As in the Perez family.
The Poletti’s biggest rival and the reason I lost my innocence at thirteen.
Chapter 2
Leo
One second, Alessa is excusing herself to the bathroom. The next, she’s straddling me with a wickedly sharp knife to my throat, still gloriously naked.
If I make one wrong move, it will slice my throat wide open.
What the fuck?
“Who are you?” she asks in a deadly tone. Gone is the sweet, sexually sated woman from ten seconds ago, whispering she loved me too, and in her place is a woman I don’t recognize.
I raise my hands in a placating gesture. “What’s going on?”
She presses the knife in further. “Who. Are. You?” she grits out.
“Baby, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” With every word, my throat rubs against the knife, and I feel blood slip down my neck.
“Your tattoo says Perez,” she replies. I just look at her, and she scoffs. “Like you don’t know who the fuck I am if you’re rocking a tattoo for the fucking Perez family.” She spits the name Perez like it leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.
I swallow. “Who’s the Perez family?”
Her eyes narrow to dangerous slits. “One last chance, Leo. Why do you have the name Perez tattooed on you?”
Everything is running through my head at once. I love this girl; that isn’t a lie. I fell for her almost immediately. She has somethingabout her that I want to soak up with a fucking sponge. But falling for her was never a part of the plan.
She grabs her phone from the nightstand when I don’t answer, flicking it over to the speakerphone after she dials a number. She lays it on the bed beside me, never taking the pressure from the knife.
A deep male voice answers. “Hello?”
“Ryder, I need you,” she replies.
“Where?” Ryder asks, instantly alert.
“Beach house. Bring Gage and Dex.”
I hear him shouting in the background. “On our way,” he says and hangs up.
“Such a shame,” she mutters. “We could have been great.”
I feel the sharp sting of a needle in my neck. Her beautiful face wavers in and out, and the last thing I remember is a tear slipping down her cheek.
The first thingI notice when I wake up is I have a pounding fucking headache, I’m freezing, and I can hear murmurs of voices around me. I keep my head hanging like I’m still knocked out and try to get my sluggish brain to pick up what they’re saying.
It all starts coming back piece by piece. Dinner with Alessa, the best sex of my life after, telling her I loved her, then her seeing my tattoo and flipping her shit.
Fucking idiot.
I keep it covered any other time, and in my rush to get to dinner with her, I forgot. I planned to tell her, but it never seemed like the right time.
“…. fuck do we do with him now?” a deep male voice filters through the fog. I recognize it from the voice on the phone and risk a peek to see the face. I dig through my drugged brain for everything my brothers told me. Ryder. Ryder Venchelli. Son of Rocco Venchelli. Twenty-five. Alessa’s second in command.
“How did you not know who he was?” That voice is like gravel over concrete. Raspy and low. Dexton Barlow. Twenty-six. When Alessa took over, he rose through the ranks quickly. Six-foot-six, easily two hundred and sixty pounds of pure muscle. Covered in tattoos. Thick, dark brown hair that is long enough to cover the scar that runs down the side of his head. Pretty sure he can crush me under his boot. Or with his bare hands.
I finally look up enough to see them standing in front of a table and a wall full of weapons. Weapons you torture someone with.
