“Do you think she’s lonely?” Valentino asked me suddenly.
I looked at him. “I think you would be better at answering that question than me. Why’d you bring that up?”
“Just the way she was looking at me when I dropped her off at my apartment this morning. You think I should get her a puppy?”
“Does she want a puppy?” I asked with a laugh.
Valentino reached over and punched my arm. I grunted. Fucker.
“I’m serious.”
I shrugged. “She might be more of a cat person,” I answered. After all, Isa’s personality aligned more with a cat, but then again, what the fuck did I know about that?
The last time I saw her genuinely smile at me was… fuck, when she was eighteen, right before that confession. Why couldn’t things just go back to the way they were before that night?
I stood up and held my hand out to him. “Come on. Let’s clean up and get back to work.”
He grabbed it, and I helped him up before we hit the showers.
I pulledup to the huge house, just one away from my own.
It wasn’t the same home I had grown up in, filled with nothing more than abuse, violence, and test after test, delegated by my monster of a father, that my brothers and I needed to pass just to fucking eat.
He wanted us to prove ourselves worthy of the De Luca name. Shit had been rough for a while. I was fucking glad Massimo killed him when he did. My only regret was not being able to take part in that. I would have loved nothing more than to feel the fucker’s blood turn cold in my hands.
I shook away the bloodlust coursing through my system from the thought and walked up to the front porch. The front door opened before I could knock, and a small bit of a girl ran out with a squeal.
My body instantly went on full alert as I wrapped my arms around Luna to stop her from running off. “What happened?”
I pushed her behind me and pulled out my gun.
“Elio, no! It’s fine,” Luna yelled out.
“Stay behind me,” I said.
She grabbed the back of my shirt as I ignored her and aimed my gun. Massimo came running out, a devilish smile on his face at first, until he saw me. He stopped in front of me, his eyes assessing. I kept the gun out, wondering if there were going to be any other people coming out, but…
What the hell was wrong with his face? Why was my brother smiling like that?
“Fucking hell. What's happening?” I asked.
“Put the gun away,” Massimo said calmly.
“You were smiling,” I commented, tucking the gun back under my shirt.
Luna came up to my side. I wrapped my arms around her affectionately, pulling her in closer. Massimo narrowed his eyes at the move, and I held in a grin. My brother knew I thought of Luna as nothing more than a sweet little sister I wanted to protect from all the ugly shit in this world.
Didn’t stop the fucker from being possessive as hell.
“Hey, little brother?” he said, his eyes still focused on where Luna and I touched.
“Yeah?” I said, tightening my arm around her a fraction. She pressed her hand against my side, and I looked down to see gray eyes glinting a bit in the sunlight. She was much more mischievous than I initially thought. Marriage with Massimo obviously agreed with her.
“Let go of my wife before I break your arm.”
Luna gasped while I laughed.
She pulled away from me and crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at her husband.
