Chapter 32 Kitty #2
And yet I’d suck him off again in a heartbeat.
It was official—some wiring had gone wrong in my brain down the line and I needed to admit myself for a psych eval immediately.
“We’re fine,” Neev countered, bright and breezy.
Her lying skills surpassed her common sense.
Despite that, I got the feeling he didn’t believe her. Which was spooky. If I had an ironclad liver, Neev’s superpower involved lying to men and twisting them around all five of her fingers.
“Let’s clarify something. I don’t want you out there.
” He jerked his thumb at the front door.
“These guys would sniff around a hag’s skirts, never mind three beddas.
It isn’t a compliment for them to flirt with you.
They’re manwhores and they have club pussy on tap, so they’ll treat you like shit because that’s what they’re used to—”
“Do you think he knows we’re not his daughters?” Raisin jeered, a mocking glint in her eye.
“Did he call us beddas? What does that mean?”
“Something good,” I guessed wryly.
Warning imparted, Stan heaved a sigh, likely knowing that my sisters would do what they wanted, same with me unless he planted me on his cock and found ways to keep me busy…
Now, there’s a thought.
Peeved, he strode to the fridge and peered inside. Grabbing a small mountain of junk food, he trailed over to the living room, where he dumped it on the coffee table before returning to his calls.
Neev whistled. “Jesus, he eats a lot, doesn’t he?”
My mouth watered as I watched him dig into the feast he’d collected for himself.
For some reason, I thought back to Brad and his obsession with macros and micros…
“Kitty?”
I blinked at Raisin. “Yeah?”
“You got something going on with him?”
“What gave it away? Her using him as a bucket seat on the flight over?”
I ignored Neev’s sniping. “Maybe. A healthy attraction, sure.”
Neev hooted. “Not so healthy. You saw him back there. He didn’t shit himself and we were surrounded.”
“They’re allies,” I discounted, but she had a point.
Unlike Martinez and his men, who’d treated us kindly, I’d felt like an extraterrestrial entering that clubhouse. Stan must have sensed the oppressive looks too.
“I think he expected it to be like that. It’s why he’s concerned about us,” Raisin reasoned.
“So you gave him shit because…?”
“He’s not my daddy?” Neev chimed in.
Raisin snickered. “Might be somebody’s, just not ours, Neev.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not sure why the men—”
“Stared at us as if we were aliens?” Neev studied her nails. “If their idea of flirting is making a girl feel like a sideshow freak, then they’re mistaken.”
“Maybe because we are aliens to them. We’re mob,” Raisin pointed out. “Even if we aren’t. Not really. You know what Da used to say about MCs…”
“Da was a prejudiced jerk sometimes,” I countered, accepting the cup she filled with coffee. “Thanks.”
“No worries.”
“What did Da say?” Neev peppered, reminding me of how much of Da she’d missed out on.
No, he hadn’t been the best of men, but he was our father. And he’d loved us.
“That bikers thought mobsters had too high an opinion of themselves and mobsters thought bikers had low foreheads.”
Neev purred, “None of those hotties had low foreheads.”
I clucked my tongue. “Neev.”
“I was joking!”
Raisin asked me, “You scared about staying here?”
I flicked a look at Stan, who’d untucked a Little Debbie’s cupcake from its wrapper with as much care as a mom diapering her newborn. “No.”
“Think he’ll hold your hand and let you sit on his lap for the rest of the day?”
I shoved Neev. “Why do I love you again?”
“Because I’m fucking awesome.”
I sampled some of Raisin’s coffee. “That so?”
Raisin tucked her jacket tighter around herself. “I’m not sure why I’m on edge.”
“Because we’re miles away from home, and even if their overprotectiveness annoys the shit out of us, Lucas and Cade are always close enough to kickstart a rescue mission?” I drawled.
Neev pulled a face at the coffee—bougie to her bones, that one. “I’m glad to be away from them. They drive me nuts.”
“They drive us nuts. Why else did we pick Cancún?” I argued.
“It pains me to say it but Kitty’s right. They’re our safety net.”
The three of us shared a look, but Neev conceded, “I lied. I do miss them.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Raisin stirred creamer into Neev’s coffee. “Same.”
When I glanced over the counter, I saw that Stan had his eyes on us again. Maybe he felt our worries, or maybe he read it in my expression because he was back on his feet.
All ten miles of him.
When he leaned an arm against the kitchen wall, I realized that the only reason I hadn’t freaked out so far was because of him. He didn’t feel like a stranger to me. Not because of our flirtation on the flight over here and our multiple conversations and heart-to-hearts, but because of Currau.
I’d learned a lot about his family through his prozio.
My sisters didn’t have that luxury.
No wonder Raisin looked ready to start pulling out her eyelashes from stress.
“Nothing will happen to you while I’m here.”
I didn’t want to be the woman who was immediately reassured by a guy’s vow when men vowed to do basic ass shit every damn day and routinely failed, but I was reassured.
Infinitely so.
Partly because of the smeared fudge in the corner of his mouth that I wanted to lick off—
“What if you’re not here?” Raisin shattered the delicious imagery my mind had conjured. “What if you’re needed on the plane?”
“I won’t go anywhere without you three. You have my word.”
Those last four were uttered with his eyes fixed on mine again.
It was for me.
Another promise.
For me.
Because of me.
I took a deep breath to clear my head. This man intoxicated me. With my siblings sharing the small bunkhouse, acting on that intoxication would be tough.
That meant I needed fresh air—gallons of it.
“Thank you, Stan. That means a lot to us. Doesn’t it?” I encouraged.
Neev batted her lashes in thanks while Raisin presented Stan with a cup of coffee. Shortly after, message imparted, he returned to his pile of junk food.
“It’s hot how he eats.”
“Neev,” I hissed, because she was 100% correct and she had no right to be thinking that about my—
“What? It’s true. I bet he’s so good at oral!”
I elbowed her.
“Ouch! Kitty, why are you so touchy today? Violence solves nothing,” she reasoned, tone pious, but the glint in her eye heralded trouble.
“Stan is hers,” Raisin said primly.
“What if he is?!”
“You’re admitting it?!” Neev whisper-shrieked.
I scowled, especially at Raisin, who cackled around a: “Oh, god, this is too good to be true. Weren’t you into finance bros the last time we discussed men?”
“Stan is a finance bro.”
Raisin smirked. “In a very illegal way.”
“Banks are corrupt.”
“You don’t have to justify falling for a criminal to us, Kitty,” Neev sang. “We’re your sisters. We accept and embrace your quirks.”
“Look, less about my love life—”
“Oh, it’s love, is it? After two plane rides and a night in Mexico?”
“Fuck off, Raisin. Do you want to hear more about Star Sullivan or not?”
Her shoulders sagged a touch. “I think I’ve heard of Dead To Me.”
“You have?”
“Remember when I worked at that florist last year?”
“Vaguely. You weren’t there long…”
She shot me the bird at the reminder of her inability to hold a job for longer than six months—by this point, it was a pandemic of unemployability.
“I had to arrange this gift bag once. On the front, it said ‘Dead To Me,’ and I wrote that name on a gift card too. It had a message, but I don’t remember what it said.
It was too long ago. Anyway, I had to tie a bunch of balloons around the handles, curl the ribbons and pack this weird doll that the client provided inside it. ”
“The name could be a coincidence,” I interjected.
“How many people use that moniker, Kitty?”
Neev poured the fourth dose of sugar into her coffee. “It’s not the kindest gift bag idea in the world, is it? What happened to ‘Congratulations’ or ‘Happy Birthday?’ ‘Dead To Me’ is pretty hardcore. Maybe it’s like a boo basket. For people who’ve pissed you off.”
I shook my head. “Neev, your brain is a cauldron for dangerous activity.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t, and I don’t want to either. Anyway, apparently Star Sullivan knew Stan was traveling to Cancún—”
“How did that lead to Dead To Me’s murder?”
“I don’t know. Something to do with the Albanian Mob and her killing one of their leaders.”
In consternation, they both gaped at me.
I spread my hands wide. “I’ve told you everything I know now. We’re as in the loop as Stan wants us to be.”
Unease settled among us.
As my ‘intel’ had provided us with zero comfort, Neev being Neev yelled, “Stan, can we switch rooms so we can watch the TV and you can eat all the food, please?”