Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Caleb
“ H ow’s my favorite cousin?” Vittus asks, meeting us out in the hallway after we exit McDermott’s cell.
Gia rolls her eyes. “You think I don’t know you say that to all your female cousins?”
“With them, I’m lying.”
She shakes her head, but she’s smiling as she embraces him. “Congrats on your promotion. Your pops must be really proud.”
Vittus shakes it off because he’s too laid-back to care about shit like that. He was genuinely shocked when Joshua and I asked him to be our new underboss. We had only promoted him to capo last year, so he wasn’t expecting a second promotion, and certainly not so soon.
Loyalty is of paramount importance to us, and promoting two of our closest friends to the most critical roles in our team was a no-brainer. We need men we can trust, and that was more important than experience. Giulio and Vittus are both intelligent and fast learners and they won’t take any shit from us. They will give it to us straight, and that’s what we need.
“Thanks, G. I think Pops is proud, but it’s hard to tell with him sometimes. He’s a man of few words, as you know.”
“How are Tosca and Geneva? I haven’t seen them in so long.”
“Tosca is busy with her family, and Geneva moved to Paris a month ago. She got a transfer with the bank.”
“Oh, my mom mentioned that to me briefly. That’s fantastic. We need to organize a night out to catch up.”
“Organize something with Tosca and I’m there.”
“How is the interrogation going?” I ask, purposely redirecting the conversation.
“It’s a waste of time. The lower levels knew jack shit. Marino deliberately kept them in the dark.”
“Let’s finish this then.” I crack my knuckles and grin. Watching Gia butcher McDermott has supercharged my bloodlust.
“I’m taking Gia home,” my twin says.
More men for me. Yay.
“We’ve got this, J.” I reassure him with my eyes.
“Thanks for being here, Caleb.” Gia surprises me with a hug. “I couldn’t have done that without Joshua and you.”
“No problem, sis. I’m always down to watch you obliterate made men. I especially liked the bat-in-the-ass move.” I bring my fingers to my lips. “Chef’s kiss.”
“You’re a disturbed individual.”
I bark out a laugh. “You’re not in any position to throw shade after what I just witnessed in there.”
Her lips kick up at the corners. “Yeah, I guess not.”
Gia waves at her cousin and me before looping her arm through Joshua’s. We watch them walk down the hallway and up the stairs.
“Is she okay?” Concern is splayed across Vittus’s face. “Mom told me what happened.” Vittus’s mom is Gia’s dad’s sister, and both families are close.
“I think she’s more than okay. Gia is tough as nails.”
“Giulio said wedding bells are in the works.”
“J would frog-march her to city hall right now if he thought she’d let him.”
“Good for him. I’m happy he’s happy.” He thumps me in the arm and smirks. “That shit ain’t for us, but Joshua was always destined to settle down.”
Six months ago, I would have wholeheartedly agreed.
But now?
Now I don’t know where the fuck my head is at except this sense of futility I’ve felt recently hasn’t settled even after I’ve given up an active management role in our legit businesses and taken over the running of our mafioso responsibilities. Something is still lacking, and I’m terrified to acknowledge what I sense is behind the sentiment.
I’m not nearly ready to face up to that truth.
Four hours later, I pull into the quiet parking lot of our building and kill the engine. Hours of cold-blooded murder have finally sated my bloodlust, and I’m physically drained and emotionally exhausted. Hopefully it means I’ll get a good night’s sleep as that has been sorely lacking recently. Not that it’s unusual. I can’t remember a time when I ever got more than five or six hours of fractured sleep. Mom said I’ve had trouble sleeping since I was a little kid, but it’s all I know, and I’m used to functioning on fumes at this point.
My bed is calling me tonight, so I climb out of my SUV and head for the elevator that will take me directly to the top floor where my penthouse adjoins my brother’s.
I’m waiting for the private elevator when a broad-shouldered man dips out of the small security office. “Don Accardi.” He nods respectfully. “You’re wanted in the main lobby.”
“What the hell for?”
“You have a visitor. She’s been waiting two hours for you.”
“Fuck.” I have a strong suspicion I know who it is. “I do not have the patience to deal with her at this hour,” I grumble, scrubbing my hands down my tired face.
“I can tell her you’re not coming home,” he offers, but I wave him off.
“It’s fine. I might as well deal with it now. She’ll only come back.” I can’t shirk my responsibilities even if I need this like a hole in the head.
I step into the elevator and press the button for the main reception area.
Anais accosts me the instant I emerge from the elevator. Her heels click off the polished marble floor as she races toward me. Throwing herself at me, she is sobbing and shrieking and clutching my shirt like I’m not dripping in blood, sweat, and other bodily fluids.
“I didn’t know where else to come,” she says over a sob as if she doesn’t have other viable options. Like her sister or her uncle. “I’m scared, Caleb. Cruz will know I was feeding you information, and he’s going to come for me.” Her voice elevates a few notches, grating on my ears. “He’s going to kill me!” she screeches. She’s borderline hysterical as she grips my shirt more tightly. Sharp-tipped nails dig into my chest through my shirt, and I’m counting to ten in my head for patience that is in limited supply. Anais peers up at me, sporting wide doe eyes that are blatantly pleading. “You need to protect me. You’re the only one I feel safe with.” Sniffing, she takes hold of my hand as my eyes wander to the mountain of luggage stacked against the wall by the front desk. “Please let me stay with you. You’re the only one I trust.”
Elisa
“I copied my notes for you,” I say, handing Shea the envelope with lecture notes from the past three days. She couldn’t attend classes because her space cadet Mom did a vanishing act again, leaving her to care for her baby brother.
“I would totally flunk without you.” She leans in to hug me. “You’re the bestest friend I’ve ever had. I’d go insane if I didn’t have you.”
“Ditto. I might have flung myself off the bridge last year if you hadn’t been there for me.” Back then, Gia helped too, but she was in the thick of a dangerous mission, and it wasn’t safe for us to meet. Dad ripped me a new one when he discovered Gia had broken protocol to meet me in Chelsea Market that one time. I promised him and Caleb I wouldn’t risk my safety like that again, and I stuck to it.
For Dad.
Not Caleb.
Pain lances across my chest like always when I think of him, but I purposely force it aside.
“Please don’t say that or ever mean it,” she says, stuffing the envelope into her book bag, as I stand and stretch my back. I won’t miss the seats in the auditoriums after I graduate in a few months. “Those cunts aren’t worth it. And he’s definitely not worth it.”
“I know, and I wasn’t serious. Even though I was devastated, I’d never do that.” I shuffle along the row behind the best friend I have at NYU. For multiple reasons, I need to keep my friends list small and tight-knit. It’s not easy to let people in when you have to hide a huge chunk of your life from them. Shea knows more than most because she has proven herself trustworthy over the past three and a half years. But I have kept most of my secrets from her, because they could get her killed, and I haven’t divulged details to any of our other friends, and that’s the way it’ll stay.
“You have Seb now, and he’s totally head over heels for you.” She loops her arm through mine and smiles as we make our way out of the lecture hall.
“He’s sweet and very attentive.” I chew on my lip as we exit through the doorway.
“Spit it out, babe.”
Heat warms my cheeks. “He told me he loves me last night.”
She examines my face. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.” We part to sidestep a dude charging through the exiting crowd like a gun-toting madman is hot on his heels. “I wish I returned his feelings, but I’m hoping in time I will. Mom says there are many different kinds of love and some relationships are quick to develop while other love takes longer to grow. Perhaps Seb and I are a slow-burn romance, like some of the romances I read. Mom and Alesso took their time being together, even though they had strong feelings for one another from the start. Now, they are so in love and ridiculously happy, and I really want that someday.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in love anymore?” she asks, steering me out through the main doors.
“I still believe in love. I just don’t know if I believe in it for me anymore.”
“Well, don’t look to me for a pep talk. You already know my thoughts on the subject.”
Shea’s bio dad skipped out when she was two, and she hasn’t seen him since. Her mom went through a succession of boyfriends, enduring three canceled engagements before marrying Pedro. He lasted long enough to knock her up before he ran off with his assistant. On his way out of town, he cleaned out their bank account, sold Shea’s mom’s car for cash, and they only discovered he hadn’t been making the mortgage payments when a dude showed up at their door a month later with a repossession order.
After Shea’s little brother was born, her mom fell off the rails, drowning herself in the bottom of a bottle. Then she started stripping and hooking to afford her newfound alcohol and drug addiction, leaving her daughter to pick up the pieces time and time again.
Shea is on a scholarship, and she has come close to losing it a few times, thanks to her deadbeat Mom. So, yeah, I get why Shea doesn’t believe in love and why she has sworn off dating. She fucks guys when it suits her but never accepts any of their offers to date. Can’t say I wouldn’t do the same in her shoes.
“Maybe I should be more like you.” I grip the straps of my backpack. “Perhaps I should give up on dating and just find some fuck buddies to screw my way through the last few months of college.”
Shea’s face scrunches up. “I’m a bad example. Don’t emulate me.”
“You don’t have it in you, Lili ,” someone says in a sneering voice from behind, and my stomach plummets to my toes.
“Fuck off, skank.” Shea immediately has my back, keeping close to me as we turn to face my archnemesis.
“You’re pathetic, and it’s only a matter of time before Seb grows tired of you.” Gwyneth rakes a derisory gaze up and down my body. “How the fuck you convinced him to date you is beyond belief, but he’ll wise up soon.”
I don’t disagree, not that I’m voicing that sentiment. Seb is one of the most popular guys on campus, and he’s been asking me out all year before I caved and said yes. I still don’t fully understand it or why I’m not more into it because he’s hot, charming, smart, and funny. Perfect boyfriend material, and I’m the envy of lots of girls at NYU.
Gwyneth pushes her face all up in mine. “Just like Caleb did.”
I grind my teeth to the molars and glare at her. “You think you know it all, but you know nothing.”
“I know I rocked his world and you never will.” She flashes me a smug grin. “You’re always destined to be a loser, and losers never get the guy.”