Especially when the information about the school says 97% of their graduating class goes on to an Ivy League college. How did she become the 3% that ends up being a stripper, hundreds of miles away from her home?
I peek back in the envelope to take out the last piece of paper. It’s small and wedged in the bottom corner. I can tell it’s a picture printed out on a regular piece of computer paper.
Fuck my life.
The picture is grainy, whoever printed it out needs a new ink cartridge, but it’s clear as day Sophia is in the picture. She’s in someone’s house. There’s an enormous chandelier in the background, the dangling crystals hang like a pure white shimmering halo above her. There’s a blurry winding staircase behind the couch she’s posing on, smiling at whoever took the picture.
On one side of her is Lev Jakov, Niko’s youngest son, and on the other side of her is Viktor, his oldest. The three of them are smiling like they’re old friends, each of them holding a drink in their hands. Niko’s in the background looking at someone off to the side I can’t see.
It doesn’t hit me at first, the anger. At first I’m numb, like pins and needles in my chest, my brain.
She’s part of Jakov’s family?
Was she fucking one of them too?
My pulse speeds up and pounds through my ears. My hands crush the picture and heat flushes through my entire body.
I run through the hallway and bolt back down the stairs, tripping and stumbling over my own feet.I’m going to kill him. I’m going to kill all of them. Every one of them that touched her. Any of them that got to know her the way I did.
Fuck what Tony’s playing out now, when I’m through with this piece of shit, his dick will be shredded into tiny ribbons.
The key to the back basement room fumbles out of my fingers. They’re shaking. Every part of my body is shaking, quivering with deadly rage. All I see is red. How the fuck could she think she could get away with any of this?
Tony’s going to kill her.
And I don’t want him to.
I can’t let him.
How the hell could she do this to me?
I have to get inside this damn room. Jakov better not be dead yet. I need answers. I need answers right now.
The stupid key isn’t working. My fingers feel too thick and clammy. So I pound and kick at the motherfucking door until Enzo opens it with his motherfucking gun pointing right at my motherfucking head.
Chapter 13
Felony
My hands are wrapped around the warm mug of coffee on the table in front of me. The waitress just refilled it and the smell of cinnamon hits my nose with a bad case of memories. Childish memories too hard to think about—thoughts better left in the past—better off staying buried and long dead.
I sip at the cup, my mind tugging at the new memories I’ve made, breaking them down, tearing them piece by piece to shreds.What did I do? How could I have been so careless with my feelings?
Another sip and I close my eyes. Someone three booths away orders a plate of cheese fries and a Coke, somewhere farther down the loud clang of a fork hits down against a dish. I block it all out, quieting everything in my head.
I can still feel him.
Corrado.
His cologne still lingers on my shirt and I breathe in, smelling him all around me.
Maybe it’s the heat from the cup in my hands—but for a moment I can feel us again, together. The mattress dipping as he crawls over me from behind. The cool sheets under me and the warmth radiating from his body right above me.
The aching anticipation of his touch as he hovers there, no more than an inch away. Teasing me.When will he touch me? When will his fingers touch down? I want his tongue in my mouth—his hands all over me.
Hot skin, heavy and tense, presses down against my back. I can feel every inch of his skin on every inch of mine, both of us naked, open. Smooth, hot skin. His erection, hotter than the rest of his body, is hard pushing and straining against the back of my thigh.I need him inside me. Filling me.
Light fingertips push my hair from my shoulder, sending a tingling sensation that trickles heat down my spine. His lips, warm and wet, press against the curve of my neck and slowly slide and kiss and lick their way across each of my shoulder blades. Between my thighs becomes slick, aroused.
