But if we were being honest, my word was stronger than Nico’s in the family. Nico still had growing up to do. He couldn’t be a pussy-ass bitch and lead a Mafia family. In fact, last week, I’d told Benny that he was beingtoo easy on him.
“Listen to your uncle, Nico,” Brooks said with a chuckle, wiping sweat from his brow while grabbing the blunt. Ashes drifted from the burning tip and scattered across his lap.
Nico’s jaw tightened, but he stayed quiet.
Brooks flicked the joint on the table and looked over at me. “Enzo, that makes you sound ancient, man.”
I shrugged, hating that joke, indifferent to my father’s choices. “That’s what happens when your dad marries a woman half his age.”
Twenty-three years ago, he’d married my mother, who also happened to be my older sister’s best friend. Their marriage started a war between the Marchettis and Lombardis. A messy and bloody one.
But, as with all wars between powerful families, it eventually ended in negotiations and alliances.
Then my parents had me.
Despite the age difference, their marriage wasn’t some fucked-up dynamic. They loved each other. My father killed for her, and he’d do it every day without blinking if he had to.
Had my father not done that, I wouldn’t be here to make the world hell.
How tragic would that be?
Brooks stroked his chin, as if thinking of his next scheme, then snapped his attention to the girls on the couch across the room. “You planning to do anything about Daphne?” he asked. “You know she’s whispering Sons stories to her new little roommate.”
I cracked my neck slowly. “Daphne’s harmless.”
Brooks scoffed.
“I don’t care if Daphne rambles bullshit to her.” I stretched out and draped my arms along the back of the couch. “She’s probably told Blair as much as Jett did. Daphne is scared of me, as she should be. I also have the problem of my sister. She’d complain to my parents if I tossed one of her best friends out a window.” I pointed toward Brooks. “Same goes for your sister.”
At the mention of my younger sister, Seraphina, I peered over my shoulder at her.
She was wedged onto the couch with Daphne, Gemma, and Adelina—Brooks’s sister. All of them held glasses filled with different shades of alcohol and were deep in conversation.
They weren’t supposed to be here tonight, but I guessed they’d had a change of plans.
I’d only agreed to let Daphne into Devil’s Lair because Seraphina begged me to. Adelina had done the same thing to Brooks.
Daphne already knew about us, thanks to her family’s connections.
Seraphina had also run to our parents, crying about how heartbroken she was that I was excluding her best friend.
Boo-fucking-hoo.
Seraphina had our father wrapped around her finger. He naively believed she was innocent.
When I clicked my tongue, Seraphina’s brown eyes met mine. And since it was our dominant language around here, she raised her middle finger in my direction and kissed it.
“Admit it,” Cassian, whose face was now flushed from most likely having alcohol poisoning, said to Brooks. “You’re looking for any excuse to get rid of Daphne. She gets under your skin because you want to fuck her but can’t.”
Nico nodded absentmindedly, still typing away. “Pick her as your Fawn and move on.”
“I’m not that fucking desperate,” Brooks snapped, already rolling another joint. It was his stress response. Dude was higher than Willie Nelson most days but hid it well.
Like me—until yesterday, that was—every Son but Nico still hadn’t chosen our Fawns.
We were being selective this year. Options were limited, and we didn’t like making mistakes.
A Night Son didn’t get his first Fawn until sophomore year. My first two had been careless choices. The first time, Ithought with my dick. The second time, with money. Both had been equally stupid.
