“Bella.”
My eyes won’t open, but I don’t want them to. I want to exist in this pocket of euphoria for a little while longer.
Lips tenderly kiss my ear. “Andie, open your gorgeous eyes for me, baby.”
When I do, Liam is hovering over me. I want to reach up and touch his face, but my arm won’t obey.
He kisses me again. “You came so hard, you passed out.”
“I did not,” I insist, my words slurred.
“You really did.” His smug smirk is blinding.
Groaning, I’m finally able to muster the strength to move. When I push his face away, he laughs.
“Tessa was worried that I killed you with my big cock.”
Oh my god. I bury my mortified face in both hands. “She heard me?”
Liam laughs long and hard, and it’s the most beautiful sound. I peek at him between open fingers. Happiness is an elusive thing, especially for people like us, so when it happens, I want to memorize every last detail of the multi-faceted, enigmatic man next to me who is both brutal and tender.
“If her shout of ‘You lucky bitch!’ from down the hallway is any indication, I’d say yes.”
I bite his shoulder in punishment, then kiss it better.
“You good now?” Liam asks me when I’m finally able to catch my breath.
“Depends,” I reply.
He cants his head. His hair is a mess, and his lips are glossy and kiss-swollen. “How so?”
My hand slithers its way between us, and I cup his erection through his sweatpants, then stroke up the metal bars of his Jacob’s ladder. But before I can work my way under his waistband, my phone lights up and vibrates.
Liam reaches over my head and grabs it, his expression caustic as he reads the message. I’m not surprised that he knows how to access my phone. I decide not to let it bother me. I have nothing to hide. Declan knows what my plans are—because I told him right after Tessa finished my nails—and by extension, so does Liam. Declan would have filled him in immediately after I left to go back and watch movies with Tessa. So why does Liam look pissed?
He turns my phone around so I can see. “Is she going to be a problem?”
I read something Tessa just sent me, so she must still be awake, sitting in my bedroom. I owe her big time for not barging in here. The clock on my phone says it’s now six in the morning.
I push against Liam’s chest so I can sit up, raking my tangled hair away from my face. Last year, Tessa told me about a facial-recognition algorithm she had developed that searched through social posts and live video feed from things like street cams, ATMs, and cell phones. I asked her about it earlier while we were watching Netflix. What better way to keep an eye on your enemy?
Apparently, Tessa’s software just flagged Julio Ortiz in the back alleyway of Spanks, a nightclub fifteen minutes from here on the other side of the city center. But that’s not who Liam is asking about. It’s the person standing next to him. What are you up to, Rita?
“We need to tell Declan,” I say, getting up and grabbing my shorts from the floor. “Go get Tessa, and I’ll find Rafe.”
Liam grabs my arm. “We’re calling off the meet. You’re being set up.”
I wrench my arm from his grasp, our playfulness from earlier gone. “They don’t know we know that. We have the upper hand.” I tiptoe up to kiss him. “Besides, my cousin and I have some unfinished business.”
Chapter 18
I know I’m walking a thin tightrope between two worlds, one that’s stretching and unraveling, ready to snap and send me plummeting to my death into a canyon of betrayal. What the fuck was I thinking? I’m letting my goddamn dick and what little conscience I have left make my decisions. I should have never touched her. Tasted her. Alexandria is my poison and fuck me for wanting to drink her. I should tell her and Declan Levine to go screw themselves. I should honor the agreement made and deliver Andie to Ortiz with a big, red bow wrapped around her delectable, curvaceous body. I should warn the other families what Levine has planned. I should do a lot of things.
But I’m not. Because of her. Because I want her. More than I want this life or this position of power. A position that I’ve worked my ass off for. I’m finally at the top, sitting on the throne. Kellan never wanted the crown, but I did. I breathed, lived, and died for it. I killed for it. I sent my own father six feet under because he went againstla famigliaand its code.
But a crown on the head of a king is nothing without a queen beside him to share it.
The other two families are in chaos, trying to regroup and reorganize after Levine’s attack and the takedown of so many of their top men. Organized crime today isn’t how it’s depicted in movies or during the golden years where Capone ruled supreme over Chicago. Rossi was never part of theCosa Nostra. Like several other families, the Rossis were independent, controlling one small parcel of territory. Territory that is shrinking bit by bit every day because of gangs, MCs, the Irish, the Russians, the Chinese, cartels, and any other entity that wants a piece of the power pyramid. Alliances are crucial to ensure longevity. We’ve been tied to the Ricci and Barone families for decades. An old relationship that is now more symbolic than anything else. Maybe that’s why Max made the deal with Julio without consulting the other dons. Who the fuck knows? He’s dead, so I can’t ask him.
