Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
AIDEN
It’s a date .
Sonny’s last words stuck in my mind. The pretty boy was such an arrogant asshole and got whatever he wanted.
And he wanted me.
Too fucking bad .
I was not giving in to his sexy smirks. He could try to charm me, but that shit would not work.
“You like Sonny.” Alex giggled on the drive home in the back of our grandfather’s limo. “I know you do. He’s cute.”
Am I that transparent?
I liked to think of myself as a human shield. For years, I practiced concealing my emotions. With parents like ours, I learned to hide my emotions. My mother would use them against me as she did to Alex. One of us had to be strong enough for both of us.
I slid my arm across the bench behind her and groaned. “Knock that off, Lexie. I don’t like Sonny. He’s too pretty for me.”
It was a total lie.
I should have told Alex. She knew everything about me and didn’t care when I swung the other way.
“Yeah, right.” Alex sipped from a bottle of expensive water that only reminded me of the difference between our old and new life. “I saw you looking at Sonny. I mean, I get it, Aid. If I didn’t have to marry one of the Salvatore brothers, Sonny would be my next choice.”
“After what they did to you today, which one of them will you choose?” I bent down and got in her face. “Hmmm? Do you like being treated like shit?”
I was being a dick.
I knew it.
But I needed her to see the Salvatore brothers were monsters. They would destroy my sweet, innocent sister if she let them.
“I like Marcello a lot.” She folded her hands on her lap and smiled, ignoring my question. “He’s cute. Did you check out his arms? Oh my God! They’re so big.”
“That’s not the only big thing about him.”
Alex bit her lip, and her eyes wandered out the window. “Yeah, I noticed.”
Earlier, Marcello wore a fitted T-shirt and tight track pants that outlined his big dick. If he appeared that big in black pants, I wondered how he looked in gray sweats.
“You don’t know how to handle them. And you can’t trust them. The Salvatores are criminals. Pops told me their family is connected to the Italian Mafia.”
She gasped. “Really? The Mafia?”
I nodded. “Be careful, Lexie. That’s all I’m saying. Don’t lower your guard with them.”
“I won’t. I know better than to trust anyone but you.”
We drove through the tall, iron gates that loomed over the estate, passing rows of red maple trees that lined each side of the long path to our new home. Our last house was a tiny piece of shit that barely had enough room for a kitchen table and a couch. My bedroom was the size of a closet, and you could hear everything through the walls.
The limo stopped in the circular driveway out front of Wellington Manor. Yes, our grandfather’s house had its own name. We didn’t even have a driveway at my last house. Our parents were so poor they could barely afford a car, let alone a limousine.
I grabbed my bag from the floor and took Alex’s in my other hand. My dad never taught me much and was pretty useless. But he always showed my mother respect, something I learned from him and passed on to my sister.
The driver opened the door for Alex, offering his hand to help her out of the car. “Welcome home, Miss Wellington. Your grandfather is waiting for you in his study.” Wayne’s eyes flicked to me as I got out of the car. “You, too, Mr. Wellington. He said it’s urgent.”
“What now?” I groaned, flinging our backpacks over my shoulder, and headed toward the house. “Never a dull fucking moment at this place.”
“It beats our old home,” Alex pointed out. “I’ll take living with Pops and Blair any day over our parents.”
“Blair,” I bit out with a snarl. “That fucking bitch grinds on my nerves. I can see where Mom learned how to parent us.”
Alex shivered at the mention of our mother and grandmonster from hell. Blair and Savannah were two peas from one fucked up pod. You could tell Blair raised our mom with strict rules. Nothing was ever good enough, and because of that, neither were we.
No one ever chose us.
So we chose each other.
The front doors opened as we approached the house, and the butler stepped between them, gliding toward us like he was walking on water. Charles was so damn graceful it amazed me. He was also a nice guy who treated us like kids and snuck us cookies when Blair wasn’t looking.
I liked Charles.
He was the grandfather I always wanted. Instead, I got Carl. The old man insisted we call him Pops and held our freedom and futures over our heads. Alex didn’t want to marry a Salvatore but felt she had no choice. Not with Pops ramming the marriage down her throat.
“Miss Alexandrea,” Charles said with a smile aimed at my sister before turning to look at me. “Master Aiden. How was school?”
I liked it when he called me that. Like, I was Batman, and he was Alfred.
After we moved here, I asked Charles how he became a butler. Apparently, there were training programs, which shocked the hell out of me. Who would want to train to become a servant? Especially for a bunch of ungrateful, spoiled assholes like the Wellingtons.
I still didn’t think of myself as a Wellington. Even with Luca and his brothers calling me that, it sounded unnatural. I would never feel like a Wellington or act like one.
“It was okay, I guess,” Alex confessed as she followed Charles inside the house, clinging to his side. “We’re still getting used to Devil’s Creek.”
And everyone in it.
I had more in common with Charles than Sonny. That pretty boy would never understand my life. He didn’t know what it was like to go days without eating, hanging on for Monday so I could get the free food at school. None of these rich pricks ever lit the stove with a match because the power was off again and needed heat.
Alex and I knew hardship.
We were survivors.
I couldn’t say the same for the Founders and their kids. They only knew how to take and keep taking until they bled you dry.
Charles led us to the back of the house and into our grandfather’s study. The room had distressed leather furniture from another era, like an old Western saloon at high noon. A wooden bar spanned one side of the right wall. Two nailhead couches were between a coffee table carved from a tree trunk. Like most things in the house, it was expensive and handmade.
Carl sat behind an oversized desk fit for the president, hands clasped before him. A fireplace was behind him, with a deer head hanging over the mantle.
No way Carl shot that deer .
I laughed at the thought.
“Hello, Pops,” Alex said with an award-winning smile worthy of an Oscar as she strolled toward his desk. “You wanted to see us.”
My twin was so happy to be away from our mother that she didn’t see Carl playing games with her. She didn’t care he was using her. And if she was happy, then so was I.
“How did the Salvatore boys treat you, princess?” Carl glanced at Alex for an answer, eyebrows raised.
One day, Alex would be the Queen of The Devil’s Knights. A provision our grandfather insisted on when he agreed to the marriage. He said it was the only way to ensure Alex’s safety. I didn’t want her to be involved with a secret society of billionaires. But I would play along if it kept her safe until we escaped this place.
“They’re kinda mean,” she told him. “But no worse than my mom. I can handle them.”
“She’s not telling you the truth,” I interjected. “Luca made her get on her knees in the dining hall. The other two put their fucking hands on her like she’s their property. I’m not okay with this, Pops.”
“Neither am I,” he snapped, reaching for the phone on his desk. He picked up the receiver and dialed a number, raising it to his ear. “Arlo, it’s Carl.” He paused. “No, everything is not okay. Your boys put their filthy hands on my granddaughter at school today. I will not allow it.”
“Save your apologies, Arlo,” our grandfather hissed. “Luca is rotten to his core. So are the other two you adopted. If you don’t do something about them, the Salvatores will never get admitted into The Founders Society. Do you understand me?”
I was unsure if Arlo Salvatore responded before Pops slammed the phone down, his cheeks flushed with anger. No one, apart from me, had ever stood up for Alex. I wasn’t Carl’s biggest fan. But now that I saw he cared about my sister, he wasn’t so bad.
“That should take care of the issue,” he said to assure Alex. “I’m sorry, princess. Those boys won’t harm you again. If they try anything, let me know. I will threaten everything the Salvatores hold dear.”
Our grandfather was one of the Elders in The Founders Society, making him a very powerful man. He was also number three on the Forbes Billionaires list. He had too much money, but you could never have enough if you asked him.
Overnight, I went from below the poverty line to one of the heirs to a multi-billion dollar fortune. I would be expected to take my grandfather’s place as an Elder one day. But I wanted nothing to do with his money or this stupid town. I hated pretending to be one of them.
I wouldn’t be one of them.