She jumped up instantly, wrapped her legs around his waist, tucking her head against his neck as she ran her hand over his slicked back dark hair. He looked like the kind of man who enjoyed far too much hair gel for my liking. The sort of hair you couldn’t really mess up and yank on when you were fucking him, which was kind of sad. It was such an unattractive quality to me. I much preferred it when I could pull on my boy toys and make them squeal. Or like how with Misha, where his hair was long enough to grab a fistful of it and…
And I was getting distracted.
“I’ll drive for the rest of the day,amore mio.” The man sighed and glanced at me, recognition flaring in his eyes and mine. “Sorry about that; Heather forgot that they drive on the other side of the road here.” He glanced at Wraith. “Sorry forwhatever he said to you, too. He meant no disrespect, Miss Montana. He’s in a mood and is normally much… well, not nice. But he’s better at pretending to be nice to other people.”
Giovanni De Luca was a gangster; a respectable one, if there was such a thing. One I had only met on occasion, and even then, it had been when he didn’t know exactly who I was but had been more than aware of who my daddy had been. He worked in a city near to Diamond Grove, that his family ruled with relative ease. They were large, but nothing on my Red Diamonds, and thus we owned them too. I was fairly sure Beau and Giovanni were even friends, in a way. Or at least as much friends as my uncle would ever have. That meant I semi trusted De Luca not to be a complete piece of shit, so I didn’t bother threatening him. Or his friends. Boyfriend. Girlfriend. Whatever the fuck they were.
Not yet anyway. If the skinny gothic asshole threatened me again, I was going to cuthisface off and see how he liked it when I wore it like a creepy ass mask.
“Don’t worry about it.” I groaned a little as I glanced up at the pounding of feet, finding all of my men blessedly unharmed and heading my way.
They instantly surrounded me, suspicious as anything. But seeing as I wasn’t shooting or fighting, they didn’t act with violence. Which was good because we hardly had time to stand around gossiping seeing as there were sirens in the air, so I asked Wraith the only question I could think of as important. “You helped me because your sister asked you to?”
“Yes. She knew we were nearby doing something and when I informed her John was here, she asked me to keep you safe from his wrath.” He ushered his companions back into the car, and they both scrambled for the driver’s seat after a little wave goodbye. I watched Heather pout and dig her elbow into Giovanni’s side as he easily had her shoved into the passenger side and belted up. But instead of being put off by her violence,he kissed her. With far too much tongue for me to want to see. So clearly, he was a little tapped in the head, just like me, and enjoyed people being rough.
It was kind of cute considering their roles were flipped and it was the bundle of rainbows and giggles that was the one who seemed like she had a temper, not the tall, dark and mildly scary looking mafia man. I bet Giovanni had no issues listening to his girl’s every command, unlike my bunny.
Oddly enough though, I realized as I thought it that I wouldn’t enjoy it. I liked being told no and having Lincoln defy me even if it pissed me the fuck off that he did it, which made no sense but was still true.
“Do you know why he was here?” Huffing, I glanced around, trying to figure out the next step of my plan. Once more thankful someone could help me and I wasn’t doing it all alone.
Lincoln and Logan had found a car for us toborrow,and they both slid into it with only slightly wary looks.
“To collect what he thought was his son, and murder everyone else in the process.” He grinned at me. “Just the usual fun activities.”
“And you’re here because?” I asked next.
Wraith sighed. “Silver said protect you. I protected you. That’s it and I will expect payment from you, even if it was technically a favor for her. I don’t work for free.”
A scoff escaped my lips.
“I’m not paying for shit,pendejo. You did something without me asking, and if I’m being honest, you’re kinda pissing me off. I don’t like the way you’re talking to me.” My temper flared, even though he had saved me.
“Atlas, leave the poor girl alone!” Heather’s voice yelled through the window. “She’s basically Ruby’s family any day now. Which makes her our extra family. And you know we can’t bemean to family. Not when they’re nearly all dead or will be soon if we get lucky.”
“You know Ruby?” It helped me trust them a little. Not that I needed to, seeing as I wasn’t sure I would need to ever see them again or require their help.
Despite his glaring, I really wasn’t going to owe Atlas or Wraith, whatever his damn name was. If he’d asked nicely, I would have been kind, but fuck him for bossing me around and fucking grabbing at me.
Giovanni’s face appeared in the open window, as he smiled at me, like the entire situation was an entirely normal occurrence for him.
“My girl and Ruby are friends. They used to work together; ask your da… I mean, ask your uncle. He knows and will vouch for us.” He cast a dark look at Wraith. “You owe us nothing, either. This truly was a favor. He’s just being a brat because a man in the grocery store was rude to his dog, and I wouldn’t let him commit murder.”
“I’ll show you the meaning of the word brat.” Wraith hissed quiet enough that only I heard it.
“Someone was rude to your dog?” My brows rose. “Youshouldhave killed them.”
He turned his head, eyeing me up and down again before he nodded, a wicked smile taking over his face that made me shiver once more.
There was something wrong with him. Something that screamed predator to all of my instincts.
Something that made me think he had done his fair share of cutting off faces before.
“Saph.” Price called for me as the sounds of sirens got loud enough to make me panic and forget all about random meetings and the telenovela that was my life.
“Let’s go.” I turned my back on Wraith, but he grabbed my arm and I spun on my feet as I yanked myself free. “Get your hands off me, you creepy bastard. I won’t warn you again.”
“I changed my mind about the charge. You clearly have some sense in your pretty brain if you agreed with me about murder.” Came his reply, as the lights of the police cars hit the end of the road, a little too close for comfort. “But I do suggest you run far away. Before you wind up in jail and I get to see if you are all bark and no bite.”
