Chapter 2
He wasn’t alone. Rock and Drago leaned against the counter on either side of him, all three of them in tuxes like gangsters on their way to the prom.
Hot ones.
“Well well well,” Rock said. His hair was a shade too long, more surfer than favorite mafia son, and his ice-blue eyes twinkled with something not altogether unfriendly.
He’d taken off his suit jacket, which only made his perfectly cut physique more obvious under the snug white button-down.
I hated myself for the heat that rose to my cheeks.
“If it isn’t Willa Russo, the prodigal daughter. ”
I was surprised he knew the word “prodigal” but figured now wasn’t the best time to lob the insult. I was outnumbered, and while I didn’t know exactly what that meant, I wasn’t eager to find out.
“Looks like your little sis didn’t want to wait in line.
” Drago licked his full lips, and light glinted off the stud in his tongue as it clicked against the small ring in his lip, a match to the ones piercing his left eyebrow.
There was something predatory in the way he focused his gaze on me, like a falcon eyeing a mouse. I forced myself not to squirm.
I was no mouse.
“Excuse me,” I said, staring right back at them. I needed to get to the sink to wash my hands, but they were blocking the long run of counter with their hulking bodies.
“I don’t think so,” Neo said.
I narrowed my eyes. “You don’t think so?”
“I don’t think I will excuse you.” Jesus, his biceps were huge, like primordial tree trunks, and his eyes were like chips of amber, hard and unyielding as they pinned me in place. His dark hair was cut short, and the shadow of a bruise darkened his left cheekbone.
Rock had always seemed like a friendly dog that could turn rabid, and Drago was a stereotypical bad boy, but it was Neo who’d always scared me most.
Not that I would ever give him the satisfaction of knowing.
I couldn’t put my finger on why he made me want to steer clear of him, which was part of the problem.
I was pretty good at reading people, at figuring out what they were about, what they wanted.
I knew when mean girls were insecure or just bitches.
I knew when a guy lacked confidence or when he might actually be dangerous.
Neo was… blank. He had a vacuous energy that felt like a black hole. There was nothing there, but I knew instinctively it was the kind of nothing that could kill you.
“Good thing I was just being polite,” I said, advancing on them. “I don’t actually need you to excuse me for anything.”
“I think you do,” Neo said. I stopped a couple of inches from the wall of his chest, his broad shoulders blocking my view of myself in the mirror behind him. “I think you need me to excuse you for being the daughter of a traitor and a gold-digging whore.”
I stared up at him. “You’re wrong. I don’t need you for anything at all.”
Drago’s dark laughter filled the room. “Someone’s got claws.”
Anger flared in Neo’s hazel eyes. He took a step toward me and I got a whiff of expensive cologne and the tang of male sweat. It made me a little giddy with lust, and I silently cursed myself.
Apparently my body was a traitorous slut.
“I think you’re going to find you’re wrong about that,” Neo said, a satisfied smile settling on his full lips.
It was a smile that said he knew something I didn’t, something I wasn’t going to like.
He ran a callused finger down my arm and goosebumps rose on my skin. My nipples hardened under my dress, and I was glad the fabric was thick enough that they wouldn’t be visible.
He stared into my eyes as his finger traveled down one of my legs and under the skirt of my dress. A shiver snaked up my back when his fingertips brushed my thigh — and not the bad kind of shiver either.
I didn’t bother to hope Rock or Drago would say anything. Where one went, so did the other two. Figuratively anyway. Although there had been rumors they shared everything.
And I do mean everything.
It should have scared me. Instead, a swell of need expanded from my center at the thought of them all naked and —
Nope. Not going there.
I jumped as the door flew open. Mara stuck her head in and looked from me to the boys and back at me again, a ton of questions in her eyes.
Neo didn’t even bother to pull his hand back from its position on my thigh, perilously close to the cleft between my legs, which was now embarrassingly wet.
“Uh… your mom’s looking for you,” Mara said, clearly aware she’d interrupted something. “They’re getting ready to cut the cake.”
“Exactly what I came to tell you,” Neo said, close enough that I felt his breath on my cheek. He dropped his hand and moved toward the door. Rock and Drago peeled off the counter after him.
“See you out there, tiger,” Drago said.
“Nah,” Rock murmured, dragging his thumb over his full lower lip as he walked past me. "I bet I could make her purr like a kitten."
Goddamn.
Mara lifted her eyebrows but I just shook my head and washed my hands. By the time we returned to the reception, my mom and Roberto were already at the front of the room behind the table that held the towering wedding cake.
“Ah, there she is,” Robert’s voice echoed through the microphone as he caught sight of me. Everyone turned to follow his gaze. “My new daughter. Come on up here, Willa. You too, Neo.”
I followed Neo to the front of the room, watching as the crowd parted for him like he was Moses standing in front of the Red Sea. Must be nice to be a favored son of the most revered kingpin in the family instead of the daughter of a traitor.
I stood next to my mom, and I was relieved when Neo took up position next to his dad. I could feel his eyes on my face, but if I focused on the crowd, I could almost pretend he wasn’t there.
Fuck. Who was I kidding? He was an asshole of the highest order, but there was never any pretending Neo Alinari wasn’t there.
“I want to thank you all for joining us on this special day,” Roberto began. “As you all know, family is everything. We sacrifice for it. We steal for it. We bleed for it.”
My stomach turned, but I kept my expression impassive. I didn’t want to bleed for these people. I didn’t want Emma to bleed for them either, but I couldn’t help wondering if she already had.
Aventine U was a private college, one that accepted applicants almost exclusively from crime families like mine and the Alinaris’. Not that it was an official policy or anything.
Technically, the admission process was wide open.
Except everyone knew it was where families like Roberto sent their kids.
Aventine’s MBA program was quietly second to none (running a criminal organization in the modern era required knowledge of the law and economics, of global supply chains and international markets), and their chess room had once been a breeding ground for alliances and rivalries.
Their frats were even named after chess pieces: Kings for the Italian faction, Knights for the Russians, Castle house for the Irish, and Bishops for the cartel families, although I’d heard everyone called them the Saints.
There were so few women that there was only one sorority, and of course, they lived in the Queens’ house.
But while chess had always been the official game of Aventine, it was the after-hours lessons that made you or broke you within your family.
Or so I’d heard.
The games played at Aventine, games designed to prepare us for the world in which we’d been born, made secret societies like Yale’s Skull and Bones look like PTA meetings.
Participation wasn’t optional.
It was one of many reasons I’d chosen to attend Bellepoint instead of Aventine. The fact that Emma had last been seen at Aventine, that she’d been the outcast daughter of a traitor, made me wonder if she’d become part of the game.
And if she’d paid the highest price of all for losing.
“Today, in the spirit of that family, we commit to joining our lives together, but more than that, we commit to joining our families in every way.” Roberto took my mom’s hand.
Something was coming. It crackled like the electricity that charged the air before a summer thunderstorm.
I felt Roberto’s eyes on my face and turned to look at him as he continued.
“Which is why I’m thrilled to announce that this fall, Willa will be attending Aventine University with Neo. ”
The bottom dropped out of my stomach as a murmur of surprise rippled through the crowd, followed by a polite smattering of applause.
I found Mara in the crowd, her face white, then turned to look at my mom.
How could she do this to me? How could she send me to the school where Emma was last seen alive? The school where, more than anywhere else in the world, I would be a pariah? The school attended by people who’d been trained in the art of making others suffer?
Looking at the polite smile on her face, I felt a surge of hatred for her. She couldn’t even look me in the fucking eyes.
Guess being a traitor ran in the family.
The decision had been made, probably by Roberto, and I knew my mom well enough to know she wouldn’t fight it.
She was the perfect Mob wife. Always had been.
Her father had been part of the family, and his father before him.
It was why she hadn’t followed my dad into Witness Protection, why she’d opted to stay to prove her loyalty to the family.
My face heated and I turned to find Neo watching me, a cruel smirk twisting the corners of his luscious mouth.
He’d known. My mom hadn’t bothered to tell me, but Neo had known I would be attending Aventine with him, Rock, and Drago.
Resolve hardened in my stomach. If there was no changing it, I would use it. Going to Aventine meant even closer proximity to the people who’d last seen my sister.
It meant proximity to their secrets.
Their lies.
I met Neo’s gaze and returned his smile.
You want to play, asshole?
Let’s play.
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