Chapter 13 #2
A Son who spilled blood recklessly was easy to notice. A Son who knew restraint was far deadlier. That was what we needed.
And while Blair had said she didn’t want to be a fucktoy, I’d be fucking her. Being a Fawn wasn’t sexual at its core. It was more strategic than anything.
I cracked my knuckles, locking my eyes on her, waiting until she finally looked at me. “And if anyone ever tries to hurt you, they’ll have to go through me first. Which means they won’t.” I stood, walked over to my nightstand, opened a drawer, and withdrew a necklace.
Her gaze softened as it tracked my every step back to her. My dick stirred again when I realized her body wasn’t as wound tight. Her pulse no longer fluttered beneath her skin.
With my free hand, I took hers. Her skin was smooth as I turned her palm upward, tracing the shallow cut I’d made the other night.
“Say yes,” I said, almost in a daze.
One, two, three, four seconds passed.
I shut my eyes, inhaled a breath, and waited for longer than I wanted.
She didn’t reply until I was no longer looking at her. “Yes.”
My pulse exploded.
Blair officially belonged to me.
She was mine to touch. To command. To own.
Opening my eyes, I crooked my finger, motioning for her to stand. It took her a few seconds before she did.
We stood face-to-face.
Our lips, our eyes, our cheeks only inches from each other.
I clasped the necklace around her neck. “Now comes the rules.” I dragged my finger along the chain, right along her neck. “You must behave, Blair. If I tell you to wear something, then you wear it.”
A breath punched from her lungs as I started unbuttoning her shirt. I couldn’t stop myself from dragging my thumb along her nipple, and my cock twitched when she shuddered.
When I hit the bottom button, reality hit her.
She smacked my hand away, and in response, I tore the shirt open. The remaining button flew across the room. The shirt slid open, revealing a lacy red bra.
I backed away, toward my closet, pulled a shirt off the hanger, and handed it to her. “This is what you wear from now on. Every week, a fresh supply will be delivered to your dorm.”
She hurriedly slipped the shirt on while I wandered over to my desk and collected her MacBook from the top drawer.
I paused, admiring her in my clothes, and held up the MacBook. “Password. Now.”
A brush of air hit my face when she lunged toward me in an attempt to snatch it back, but I was faster than she was.
“Aht, aht,” I said in the most disapproving tone I’d ever delivered in my life. “Password first, and you’ll get it back when I’m finished.”
She jumped on her heels, trying to leap over me. “You’re not getting my password.”
“Then no laptop for you.” I checked my watch. “I have to go now.” I toyed with her necklace, placing a kiss along the antler pendant. “Be good. I have eyes everywhere.”
Blair didn’t yet know everything about her role.
She had to survive her Initiation next, and that was one of the hardest parts for Fawns.
After I was finished with Blair, I left her in her dorm, got in my car, and drove the hour to New York City.
The city where I’d lived my entire life. The place that would always be my home.
I headed straight to Lucky Kings Casino and parked in the private area before going to Julian Bellini’s office.
Antonio, my brother-in-law and sister Gigi’s husband, owned and ran the chain of casinos that stretched along the East Coast. Antonio was also the boss of the Lombardi family.
Julian helped him run the empire and was one of his capos. He also happened to be one of the best hackers I knew.
I needed him to get me into Blair’s phone.
Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to create a fake family for her records. A perfectly polished backstory that covered up whatever she was hiding.
That alone pissed me off.
But now, there was another reason. Blair was my Fawn, which meant her secrets were now my business. I intended to find every single one of them.
She thought she was clever, putting her phone in stolen mode.
How fucking cute.
I sat in Julian’s office for an hour while he struggled to hack into her phone. He did, however, manage to gain access to her cloud account. He used that information to sign her back into her phone.
Nico needed to learn a thing or two from him.
I paid him and returned to my Porsche Panamera before driving to the Marchetti mansion, the home I’d grown up in. My car rolled to a stop in front of the gates, and I lifted my hand, giving a quick salute to the armed guards.
The gates opened immediately, and I drove through, going deeper onto the property.
Our estate sat beyond the outer limits of New York City. The location was close enough for us to control everything that happened in the city, but far enough that we could disappear from it.
People claimed the Marchetti mansion was more secure than Fort Knox. They weren’t wrong. If anything, the protection had doubled over the past few years. Our enemy list kept getting longer.
This home was where I had learned to walk, where my father had put my first gun in my hands, and the only place in the world where I didn’t always feel like I had to watch my back.
It was a shelter of loyalty and a den of family secrets.
I parked in the circular drive, grabbed my bag, stepped out of my car, and headed for the front door. It was unlocked.
Inside, the foyer was quiet, except for the soft movements of the staff. I nodded toward a couple of housekeepers as I passed. Like the home, I’d grown up around them.
My footsteps resounded as I headed toward my father’s office on the right side of the foyer.
“Hi, honey.”
I stopped and turned to find my mother walking toward me. She wrapped me in a tight hug. I returned it automatically, kissing her cheek as we parted.
“I’ve missed you.” She grinned brightly, like it’d been years since we’d talked, though it’d only been a day.
Every day, she texted Seraphina and me without fail, saying she loved us. Her mother had died when she was young, so she swore she’d never make us question how much we mattered to her.
Sometimes, because of who my father was, some people overlooked how beautiful and intelligent she was.
They only saw her as the wife of a cruel man.
But she was the softness that had helped shape him into the great father he was to us.
She was also by his side when she knew he needed to show his teeth during tough times.
She helped him balance his control.
So similar to how the Fawn System worked.
Still smiling, she pointed at me, her tone turning serious. “Your father is upset with you about something, but he refuses to tell me what it is.”
I shrugged, pretending I wasn’t as nervous as I was. “Guess I should go find out what I did, then.”
She nodded, kissed my cheek, and walked toward the staircase.
I knocked on my father’s office door.
“Come in,” his deep voice called from the other side.
I stepped inside, finding him sitting behind his massive oak desk with his posture relaxed in the black leather chair. Though I knew he was anything but.
My father lived in a constant state of tension.
That was the price of being a Mafia boss. Most men in his position died young.
I shut the door behind me, eyeing the family portrait hung behind him on the wall—the only thing in the office that had changed in decades.
Everything else looked exactly the same since I was a kid.
Dark wood, leather chairs, and the antique bar cart in the corner.
The bar now held more liquor than the last time I was here.
This office would never belong to me.
Neither would the house.
That honor went to Benny.
The perks of being the firstborn son.
Right now, Benny had his own house on the Marchetti grounds. When the time came, I’d either move into his place or build something new somewhere on the property.
Either way, I’d always live here.
I’d graduate from Saint Vale, then spend the rest of my life doing what I had been raised to do—help run our family empire.
My father slid his reading glasses down his nose, then removed them completely before tossing them onto the desk. His hair, which had once been as dark as mine, was peppered with gray, but he still didn’t look anywhere near his age.
He leaned back in his chair, his face rigid as he studied me. “Welcome home, Son. How’s Saint Vale?”
“Good.” I sank into a leather chair across from him. “Glad it’s my last year.”
He gave a slight nod, satisfied with my answer, and folded his hands together. “It’s time we talk about your future.”
“I think we both know what my future looks like after Saint Vale.”
“The society you joined has rules, and you owe them loyalty.”
I knew what he wasn’t saying.
I’d sworn loyalty to the Night Sons, but my loyalty to my family ran deeper than that. And in the Marchetti bloodline, family always came first.
My blood boiled at how he stared at me, as if testing where my allegiance truly was.
I cleared my throat. “Attending Saint Vale was your idea. I wanted nothing to do with that place. You said it’d make our family stronger, so I went.” My eyes held his. “Same with joining the Night Sons.”
He worked his jaw, taking in my words.
“I swore an oath to them,” I continued, my tone level. My stare remained locked on his. “But I had been born to protect this family.”
Silence fell over the room, so I tapped my foot, hating it.
One. Two. Three.
Faster and faster.
For years, I’d always wished I could cut open my father’s skull to see what he was thinking.
“The Night Sons are a network,” I added. “I joined it to expand our reach. Not replace it.” My tapping stopped, and I lifted my brow. “You questioning my loyalty pisses me off.”
“Enzo,” he snarled.
My father never raised his voice. He didn’t have to.
“You’re smart enough to understand my concern,” he said. His chair snapped forward as he leaned toward the desk.
“I attended Saint Vale for you—”
He cut me off. “For our family.” He steepled his fingers together. “My loyalty always supersedes.”