7. There really is a first time for everything
Chapter 7
There really is a first time for everything
Luca
A s I follow Ford to the far end of the property, I can’t help but wonder what would have brought Ariana to the shed. I know the kinds of stuff that must happen there. It’s no secret that the Vegas DeVilles are involved in a lot of illicit shit. Mom’s always talked about it in hushed tones and with a shaking head. She’s pretty judgmental about it all, considering she wants to reap whatever benefits she can from Marco’s dealings. Our last name opens a lot of doors back home, but I imagine it opens a lot more here.
None of Marco’s business has ever bothered me, though. I probably should have come here to learn from him a couple of years ago. I didn’t realize it was even a possibility until Dad brought it up as the only way out of a law degree and a fucking arranged marriage. Who even does that anymore? I shudder to think of who my mom would pick for me to marry. Probably someone cold and humorless like her.
Someone the exact opposite of Ariana. I’ve known her for all of half a second but it’s long enough to see that she’s full of sass and fire.
We walk into the shed, which is a lot bigger than any ‘shed’ I’ve ever seen. The man who attacked Ariana is sitting in a chair, his arms and legs bound to it. I’m not sure what Marco’s plans are for me here yet, but right now, I’m focused on what his plans are for the dumb fuck whining about being shot in the dick. A set of tools is spread out on a table against the wall, and Marco’s looking at them thoughtfully, trying to decide which one he wants to use.
“Luca, good of you to join us,” he says without turning to me. “Take a few wrong turns on the way?”
I grunt in reply, thinking maybe now is not the best time to bring up Lil’s shitty navigation skills.
Ford rolls up his sleeves, grinning like a madman.
Marco picks up a hammer. “The walls are soundproof. Let’s have a little fun with this asshole who thought he could put his hands on my daughter, huh?”
“I didn’t know! I didn’t know she was a DeVille!” The smell of piss fills the air.
“You should treat all women like they’re DeVilles, asshat,” Ford says, his smile somehow widening even more as he heads for the table.
An hour later, I’m scrubbing my hands in the sink in the back of the building, wondering if I should be horrified by what I just did and saw—or horrified by the fact that I’m not horrified. Marco walks over, holding a clean shirt out to me. Mine got a little… messy.
“Mia knows what we do in here, but she doesn’t like to see evidence of it.” He claps me on my shoulder after I drag the clean shirt over my head. “Not quite the introduction to DeVille business I had planned for you, but an important one all the same.”
I follow him out into the backyard. I hadn’t paid much attention when we got here, but now I realize how big the house is. It’s stupid big and probably has a shit ton of bathrooms and a theater.
We walk through a set of French doors and find Mia, Ariana, Lil, and an older woman Marco introduces as Becca in the kitchen. Marco crosses the room to Mia, murmuring, “My love,” and kissing her. They make a handsome couple. He’s a couple years older than my dad, putting him somewhere around forty-seven. His dark hair has started to go silver at the temples, but he clearly hits the gym. Mia’s a few years younger than him, if I remember correctly. She’s tall and blonde like Lil, and she was always kind to me when I was a kid.
“Ugh. Gross. Get a room.” Lil puts a hand over her eyes but has a grin on her face.
This house is so different from what I’m used to. There are photos on the walls. Magnets on the fridge that look like they’re from family vacations. It’s clean, but not sterile. It feels like a home. I’m uncomfortable and somehow content at the same time.
Ariana giggles and points a spoon at Marco and Mia. “Ah, you know they’re fucking adorable, Lil.”
Her legs dangle from where she sits on the counter, constantly moving just a little as she takes small bites of ice cream. She grimaces every time she opens her mouth, but she keeps eating it. The blood and makeup have been washed from her face, and her hair is up into a messy bun.
I think she’s even more beautiful this way. Which is saying something because I thought she was stunning before. Little hoops line the outsides of both her ears. The right side of her nose is pierced with a small stud, and there’s a tattoo on the top of her left foot. A little heart-shaped locket hangs from a chain wrapped around her wrist that I’m certain wasn’t there earlier. I can’t stop myself from stalking over to her and tilting her head up again, this time checking her stitches. Her breath catches, her legs still, and she closes her eyes. It’s like time freezes. I wonder if I’m having the same effect on her that she is on me. When she opens her eyes again, the lighting makes them look purple. She smells like some kind of fruity soap. Apricot? Mango? Pomegranate maybe? Whatever it is, it’s my new favorite scent.
“Doc does good work when he wants to. Much better than the job he did on my leg last year.” Marco grabs two beers out of the fridge and raises his eyebrow to ask if I want one. I nod and take it from him. I might only be twenty, but I just helped kill a man. Underage drinking is the least of our illegal activities tonight.
Stepping away from Ariana, I twist the top off and take a drink as I look around the big open kitchen. Fuck, it’s huge. Six people are in it, and it doesn’t seem crowded. There are four ovens built into the wall, and the fridge is double the size of a normal one.
“Well, when he has a lot of people to sew up, he doesn’t have time for pretty stitches.” Mia is standing in front of Marco and leans back against his chest as his arms come around her. My confusion must show on my face because she says, “Lil found a stray dog outside the walls and brought it in, and that damn thing ran around biting everyone it could get ahold of. I think Ari’s the only one who didn’t end up needing stitches that day.”
“Because she took one look at the dog, yelled ‘nope,’ and locked herself in the bathroom.” Lil shakes her head while rolling her eyes.
Ariana shrugs a shoulder and makes little circles in the air with her feet. “I’ve been telling you since we were five, no dogs, Lilith May.”
“And one day, you’ll tell me why, Ariana Ray.”
Fuck, her name is as gorgeous as she is. I’ve been fighting a boner since I first saw her, and it’s getting harder to fight it.
Harder. I almost snort.
What the fuck, I’m making dick jokes in my head tonight and laughing at them? Who the fuck am I ?
And wait, their fucking middle names rhyme?
“Doubtful,” Ariana smirks at Lil.
“Damn. That makes beer, hard liquor, pot, some stuff I won’t mention,” Lil ticks off her fingers as she lists shit, “and now whatever Doc gave you tonight that hasn’t worked to get that story out of you.” She scowls at Ariana, but there’s no heat behind it. “You keep one secret from me in fifteen years, and it’s fucking killing me. I’m going to have to resort to hard drugs. Dad, do you know where we could find some coke?” She tries to look innocent and bats her eyes.
“Very funny, Lilith,” Marco replies. They continue to banter for a while, and I try not to watch Ariana out of the corner of my eye. Which is why I miss it when she sways. Luckily, Mia’s paying attention.
“Luca, catch Ariana!” she shouts. I turn and grab a suddenly very drowsy Ariana off the counter and hold her in my arms against my chest. She looks up at me with glazed eyes, then closes them.
“I… hate… meds…” she slurs. My heart does a weird lurch. Again. This girl makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. Things I didn’t even know were real.
Mia rushes over to us. “I know, baby girl. But it’s just tonight. Tomorrow, you can rest and take regular ibuprofen.” She gently brushes a wayward lock of hair off of Ariana’s face.
“Promise, Mama?” Ariana’s voice is small and vulnerable and breaks my fucking heart.
“Promise.” Mia kisses her cheek. Ariana relaxes against me and is out within seconds.
Something settles inside me. I didn’t realize I was missing something. But I was. I was missing her. This girl holds the other half of my everything.
Mia’s tear-filled eyes meet mine as Lil wraps an arm around her waist. “Luca, do you mind carrying her upstairs? ”
“No, ma’am.” I don’t mind. I don’t mind one fucking bit. I’m going to mind having to put her down at some point, though.
“You can call me Mia or Aunt Mia or Auntie for all I care, but none of that ma’am bullshit.” She turns her head toward Lil, rubbing a hand down her daughter’s arm. “Can you show Luca where to put Ariana, please?”
“Yeah. Come on, Cousin Luca.” I follow Lil up the stairs to the third floor. She heads to the left and all the way down the hall, then around a corner. The space opens into a living room with a bathroom off of it and continues on to a hallway with four doors.
“Which one is her room?”
She points to the farthest door on the right. “That one. But she doesn’t sleep in there. Bring her into my room.” She walks to the room across from the one she pointed out as Ariana’s, but I don’t move because that doesn’t make sense.
“Why?”
“Why what?” Lil turns back to me.
“Why does she sleep in your room?”
Lil sighs and leans against the door frame. “It’s… it’s a long story.”
I stare at her, waiting.
“Do you want to put her down first?”
No. I don’t want to put her down. Not now. Not ever. But I don’t say that. I shake my head. “I’m fine, just confused.”
“Okay, I mean, you know she’s lived here since she was five, right?” I don’t even get the chance to nod before Lil continues. “Well, her bio parents were the type of dickheads who thought it was okay to leave bruises on their kid.” My blood boils at that information, and I hold Ariana a little tighter. “So Dad told them to knock it the fuck off, but she wasn’t safe with those assholes, so he gave them a bunch of money, and they gave us Ariana.”
Lil walks back to the living room and sits on the couch with a sigh. I follow. “Even before that, she had abandonment issues because they would stay out all night or even for a couple of days, and she was alone. A lot.”
“She was five!” I shout louder than I mean to, and Ariana stirs a little. I lower my voice. “What the fuck, who leaves a five-year-old home alone?”
“Her fucking stupid birth parents, that’s who. So anyway, even though Mom and Dad would tuck her into her bed at night, we would always find her with one of us before morning because she hated to be by herself. Especially at night. After a couple of weeks, she just started off in my bed with me instead of hers.” Lil shrugs and continues on. “She slept in Becca’s bed when we went out to the lake.”
I drag in a ragged breath. “Your dad told me about her coming that first year. I don’t remember. I didn’t know my mom…” my words trail off.
“Threw a fit? I kind of remember it. I definitely remember hating her. And I hated leaving Ari. We all did. But Mom and Dad didn’t want her to be mistreated by people who were supposed to treat her like family. After five years, we stopped going because Ari’s one of us, and fuck whoever says different.”
She pauses again. “Us leaving for a week at a time didn’t really help with the whole sleeping-alone thing. And we’ve had a few scary things happen over the years that solidified it.”
“Scary things like what happened tonight?” Please say no, please say ‘scary shit like finding a big hairy spider in her room’ or something. Spiders suck.
“Yeah. Even scarier than what happened tonight.”
Fuck. FUCK. “Because of the family name?”
“Sometimes. Sometimes because of other reasons. Sometimes because bad shit happens to girls in general. And no, I’m not going to tell you about any of it right now.”
I glare at her but let it go. For now.
“Look, we know we’re not ‘normal’ to most people.” Lil raises her hands to do the air quotes. “We’re best friends. We’re sisters, doesn’t matter if we don’t share blood. We’re codependent and basically joined at the hip. And we don’t fucking care if it’s weird because it works for us. We love each other, and we’re always going to be there for one another, and we know that probably means it’s just going to be the two of us forever because who the fuck wants to take on a girl who comes with a stage-five clinger best friend who is a little unhinged. Or a lot. Depends on which one of us you’re talking about. And honestly, we’re okay with that because if we have each other, that’s enough. Anything else would be a bonus. Anyway, come on. Let’s get her tucked into bed. She’s had one hell of a night, and we could all use some sleep.”
I follow Lil without another word as she heads back to her bedroom. Apparently at least one of them doesn’t know how to use a hamper because there are clothes everywhere. Another tornado of shit. It’s kind of endearing, really. She points to the right side of the King-sized bed, and I gently lay Ariana down.
“Make sure to tuck the blankets up around her shoulders. She can’t sleep with her arms uncovered.” I do as Lil says and force myself to head for the door. “Goodnight, Luca,” Lil says.
“Night.” With one last glance at Ariana, I leave the room and make my way back downstairs.
I already know I want to take on this girl, even if she does come with my slightly unhinged cousin as a stage-five clinger best friend. Ariana deserves someone better than me, but if I have to spend every day of the rest of my life trying to prove myself worthy of her, it’ll be a life well spent.
And something tells me that if she said I couldn’t buy a Maserati, I wouldn’t buy a Maserati.