Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
All the bliss, that floatiness I felt after the orgasm that Marco gave me, disintegrated the moment my brother knocked on the apartment door. I didn’t even get to enjoy my post-orgasm glow for five minutes.
I love my brother. I can’t kill my brother.
It would upset my mother. I repeat the mantra in my head as I wash my face with cold water.
Fix my hair and straighten my clothes. Once I’m satisfied I don’t look “freshly fucked” as Marco termed it, I walk out into the living room to find my brother, cousin, and sister-in-law.
“Oh, honey, are you okay?” Angelica comes rushing over to me with outstretched arms, and then her hands are wrapped around my back. Squeezing the life out of me. “Don’t worry. I’m going to find this motherfucker and make him wish he was never born,” she whispers into my ear.
“I think you’ll need to take a ticket for that torture chamber.” I laugh. I look to my cousin. He’s always quiet and reserved. Observant. “How long is it going to take to find him? I can’t just put my life on hold.”
“Helena, we will find him. You just need to be patient and careful until we do,” T says in a calm tone.
“I think you should go stay with Lola until this all blows over,” Neo adds.
“No.” My head snaps to my brother, my hands firmly planted on my hips. “You are not shipping me off to some deserted island. Not happening.”
“It’s happening if I say it’s happening,” Neo grunts at me.
“Yeah? And who’s going to make me go? You? I’d like to see you try.” I laugh at him.
“I’d like to see you try to stop me,” Neo retorts.
“Enough,” T cuts in. “Helena, what do you want to do? You can’t go back to your apartment. You can come home with me,” he says, without waiting for me to answer his question first.
“Your wife is pregnant. I’m not taking my problems to your house.”
“You’re family, not a problem,” he counters.
“You can come to our place,” Angelica offers. “It’ll be fun, and Izzy would love to have you there.”
I smirk. “On one condition,” I tell her. “Actually, two conditions.”
“Name ?em.” Angelica smiles at me. It’s one of those deceivingly sweet smiles of hers too, but I know just how lethal her thoughts are underneath it.
“One…” I hold up a finger. “I don’t want to hear you two going at it. I’m still paying for therapy from last time.” I shudder at the memory. “Two, Marco comes with me.”
“Why?” Neo squints his eyes in my direction.
“Because he’s my bodyguard and I want him there.”
My brother aims a suspicious glare at me and then over to the bodyguard in question. “Fine. But I’m not gonna stop fucking my wife just because you’re in my house,” he says. T throws out a fist, and I watch as my brother’s head snaps to the side. He wasn’t expecting that. “What the fuck?”
“That’s my sister, asshole,” T groans at him.
That’s a whole situation on its own. We recently found out that our cousin isn’t a Valentino by blood and that he had a half-sister in Italy. It’s a long story and not really mine to tell. But we should note that my brother didn’t marry our cousin. Our family is close, but not that kind of close.
“My wife, and wife trumps sister, asshole.” Neo shoves at T’s chest. They don’t look like it right now, but those two really are best friends.
“Pack a bag, Marco. You’re coming to our place,” Angelica says, ignoring the two grown men still shoving at each other like teenagers.
“How did we end up getting stuck with these two?” I ask her.
“I don’t know. But I like your brother an awful lot.” She laughs. “He does this thing with his tongue…”
My hands shoot up to cover my ears. “La, la, la… I can’t hear you!”
“Stop being so juvenile,” Neo tells me.
“Juvenile, really? Okay then, how about I start telling you all about my sex life? You know, I met a guy just last week. Went home with him, and let me just say, those fingers…” My sentence is cut short by a growl.
But it’s not from my brother or cousin. No, it’s from Marco. “Problem?” I raise a brow at him.
“Yeah, you’re currently being threatened by an ex-boyfriend. I really don’t think now is the time to sit and recall your past conquests,” he grunts. “I’m gonna pack a bag.” Those words are thrown over his shoulder as he walks away.
“Charming, that one.” I roll my eyes. “You really know how to pick ?em, bro.”
“Why do you think I picked him? Because I knew he’d be the last guy you’d fall for,” Neo says.
Guess the joke’s on him then, huh? Wait. No, it’s not. I haven’t fallen for Marco. I just happen to like what I’ve seen of him so far. And what I’ve felt. And the way he’s made me feel…
“Seriously, can you find Kye sooner rather than later? I can’t put my life on hold forever,” I plead, while doing my best to change the subject.
“I will find him. Don’t you worry about that. We have our best guys on it,” Neo says, pulling me into a hug. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Helena.”
Those words, while well meaning, don’t offer me any comfort. We grew up hearing the same sentiment and it did nothing to save my sister. I keep those thoughts to myself, though. I always do. Instead, I smile up at my brother and lie. “I know.”
Neo frowns at me. His mouth opens and shuts. Whatever he was going to say he chooses not to. And that’s probably for the best.