77. Just a couple of assholes
Chapter 77
Just a couple of assholes
Ariana
C ramps hit me halfway through Monday. Luca sits with me on the couch, watching TV, grabbing chocolate and Midol, and letting me nap on him like he’s my own personal pillow. Other than when he goes to the gym to work out and train, he’s with me for the entire two and a half days I feel like absolute crap. As usual, Lil spends most of her time with us, too.
It’s a good thing we have a big ass couch in our living room because Anthony shows up a lot. He’s helping Dad and Parker go through all the video footage from around the house, which is a fuck ton because there’s like fifty cameras. No one has mentioned seeing me and Lil sneaking out the night of Luca’s first fight a few weeks ago. Maybe they started with the newest stuff first… There’s no way we weren’t caught by at least three of those cameras.
Dad probably doesn’t realize we know about the secret tunnel leading from the basement armory to the shed and then continues on to a door on the back side of the wall around the estate. He has no idea that I know the code for it or that I have a set of the four keys needed to unlock it. He definitely doesn’t know about the motorcycle I have hidden behind some shrubs down the road. But he’s also absolutely going to find out about all of that once they get to the footage from that night.
To be fair, I was trying to pretend my psycho bio dad wasn’t after me again back then otherwise I don’t think we would have chanced sneaking out to drive Bruce. Lil would have talked me out of it if she’d known about even a single instance of me feeling ice neck. Neither of us is looking forward to anyone realizing we snuck out. We might be adults, but it was a stupid thing to do.
Chilling on the couch for so long gives me way too much time to think, and I can’t focus on looking at paint colors or new bedding, so redecorating isn’t going well. I should warn Luca about the probable video, but I can’t bring myself to do it yet.
I can shoot a man from hundreds of feet away, but I can’t come clean about sneaking out to my husband or father. Being an adult is weird.
When DeVille business comes up on Wednesday night, Luca is itching to join Dad and Anthony.
“Go. We don’t all need to be trapped in this house all the damn time,” I tell them.
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, baby,” Luca says. I appreciate the gesture, but now that I know Fred is out there somewhere, the idea of leaving freaks me out. Even with extra security.
I give him a little smile. “I’ll think about it. For now, I’m good here. ”
Lil nods and drops onto the couch next to me. “Yeah, we have some really girly shit we’ve been waiting to watch. Now’s our chance.” She pulls half my blanket onto her lap and steals the remote.
When Luca leans down to give me a kiss, I grab his shirt to keep him there for a second. “Hey, just, you know… be careful and shit.”
He winks and holds up a pinky. I wrap mine around it, and the pressure in my chest lightens a little.
Flipping through Netflix, Lil glances at our fingers. “I want to be annoyed about DeVille promises not being just our thing anymore, but I also want to be annoyed that no one else thought to do it before. Why does Dad not have the tattoos? Imagine the things we wouldn’t have done if we had made DeVille promises!”
“What kinds of things?” Luca asks.
Lil opens her mouth but I slap my hand over it. “Nothing. Not a damn thing,” I say, glaring at her.
Luca’s eyes sparkle, and he fights a grin. “Right.” He kisses my cheek, whispering, “You’re such a bratty liar, Minx,” against my ear before he heads out of the room, laughing when I flip him off.
“Hnnnnn. Geetttt u hmmmnd oooooof meeee mof!” Lil’s muffled words are followed by her tongue poking out between her lips and tickling my palm.
I yank my hand back and wipe it on her hair. “Fuck. Yuck! Asshole.”
“Well, maybe don’t smack me in the face next time, asshole.”
“Well, maybe stop spilling secrets to my husband, asshole.”
“I thought you didn’t have secrets from your husband, asshole.”
“You and I will always have secrets, asshole. Luca understands and accepts that fact.”
“Good man, that cousin of mine. ”
“Yeah. We need to find you a good someone,” I tell her, leaning my head against her shoulder. She switches the remote to her other hand and links our pinkies.
She sighs. “I think I’ve given up on that idea.”
“So we’re looking for a bad someone? How bad? Like bad bad? Or like slightly bad? Does morally questionable count as bad? Because if so, we’re definitely bad.”
“No, we’re just not looking at all. I’m done with that. I’m good with what I have.”
“You’re twenty. You can’t just give up already.”
“Can, too.”
“Come on, Lil. You’ll find your match.”
“People who get us don’t just randomly show up, Ari. Luca is a fluke-a.”
When I stop chuckling at her goofy ass, I say, “It could happen again. There’s all kinds of people who end up around here. Stew’s sister, remember her? You thought she was cute. And Carlo’s brother’s best friend’s… whoever the fuck that guy was, he seemed okay with our world. And he was totally into you.”
“First off, we all thought Stew’s sister was cute.”
I snort. “True story.”
“Second off, being good with the DeVille lifestyle is not the same as understanding the Lil and Ariana connection.”
“It sounds weird that way. Ariana and Lil flows better.”
“We’re not having this conversation again.”
“If you say so.”
“I do say so.”
Glancing at her out of the corner of my eye, I take a shot. “Parker understands the Ariana and Lil connection.”
“I don’t like Parker that way. He collects Tamagotchis and wears corduroy.”
“So? You keep a running count of how many pairs of shoes I own in your head and can’t drive for shit. ”
“Do you have a point?”
“You’re both fucking weird.”
“Whatever. Can we watch Magic Mike ?” she asks.
“Have I ever said no to that question?”