Chapter 19
NINETEEN
FINN
One whole week. It had been one whole week since Finn had seen Gianna.
She ran to her room or surrounded herself with her best friends and brother any chance she got to avoid being around him.
If he was worse, he would have simply thrown her over his shoulder and left, but as it stood, most of them still hated him so that would not have gone over well with anyone.
Actually, he didn’t know where his relationship with Allister stood.
They never really talked. Mostly because he was up Valerio’s ass and Finn couldn’t have cared less what the loser was doing before.
Maybe he needed to care more now. Gianna would want him to have a good relationship with Allister if they ever went public with their relationship.
But where one idiot went, another followed by the name of Dante Vitali.
By associating with one, Finn would have to associate with the other.
This was exactly why he didn’t date—too much fucking work.
But when it came to Gianna, he didn’t hesitate to do it.
He even felt compelled to do it, took the initiative, which was wild in his opinion.
Still, her avoidance was why he approached Allister and Dante as they sat in the study, talking about something that he couldn’t care less about.
The moment they saw him enter they stopped talking.
Dante’s eyes narrowed immediately as if he couldn’t believe that Finn was in his space.
Allister, on the other hand, raised his brow in question.
“Hi,” Finn said awkwardly, standing by the entrance. When he couldn’t be an asshole, he wasn’t sure how to act.
“What are you doing here, Kingsley?” Dante asked, taking a sip of whatever drink he held in his hand.
“Thought I would come here to extend a hand to you both considering I live here, and I don’t talk to either of you,” Finn said.
Dante went to open his mouth, but Allister was the one to talk first. “Take a seat.”
He did. He leaned back on the couch, getting comfortable while they eyed every single movement he made. They all sat there for a moment in silence. Was Finn supposed to say something? How the hell did people even become friends? Should he compliment them?
“Do you want something to drink?” Allister asked.
Thank God.
“Sure,” Finn said. Allister grabbed a glass from the center of the table and poured him some scotch, handing it over. He grabbed the glass, swallowing nearly half of it at once. “Thanks.”
“How are you liking being back home?” he asked, getting comfortable again. “I know the circumstances weren’t necessarily your favorite.”
Right, where they drugged him and then Dante knocked him out by hitting him in the head with a gun. No, it really wasn’t his favorite.
“Every day gets better,” he said. “It’s weird being back in this house with everyone considering the last time we all lived together, we were in the middle of a war.”
“Well, that’s over now,” Dante said. His eyes were harsh. “So there’s no point in reliving the past.”
“Not reliving it, just making an observation,” Finn said.
“I can’t imagine the transition has been easy for you,” Allister said.
“Thanks for saying that,” he said, and he genuinely meant it.
Since he had been back, it felt like he was constantly trying to convince everyone of how hard it was for him to be there, but hearing someone acknowledge it themselves felt refreshing. It seemed like Allister was the logical one amidst the wild Vitalis.
“I know that neither of you have to let me stay here, so I want to take you both out. Treat you to drinks,” Finn said. He knew they liked their parties, and so if there was one way to get them to tolerate him, or maybe even be friendly, it would be through a wild night out.
Immediately, Dante’s eyes lit up. “If you want to treat us with that big fat Kingsley inheritance, then I’m not complaining. Just a heads up, we’re expensive.”
Finn resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “I think I can handle it.”
Allister stood, a grin on his face. “Then I think you have yourself a deal, Kingsley.”
Gianna popped into his head. That was who he was doing this for. All for her.
Fuck his life.
When he brought up the idea, Finn thought they would plan for something a few weeks from then. But Allister and Dante had jumped up and dragged him out to some fucking club that night.
They were at some club in the city that was obviously owned by the Vitalis, and yet, they had no issue creating a tab under Finn’s name and ordering bottles to it.
The club was three stories tall. Each floor was open, acting like a balcony that looked down onto the main dance area at the center of the first floor.
Red lighting covered the entire building, making it difficult to see anything clearly, but he assumed that was the point.
This seemed like the type of club people hid out at to be as wild as they wanted to be.
They were currently on the third floor, which seemed completely reserved for VIPs because it was decked out with red velvet sofas and a glass table. Dante had invited people up with them, so Finn didn’t recognize a single person except the duo he came with.
He used to be the type of person who would have enjoyed this very environment, but now, it seemed like this was the last place he should have been. Things had changed so much in such a short time, and it was hard for him to wrap his fucking head around it.
He sat on one of the sofas with a drink in one hand and his phone in the other. His text conversation with Gianna stared back at him.
Gianna
Are you awake?
I can’t stop thinking about you.
Stop ignoring me, princess.
Yeah, he kept texting, and she kept not responding. He didn’t give a shit. It didn’t change the fact that she was his now and no matter how much she tried to ignore him, he would make sure he lingered around just to remind her of his presence.
He turned off his phone, sighing. Allister sat down next to him, handing him one of the many bottles on the table.
“Need a refill?” he asked.
“I think I do,” Finn said, grabbing it and pouring himself another drink. He didn’t know what number this was, but it didn’t matter anymore. The burn going down his throat was all that was helping him get through this night.
“You didn’t have to do all of this, by the way,” Allister said.
He shrugged. “I’ve been an asshole. It felt like the right thing to do.”
“You’ve been through a lot, and sure the way you handle things is horrible, but I don’t think any of us process things in a healthy way. If we did, none of us would be the way we are now.” Allister grinned, grabbing a different bottle off the table and refilling his glass.
Finn snorted. “Yeah. You’re probably right about that.”
They were quiet for a moment, but it wasn’t an awkward silence like before. It was comfortable, like two friends just sitting beside each other observing the scene in front of them. Said scene being Dante with his tongue down some dude’s throat, but it was still a scene. Finn turned his head away.
“Why aren’t you out there partying right now?” Finn asked.
Allister sighed. “It’s fucking complicated. You?”
“Same fucking thing.”
“You know, Luna suspected there was someone in your life,” he said. “We were all trying to figure out if it was true or not.”
“I’ve heard.” Finn rolled his eyes. “I love her, but sometimes she really drives me insane.”
“Those are sisters for you. A fucking headache, but still, I would die for her.”
“Are you and Gianna close?” Finn asked, taking his chance to learn more about her.
Allister nodded. “We’ve always been. With only us two and our father, we relied on each other a lot. She acts so strong, but deep down she’s so fragile. That’s why I’m happy she has the girls and all of us as her support; she needs it even if she pretends that she doesn’t.”
“You’re a good brother.” That was the truth.
It made him question his own relationship with Luna; how much he had been willing to put up with, how little he had done with everything that was going on between them and their father.
He tried his best to protect her, but he hadn’t realized she had already been past the point of protecting. That it was a life-or-death situation.
“You are too,” Allister said. “You stood by your sister when you could have walked away.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Finn said.
His father wanted him dead towards the end; Finn knew that to be a fact. Sticking with Luna had been a matter of preservation as much as it was out of protection.
“We always have a choice.”
Finn swallowed harshly, desperately trying to push down every painful reminder of everything that had happened. Now was not the time to dive into any of that.
“Is this you choosing to be nice to me when you could be an asshole?” Finn asked him.
“Being an asshole isn’t really my style.”
“I think I know someone who might beg to differ,” Finn muttered. Too many times, he had heard the very phrase come out of Blair’s mouth when she was complaining to Luna throughout the years.
Allister’s eyes lit up, but he covered it up with a small laugh instead. “I think we should celebrate this moment with a picture.”
“A picture? You don’t seem like the monumental type,” Finn said. Then it struck him. A picture was exactly what he needed. “On second thought, that sounds perfect.”
Allister took the first one on his phone and then Finn took one on his.
They plastered on big grins as if they were the best friends in the world.
Whatever Allister’s motivations were for taking the picture, Finn didn’t really care.
All he knew was that he felt so giddy sending the picture off to the very girl who was so keen on ignoring him but wouldn’t be once she saw it.
Gianna
Thought you might enjoy seeing me and your big bro being best buds!
Sleep tight, princess.
He turned off his phone just as the bubbles from her typing came up, a true and genuine smile on his face now.