Chapter 25
BANE
She made me fucking crazy with that man and others too.
Yet, I knew Pink. She would spiral if she wasn’t feeling seen and I felt like all I was seeing was her lately.
I couldn’t sleep with other women, couldn’t even fathom having them touch me. Sabine’s hands on me had made my damn skin crawl.
It was a problem I knew I needed to step back from, needed to get over, needed to address now before I sent her off to my brother.
So, I let her have her fun with others. I had to. If I could stomach her with them, I wouldn’t choke out my brother later…
Hopefully.
And I held my goddamn tongue for a whole year and a half about her going off with that random guy too. Of course I vetted him and watched every second of it but I didn’t kill him.
I was supposed to be her friend, not her lover.
We both knew deep down, though, I was something in between. So, she’d have him in the Vault half the time where I could fucking watch. Where I could torture myself. Where I could remind myself that she wasn’t just mine.
I endured it. I endured just about anything for her.
Dex and Kee got married. Then got pregnant. Olive and Dex’s brother, Dimitri, were about to have a little one too. Everyone was having babies around us, and Bianca gave me a speech about how she might want them too.
“Kee’s ultrasound photo shows the baby looking more like her than him, right?” She showed me a text message, and I stared at the picture for a moment. “Can you believe her and Olive are pregnant?”
I hummed and didn’t say much about either of them having kids but glanced at the screenshot of the ultrasound. “His eyes. Her lips.”
Her face scrunched up as she flipped the screen back and stared like she was trying to see it. “Honestly, I’d say I’m shocked, but you’re grossly detail oriented.”
“Not a bad thing.” I waved her off, hoping she’d go do something around the resort, but she walked around my office, pulling at books and pushing decor around like she had a better interior design eye than the person who’d originally set it there.
The person was me.
I was fucking particular, and she was ruining it.
“What are you doing? Would you stop touching everything?”
“This looks better here.” She moved a rock that I’d used to smash someone’s head in and put it on the shelf above it.
Great.
She was mixing everything up. She picked up a skull on the next shelf and turned it in her hands. “You think people know these are real when they come in here?”
“I don’t care if they do or don’t.” I sighed and closed my laptop, giving in. “You realize I have a meeting here soon?”
“With who?”
“My brothers. Jameson. People. It’s the middle of a workday.”
“Psh. It’s Friday, and don’t you have that Oracle thing tonight?”
“The Oracle thing is a big deal. We’ve planned it for months and have invited just about every conglomerate in to showcase the financial trajectory along with the updates.”
“I think the amount of people on the app speaks for itself.” She rolled her eyes like she didn’t care.
It was true, mostly. The event wouldn’t have that much impact other than to confirm what side everyone’s alliances fell on.
Showing support for a multibillion dollar company under our Italian family name meant respect, influence, and consequences you didn’t want to test. Cross us, and it wasn’t just business—it was personal.
“Anyway, I feel like you need to tell people when they come in here, this is what will happen to their heads if they don’t listen or something.
Make it really formidable-like. Maybe one day you’ll get a movie like The Godfather.
” She smiled at her brilliant idea. Then she picked up another skull. “Who is this?”
“Jesus, I don’t remember, Bianca.” I swear I sounded like a whiny kid, but the woman did not read the room at all when she was bored. She took astronomical amounts of time to do anything just because her mind was idle, and I didn’t have time for it today when my brothers were about to be here.
“It’s a small skull. It wasn’t a child, was it?”
“I don’t harm children.”
“Sure?”
“Yes, what the fuck?”
She hummed and grabbed another one. This one I knew. This one I remember like it was yesterday. Her eyes met mine as she held it between her forefinger and thumb. “A snake?”
I smirked at her, “It bit a girl I cared about when she was only thirteen. So I took care of it.”
She tsked but smiled back shyly. “You didn’t have to kill it for me.”
“I didn’t have to, no. But I had to kill it for myself. It was the first kill I felt good about. One I’ve never regretted.”
“Bane,” she whispered and bit her lip before she set it back down and then leaned against the shelves to point to the skull next to that one. “Who’s this?”
“Krawson.”
“Gross.” She wrinkled her nose but now her eyes were scanning the shelf. “And this?”
I cleared my throat and decided now was a good time to change the subject.
She didn’t need to know everyone on that shelf was for her and the empty space next to them was for anyone she wanted or who wronged her later in life.
It was at the center with people who wronged my brothers below and above.
“Don’t you have something else to be doing right now? Anyone have a show tonight?”
“Kee’s married and gone, and I haven’t wanted to do anyone else’s makeup ever since.” She pouted and sat down in my chair, throwing her combat boots on my desk.
“Pink,” I warned.
“What? I am freaking bored. Olive wants me there and Kee wants me in Tennessee, but you want me here twiddling my thumbs.”
“We can take a trip soon.”
“Olive is about to have Dimitri’s child any day now.”
“And …” I had an idea where this was going, and I didn’t like it.
“Don’t you want kids one day?”
“Not particularly.”
She frowned. “What? Why?”
“You just pointed to men’s skulls I’ve gutted on my shelves, Bianca. Why do you think?”
“That’s just you taking care of your family and those you care about. That’s being protective.”
“That’s being a serial killer.”
“For good reason,” she argued and winked at me.
“What’s your point? A made man shouldn’t have kids.”
“I disagree. You’d make a good daddy.” She leaned forward and removed her combat boots from my desk before she planted her elbows on it instead.
My cock jumped at her saying that, but I shut down the feeling fast. “I won’t because I don’t intend to have any. You’ll make a good mom if that’s what you want to be though.”
She jerked back, “ I can’t have kids, Bane. You know that.”
“What? Of course you can.”
She glanced away and then pushed at an imaginary fuzz on my desk. “I can’t. You and I both know I miscarried.”
“Your health records are clean, baby girl. That was just bad luck.”
“A lot of bad luck,” she murmured and then she stood to turn away from me. I wanted to ask her more, wanted to pry through the sadness I suddenly saw in her eyes, but there was an alert that my brothers and Jameson along with his daughter, Franny, had arrived at my penthouse door.
“Franny?” Bianca shot up. “His daughter? I’ve never met her.”
“She isn’t supposed to be here but—”
“Oh my God. I’m so excited.” And then she was off, running to the front door in her baggy Jaws shirt.
I remembered how she’d explained the shark was a victim one night too.
And secretly I loved every one of those shirts because it meant she accepted the darkness in things more than the light.
Her combat boots clomped as she ran to greet my brothers and Jameson.
She hugged Ez, was reserved with Rafe, and then Jameson pulled her close, and I felt that fucking clawing jealousy I always did when she looked at another man.
I stomped after her, irritated that she was hijacking my meeting with them too. Yet, no one seemed to care when she bent down to Franny’s level and asked her if she liked Jaws.
That spoke to the little girl who smiled wide. “Wednesday is actually my favorite character ever, but I’ll pick Ursula on your shirt.”
“Dang. Wednesday is the best choice. We need to find some shirts with her on it.”
“My daddy ordered me a Wednesday outfit too. He said I can wear it any time I want.”
“Did he?” Bianca eyed Jameson, and I immediately considered gouging out his eyes when he winked back at her.
“I’ll buy you a Wednesday outfit too if you’d like.”
She pulled him in for a hug as she laughed at his offer. “I’m so happy to see you again.”
She was always happy to see the fucker. I knew he was good looking and charmed just about every woman he encountered, but it was clear he had a soft spot for Bianca. It’s probably why he’d brought Franny in the first place.
“Bane said you’d be working so I’m damn near ecstatic to see you. And Franny wanted to come since she’s down a nanny for the time being.”
“Well, Franny, I could be your nanny while you’re here. Want me to show you the resort?”
Franny sighed. “I don’t like kid areas.”
“Oh good. Me neither. I think we’ll go bother some adults.” She glanced at Jameson. “It okay if I walk her around?”
“As long as Hades goes with you.” The man with a permanent scowl that had walked in with Jameson and was standing by the door walked over to Franny’s side.
“And Pepe.” I flicked a gaze at our own security. Bianca shrugged and threaded her hand into Franny’s before they walked off, and we sat down to talk business.
We went over territories and shipments for a while, every word measured, every nod a calculation of power and influence, before the Oracles came up.
Rafe and Ezra were diving deeper into the revamp of the Oracles App.
They’d come onto to control the app with me at this point.
We filtered entries and we utilized them to our advantage when we could.
Half the world, even politicians and leaders of countries were using it, giving us way too much information like they thought we wouldn’t listen.