Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 102833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 514(@200wpm)___ 411(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
“Where were you?” Dominick asks when I stroll into the house a few hours later. “Dad’s been waiting for you.”
“I’m sure he has been,” I mutter, too drained from the gym to get worked up again.
I sit beside him at the island and steal one of the cookies he’s eating from his plate—thanks to our housekeeper, Martha, who makes the best damn sweets.
“Heard you beat the hell out of Anthony.” He chuckles.
“He was talking shit. Saying he’s going to marry Bri.”
Dominick freezes, his cookie an inch from his mouth.
“Dominick, tell me he was just talking shit.”
He shakes his head. “I wish he were. Dad talked to me about it last night, but I didn’t have a chance to tell you. Apparently, I’m being forced to marry Daniella.”
“Daniella’s a fucking baby!” I hiss.
“Shh.” He glances around to make sure Andrey isn’t near. “I know, but our father, Giuseppe, and Joseph have it in their heads that if I marry Daniella and Anthony marries Brielle, our families will be connected and unstoppable.”
“They’re fucking nuts.” I look over at Dominick. “Tell me you aren’t going to go along with this bullshit idea.”
“I don’t want to,” he mutters. “But you know I have to go along with whatever he says until we can figure out a way to get rid of him.”
“I say we kill him in his sleep … tonight.”
I’d gladly put a bullet between his eyes, and with our family’s connections, I’d get away with it.
“We can’t,” he says. “He wants me to go to college. Says it will look good. And he’s not handing anything over to me until I do. He said if anything happens to him, everything goes to Giuseppe.”
“Motherfucker!” I slam my fist on the marble countertop.
“Stop,” Dominick says. “It might take a little longer, but one day, our father will be six feet under, and everything will be ours.” He hands me another cookie. “We just have to be patient.”
1
Matteo
Twenty Years Later
“Fuck yes,” I groan, my eyes closed and my head tilted back. “You suck me so—”
My phone buzzes on the end table, and I debate whether to answer it. On one hand, it’d be rude to answer the call while Charmaine has her lips wrapped around my cock, but on the other hand, it’s late—nearly two in the morning—since she insisted on talking about herself for fucking hours after dinner.
I glance at the screen and see it’s my best friend, Lorenzo. Fuck it. If he’s calling this late, there’s a reason.
I reach for my phone, and the sucking stops. “It’s okay, baby. Keep going. I’ll only be a minute.”
She nods and goes back to sucking my dick, and I pat the top of her head in praise. The shitty, overpriced food at the country club, mixed with her incessant talking, damn near killed me, but I gotta give it to her—she can suck a cock like a pro.
“Russo,” I say, “this’d better be important. I’m in the middle of having my—”
“Matteo,” he breathes, forcing my body to tense up. “My parents are dead. There was a fire at their house, and neither of them made it out.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
We hang up, and I stand, momentarily forgetting about the woman still on her knees. “I have to go, but it’s been … fun.” I tuck my already-softening cock into my pants, thanks to the news Lorenzo just hit me with.
Charmaine glances up at me in confusion.
“What?” she says, clambering to her feet. “That’s it? But I didn’t even get you off.” She follows me toward her front door. “And what about me?”
Thankfully, I came to her place rather than booking a room at one of our hotels, so I can leave without argument. I don’t know this woman, I don’t want to know her, and I sure as fuck don’t have to explain myself to her.
Without answering any of her questions, I head straight for my car and jump in, my only concern Lorenzo. Unlike the nonexistent relationship I had with Andrey, Lorenzo gets along with his father. When Andrey was killed four years ago by Joseph due to a falling-out between them, my only regret was that I hadn’t gotten the chance to put the bullet in his heart myself.
On my way to the Russos’ residence, I call my brother to let him know what happened. Unlike me, who is a night owl, I wake him from his beauty sleep. But the second I tell him what happened, he’s awake and on his way.
Since I was in downtown Miami and he was home, only a few blocks away from where the Russos live, we arrive at the same time to find firefighters all over the area, putting out the fire. It’s mostly smoke at this point, but the home is beyond fucked.
“Are you sure your parents were in there?” I ask Lorenzo when I find him sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, staring at the house with glassy eyes.