Chapter 5
5
ZARINA
Toni came barrelling into the shop not even an hour later, flanked by three of his men.
Two, I recognised—Angel and Dimitri.
They were his go-to men, so I knew I was in deep shit when I saw them stalk in through the door.
Dimitri was probably around my age, one of the youngest in the higher ranks of The Family. He was a cheeky shit, and his mouth often got him both in and out of trouble.
We had that in common.
Angel, I didn’t know much about at all.
He was one of the silent brooding types, probably around Toni’s age and quickly approaching his mid-thirties.
All I knew about Angel was that he was the one that Toni rang whenever somebody needed to be dealt with in the early hours of the morning.
The third guy, I had never seen before.
This wasn’t a huge deal, as there were so many people who were either in or associated with The Family that it was hard to keep up or remember them all. I mainly remembered the ones that always hung around the house—the higher ups, the important people.
This guy, I was guessing by his youth and the curious way he looked around, was a freshie.
“Hey, Tone,” Larissa bounded out from the back room, her lips now a darker shade of red than before.
I sighed as quietly as I could.
She always had a thing for Antoni, ever since we were kids. I thought that when he got married she would maybe take the hint, maybe move on—but she hadn’t.
My only concern for her was that Rome, Toni’s wife, was probably scarier than he was. Larissa had balls by continuing to pursue him, despite my many pleas to just get the fuck over it.
“Hey, Riss,” Toni gave her a polite but strained smile before his eyes dragged to me.
“Hi,” I smiled.
“Back room. Now,” he said while he was already charging past me.
I waited until he couldn’t see me before I rolled my eyes. His men followed suit, all looking wholly serious, even Dimitri.
Though, when I eventually dragged my feet into that back room and he stood behind Toni, I could see that he was struggling not to smirk down at me. The downside (for Toni) of him being near my age, was that we got along.
Dimitri and I, I could see being friends—even without The Family. Maybe we would’ve even dated, if not for the fear of Toni slicing off Dimitri’s favourite appendage.
Nevertheless, that platonic brand of flirtation was how we interacted, but it was never anything more than that.
Something to do.
Some light in our days.
Some fun in the ever-so-serious business that we were in.
Well… they were in.
I sold panties for a living.
But still, every now and again, I would be dragged into the bullshit. Just like right now.
Toni was already shaking his head and pinching the bridge of his nose. He looked like our dad when he did that.
“How long have they been hanging around here?” he asked plainly.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Today?”
“Only today?” he raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know, Tone. I don’t exactly pay attention to every fucking person or vehicle that comes past or near my shop,” I snapped, crossing my arms.
“Well, you have to, Zar.”
“Why?” I whined.
This shit had nothing to do with me.
So why did I have to be on the lookout? There were security cameras inside and outside the store. If they truly tried something, it would be on camera.
“Out,” Toni said softly over his shoulder, a quiet order and all three men shuffled out.
“I’ll have a look through the security tapes,” Angel muttered before closing the door behind him, and Toni only nodded once, eyes still on me. He took a deep breath and his shoulders dropped.
“Do you realise how serious this is, Zarina?”
I shrugged.
“Look, I’ve—” he exhaled again, shaking his head. “I’ve let this whole party-girl era go on for a while now, because it’s seemed innocent enough. But now…” he shook his head again.
I frowned. “What are you saying, Antoni? You’re going to forbid me from going out?”
“Zarina,” he said slowly, pressing his hands together in front of him. “You slept with a member of the Redline Angels,” he said slowly, emphasising each word. “Actually, no. Not just a member, the fucking sargeant at arms.”
I groaned, throwing my head back.
“So what? Neither of us knew who the other was. I’ll never see him again. It’s dealt with.”
“You threatened him!” he pointed towards the front of the shop.
I looked at my shoes, mainly to hide my smirk.
Yeah, I did threaten him.
And I would go through with it too. I’d already ordered a few tins of spray paint online just in case. I’d also learned that you could get a glitter top-coat now, which I obviously ordered as well.
“We are in trouble, Zar. I know you don’t like to be involved or know about this stuff, but?—”
“You guys never want me involved! I tell you all the time that?—”
He put a hand up to silence me.
“You’ve involved yourself now, okay?” he quietened.
I took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly through pursed lips. Frustrated tears burned the rims of my eyes. None of them ever listened to me.
“Look,” he softened, his brotherly need to comfort me momentarily overruling his duties as Don. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in close, kissing the top of my head.
“I’m sorry, Zar. But, there’s no running from this now. He knows who you are. Maybe he was using you, or maybe it was just an accident. We don’t know. But at the end of the day, he’s a Redliner, and we’re currently at war.”
I nodded.
“These are the same people that kidnapped your sister and tried to kill me, my wife, and your brother. They nearly succeeded in killing Ren. They’re… they’re not good, okay? They’ve only been stirring more shit lately. I thought they would’ve taken longer to recoup once King died, but they obviously had their backup plans ready to go.”
Of course I remembered everything that happened—not that I was there for any of it.
All these stories were something that bonded the rest of the family in a way I would never experience. Not that it was something to wish to be involved in, obviously, but I would never know the extent of it all like they did.
I saw the bullet wounds after .
I tended to the injuries and listened to them recount the events later on. I wasn’t there during the adrenaline inducing parts, the parts that they told the stories about.
So yeah, I heard all about how Val was kidnapped. I heard all about how Ren was shot. I heard all about how Sammy was nearly blown to pieces by a bomb.
But I didn’t know . I didn’t live it.
“I just…” he sighed. “I can’t have you getting hurt, okay?”
I nodded again.
“Mum would fucking kill me if anything happened to you.”
Antoni elbowed me in the ribs and I finally softened, rolling my eyes.
It was true.
Mum had never been subtle about her favourite children, which just so happened to be me and Antoni.
I was the Princess and he was the Golden Boy.
Well, Toni kind of lost his position as Mum’s favourite child when he decided to marry the stripper-assassin who tried to kill him—but can you blame her?
“So, even though I know you’re going to bitch and complain, just know that I’m doing this for your own good, okay?”
I raised an eyebrow and pursed my lips.
“What?”
“Theo,” Toni called, and the rookie opened the door and stuck his eager head inside.
“Yes, boss?” he stepped closer as Toni waved him forward.
“Zarina, this is Theo. He’s going to be… looking after you for a while.”
I closed my eyes. “A fucking bodyguard, Tone?”
“Just until everything settles down a bit. This whole encounter could be harmless. Who knows? But I need to make sure before I just let you run around Melbourne unprotected.”
“So, I only need to take him when I go out, right?”
No answer from Toni.
“Here too? Are you fucking kidding?” I snapped.
“This is where they know you will be most of the time. This is your predictable touch point for them. Here, especially, Theo will be hanging around.”
“You won’t even know that I’m here,” Theo smiled down at me.
I tilted my head to the side and regarded him for a moment. He was handsome, I supposed. Probably my age, maybe a tad older.
Typically tall, dark, and handsome.
Definitely Italian.
“I think I will,” I smirked, softening a little.
He narrowed his eyes at me slightly, the boyish smile fading as he caught on to my tone change. At least he was okay to look at if he was going to be around constantly.
“Stop it,” Toni snapped at both of us.
Theo straightened and turned his attention back to Antoni, but I didn’t. I kept looking at him, and I knew he could feel my gaze on him.
“Zarina.”
“What?” I said like an annoyed teenager.
I hated when he said my name like he was my father. Like he was chastising his child who was acting out.
“You know exactly what ,” he said flatly, gesturing with his chin that Theo was now dismissed.
Theo nodded once, turning on his heel and only glancing at me for a second before heading out of the room. But that one glance had a vibe behind it that I wasn’t sure how to feel about.
He closed the door softly behind him.
“Don’t even think about it,” he pointed a finger at me.
I pursed my lips to stop myself from smirking.
“Zarina,” he said sternly.
“Oh, shut up Toni, I’m just fucking with you.” I rolled my eyes. “I won’t. I don’t trust the vibe of that guy anyway.”
He frowned. “Why?”
“He’s attracted to me,” I shrugged.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Zar.”
Toni ripped a hand through his hair like I was driving him insane. Which was probably a little true, but I was sure that he had bigger problems in his life than little old me. He had always been a bit of a drama queen.
“What?” I snapped. “I can tell. And men who vibe with me are generally not the great kind. Obviously, or I wouldn’t be standing here with you right now. And I’m telling you now, my intuition is giving me more warning signals about that dude than it did with Ashe. So maybe I’m not the only one who needs to think about who they let into their life.”
He rolled his eyes.
“He’s still one of my men, Zar. Leave him to do his job.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I mean it.”
“Anything else, Don Antoni?” I feigned a curtsey.
“Yes, one more thing.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“You stay away from Henny and anyone else from the Redline Angels.”
“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I lazily saluted him before turning on my heel and letting myself out of the stock room.
Theo and Larissa were standing there chatting, and I could see from the look on Larissa’s face that she was going to enjoy having him here.
I, on the other hand, pursed my lips at him as his eyes turned to me, hoping to convey that I was on to him.
Of course, I had no solid proof that he was either up to something or that we had any reason not to trust him, but my internal alarm bells were going off about the guy.
Then again, it was hard to judge if he was a bad guy because he fit in with The Family, or if he was a bad guy because he was a threat to The Family.
It was often a hard thing to place, as the line was so thin. But I knew that my intuition very rarely led me astray…
Well, of course, except for the last man I went home with.