Kane
VEGA’S EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY
Ryder drove us to a part of the city where his SUV was glaringly conspicuous.The rims on the damn thing cost more than the majority of the run-down houses.If my friend was slumming it with someone on this side of town, then he needed to get better at sneaking in and out.Not only because his prick of a father would lose his shit, but Aurelio Bianchi would be pissed.
Bianchi didn’t care who Ryder or I fucked until we married his spoiled little princess daughters, but he demanded discretion.Can’t have the head oflafamigliabeing shamed because his future sons-in-law were hitting dirty pussy.
“See that basketball court?”He tipped his chin toward where a dozen kids were playing ball.“Fractured my hand on an asshole’s face when I was sixteen.Couldn’t tell the home’s director.Already had two strikes against me, and they would have kicked me out, shipped me upstate to an all-male camp for violent juvies in the system.Vega wrapped my hand, told the old crone some compelling, bullshit story that explained why I had a splint on.Saved my ass, as always.”
“Why’d you break your hand on some loser’s face, man?”I knew Ryder had been in the foster system until he was eighteen.Then when he aged out, Cullum O’Machain had reached out to his son.His only heir.I asked my old man why Cullum had left his kid in a group home if he knew he existed, letting him think he was a freaking orphan.Da had only shrugged and said the fucker probably didn’t want to have to deal with him until he absolutely had to.
That sounded like Cullum.Bastard never took responsibility for anything, but he sure as fuck enjoyed the rewards for others’ hard work.
Ryder’s face darkened, his blue eyes narrowing on the court before returning his attention to the road.“Motherfucker put his hands on Vega.”
“Who the fuck is Vega?You’ve never talked about him before.”
“Vega is my best friend, man.I wouldn’t have survived that hellhole if it weren’t for Vay.”
“I’m your best friend now, dickhead,” I grumbled.“We’re gonna be family in a few years.Fucking brothers by marriage.”
Whether we liked it or not, we’d be freaking trauma bonded.I was not looking forward to a lifetime of being Raffaella Bianchi’s husband.I couldn’t stand that cold-ass bitch.How did Da expect me to fuck an heir into her when my dick practically got frostbite simply standing beside her?It was going to have to be one of those artificial insemination things, because I couldn’t even get hard for that stuck-up cunt.
No one expected us to have a real marriage, though.Just pretend.Produce an heir for the Brennan family, maybe a spare—which was pushing it.Attend the occasional event together, let her walk around holding my arm at charity galas or some other noble, supposedly worthwhile events that would tell the public we were respectable.
What utter bullshit.
Da didn’t give a fuck if I had someone on the side.He had more than one to warm his bed, and my ma didn’t care as long as her allowance kept coming and he didn’t embarrass her.His money kept her malleable.Making her look like the cuckquean she was, however, was the quickest way to get Dónal Brennan’s car set on fire.
That’s what Ma had done when I was nine and his favorite mistress got upset that Dónal wasn’t showing her enough attention.The bitch sold a video of herself sucking his cock to some porn site and then forwarded the link to Ma.
It wouldn’t have been nearly as messy if the mistress hadn’t been in the car at the time Ma had set it on fire.Da’s favorite mistress got cooked right in front of me, and he’d been extra diligent about his other women not repeating that mistake.
I sure as hell wouldn’t be so reckless.Ma was a little unhinged when her temper took over.According to my man watching Bianchi’s daughters, Raffaella and Amadea were glorified mean girls, but they were too brain-dead to do more than stomp their feet and whine until Aurelio gave them their way.
Which wasn’t anything Ryder and I weren’t aware of already.We’d had to show up to a few family dinners and play nice with our intendeds.Their scope of small-talk topics was shopping, favorite TikTok makeup influencers, and their yappy little designer dogs that they kept in their laps at all times.Including dinner.
Aurelio’s daughters might have been nothing more than simpering little brats.Him, not so much.
Not that he would be a problem for anyone once Ryder and I officially married his daughters.Since he had no male heirs, and he was smart enough not to turn over his power to either of his idiot daughters, we would merge all three territories.And then I would put a bullet in Aurelio’s head, make it look like he’d eaten the business end of his own gun, and drop Raffaella in some villa in Italy.
Killing her would have been the better option in my opinion, but Ryder still had a little soul left.He wanted to lock our wives away in another country.Divorce wasn’t an option, but what did that matter?It wasn’t as if I ever wanted to tie myself to anyone else.
If Cullum kept pissing me off, I’d shove a barrel down his throat as well.That fucking idiot didn’t know how to quit when he was ahead.If he kept fucking around with my best friend, I’d end him before this stupid wedding.
Da wasn’t doing himself any favors either.He pushed me a little closer to committing patricide every time I heard him speak.If I lacked compassion, or any other human emotion, it was my father’s fault.Maybe a little of my ma’s as well.If nothing else, I’d inherited my temper from her—slow to ignite, but burned hotter than the core of the sun once it was sparked.
What I knew was loyalty and trust, and the only person who deserved both from me was Ryder.Practically from the moment he’d been pulled into the “family business” by Cullum, we’d been thrown together.It had been my job to give Ryder a crash course in the darkest sides of mob life.
Ryder was a natural, which wasn’t all that surprising, considering who he shared DNA with.He went from a few street smarts learned from his time in a group home to one of the most feared enforcers in our syndicate under my tutelage.
Time after time, Ryder proved to me he had my back.He was a true friend, something I’d never had until him.
Slowing when he came to a school zone, Ryder carefully drove into a back parking lot of a high school and stopped at the far side.We didn’t blend in with the older-model junkers parked around us, but no one who came out appeared to pay us much attention as we sat there.
“You gonna tell me what we’re doing here?”I finally asked, slumped back in the passenger’s seat, ignoring the buzzing phone in my pocket.
There was some bullshit dinner I was supposed to attend with Da and Ma.Raffaella and her sister would be there with their father.Cullum was going, which meant Ryder should be there as well.But if he wasn’t there, it was better for everyone that I wasn’t either.I didn’t have the patience to deal with any of them on my own.Lately, my temper had been closer to the surface than normal, easier to set off and leaving behind a larger blast zone.
