothing when you’re resorting to drinking.”
“I always drink.”
She lifted a brow. “Oh, please. You nurse a whiskey here and there but rarely drink more than a glass unless something is bugging you. So, what’s wrong?”
The issue with her being around? She knew almost every habit of mine and wasn’t afraid to call me out on my shit.
I put the glass back down. “This day trip was a waste of time.”
“Tell me about it. Why do we have to keep going to these stupid events with the Camellos?”
“We have an alliance,” I answered impassively.
I followed Sofia’s disgusted gaze to the group of Camellos standing by the range. Marco was one of them, bragging about his lackluster skill.
She scoffed when he missed the target. “You don’t even need this alliance, Luciano.”
She was right. I didn’t need this alliance, but I kept it because a certain woman had a vice on me. I could blame it on Marco’s abuse all I wanted, but if that was the case, I wouldn’t be so invested in his wife. Katarina made me do shit I normally wouldn’t do, and, frustratingly, I couldn’t even explain why.
“We wouldn’t be here if you didn’t push Katarina into the pool,” I replied, not believing my lie either.
“She was being rude!”
I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but my eyes trailed Katarina that whole afternoon. I knew Sofia was the one who riled her up and consequently, pushed her into the pool.
“Don’t you have someone else to bother?” I asked, irritated with the morning.
“No one better than you,” she sassed back.
My eyes unwillingly flickered to Dante and Katarina. He caught my gaze and subtly nodded in acknowledgment.
If looks could kill, he would be six feet underground.
“Dante told me earlier that he thought your outfit looked like it came off of a taxi ad,” I probed.
He didn’t, but if Sofia could separate the pair, that would make me a lot less murderous. Considering how many people were around, it was a beneficial plan for everyone.
“You wound me, Luciano. But thanks to you, I remembered he owes me money. That cheat,” she said, jumping to her feet.
In the Beneveti circle, it was known that if you messed with Sofia’s money or Liv, she was going to mess you up ten times harder. The schmoozing fucker deserved whatever she was going to do to him.
As predicted, Katarina walked off as soon as she saw Sofia. I resisted walking up to her straight away, not wanting to appear eager for her attention but found myself getting up after two seconds of waiting. At this point, I was losing count of how many times this woman made my self-control seem laughable.
“Katarina,” I drawled as I approached where she was overlooking the cliff, standing far from the crowd.
An insidious part of me was glad she stood in the barren plot. Far from anyone to help her escape my terrorizing. I wasn’t going to do much, only intending to mess with her to hear her snarky comebacks, but I hated to be interrupted nonetheless.
She gave me a brief once-over before resuming her admiration of the view. “What do you want, Luciano?”
Her blatant disrespect lit a violent fire in my veins as a low mixture of pleasure and distaste arose at the back of my throat. If she were anyone else, she would have been met with the end of my gun quicker than she could have said my name.
I let out a sardonic laugh at the irony. What was I going to do with her? I couldn’t have her, but I couldn’t kill her.
I was convinced that I needed to screw her one time, and I’d recover from this case of extreme blue balls. There was nothing else that possibly made sense for the limbo I was stuck in. The next time she was willing to let me have her, I wouldn’t hold back. I was an idiot for doing it in the first place, caring about some morals I didn’t have.
“Not entertaining the men anymore?”