Arranged love

Twelve years old

I walk down a hallway and come to a stop when I see a guy standing at the other end.

Luca has a visitor? It’s not uncommon for my brothers to have friends over. But I’m always told to stay in my room whenever they have someone over.

His body stiffens, and he starts to turn around, but I run down the hallway and into my room. “Hello? Luca?” he calls out.

I slam the door shut.

“Luca, this isn’t funny,” he growls.

The door is shoved open, and I jump back with a shriek when the boy enters my space.

Blue eyes quickly scan the room and then land on me, and I drop mine to my bare feet.

“What are you doing in here?” he asks. “Who are you?” he questions, stepping farther into my room.

“I asked you a question,” he snaps when I don’t answer.

I jump back but look up at him, my heart racing. My breathing is erratic. No one is supposed to know I exist. I’m going to be in trouble. If I’m lucky, maybe he won’t say anything. “No one,” I answer softly.

He goes to open his mouth, but I hear my brother. “Bones?”

The boy turns to face Luca, and I shut the door, locking myself in.

“Who the fuck is in that room?” I hear the guy ask my brother.

He sighs, repeating my words. “It’s no one …”

“I saw her. Luca, your dad wouldn’t have a ‘no one’ in this house. Especially a child. Who the hell is she?”

“It’s complicated,” Luca answers.

“Then simplify it for me,” Bones demands.

“I-”

“Boys.” I hear my father interrupt them.

“Bones.” Another male’s voice comes from the other side that I don’t recognize.

“Father.” I hear the guy named Bones respond.

“We’re headed to Kingdom. Have some business to handle. You guys will come,” the man he called Father orders.

“Dad, I have baseball practice in an hour,” the kid argues.

“And I don’t give a fuck!” the man snaps. “That shit isn’t important. Kingdom comes first no matter what.”

“Yes, sir,” the kid known as Bones growls.

I hear their shoes slap on the floor and then silence.

Opening my door, I peek out through the crack to see I’m alone once again. Closing it, I lean my back against it and slide down to my butt and let out a long breath. My dad will be so pissed if he knows someone saw me.

That was Dillan! I never knew what had come of that-Luca’s friend seeing me. My brother had come home later that evening, bloody and in a bad mood. I didn’t dare talk to him after he’d spent time with our father alone. The blood never bothered me. I knew we were a Mafia family. I grew up thinking that everyone’s dad got “rid” of any problem that came their way. That it was perfectly fine to walk into a room and see cash lying around with drugs and guns. I knew not to touch them. Luca taught me everything I needed to know about our family. Our parents moved back to New York-where our father was from-when I was very young. My father would go back and forth quite a bit, but my mother rarely did. From what I would overhear, she was too busy drinking and popping her pills to stay up during the day and sleep at night. She had four boys that my father wouldn’t allow her to control. And me? Well, I didn’t exist to anyone. Except Luca. He made sure that I had the best nannies who would teach me about the world. When I moved to Italy at thirteen, they followed. What they didn’t teach me, I learned from TV and books. I may not have ever graduated high school, but at least I knew how to read. That was the one thing Luca was adamant that I learned when I was younger. My father didn’t care if I even knew how to tie my shoes. To him, my only reason for existence was to eventually use for his benefit. And women don’t need brains to lie on their backs and spread their legs.

Turning the page, I see another picture of Dillan. He’s in a hospital bed. He’s got his right arm in a cast, and just like before, he looks void of any emotion-a broken soul. The girl is with him again. She sits on the side of his bed, talking to another girl. She’s got bleach-blond hair. I know her too. She was at the hospital last night. She was sleeping on Nite’s shoulder. He had moved her off him when Dillan ordered him to get rid of me. Again.

This does nothing but prove how much of an outcast I am. They’ve all been friends for years. And I’m just Luca’s sister who no one knows existed.

BONES

MY OFFICE PHONE rings, and I pick it up. “Hello?”

“Sir, Nite and Titan are in the meat locker and ready for you,” Nigel informs me.

“Thank you.” I hang up and exit my office, stopping by my brother’s. I enter Grave’s to find him sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair with his black combat boots propped up on the surface and talking on his cell phone.

“It’s whatever you want,” he says, smiling. “If you want that, then get it.” He snorts. “Of course …”

I clear my throat, and he drops his feet, sitting up straight.

“Hey babe, I have to go. Yeah, be home soon. Love you.” He hangs up quickly.

I exit and stop by Cross’s office. “They’re here.” I pop my head in, and he’s typing away on the computer, giving me a finger for one second.

Making my way down the hallway, I come to the front of our office and push the button on the elevator. It opens, and I step in and turn just in time to see Grave and Cross coming toward me, so I hold it open for them.

Standing silently in the glass box, I push the button to take us down, and my brother turns to face me. Here we go.

“You don’t actually believe her, do you?”

“I do.” The poor thing isn’t lying.

“She’s a Bianchi,” Grave adds. “We don’t fuck with them.”

“Luca …”

“We’ve been friends with Luca since we were young. We don’t do business with Matteo or the twins. And we sure as fuck don’t get in bed with a Bianchi that we never knew existed.”

My jaw tightens, but I don’t say anything. He’s right, but this is different. She’s different. I have blood on my hands, but I’m not going to add hers to it. “I made Luca a promise,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, well …” Grave looks over at Cross. “We all know how easily those are broken.” The elevator dings before the door slides open and Grave storms out.

I look over at Cross, and he’s flipping his Zippo open and closed. If he’s affected by what Grave just said, he doesn’t show it. Cross made Grave a promise not to sleep with his fiancée’s best friend. Of course, Cross broke it and slept with Alexa, and she’s recently moved in with him. I like her, and Cross loves her.

Grave had always been high on drugs or drunk off his ass. Now that he’s clean and sober, I think Grave just feels out of control. Things are taking place that he doesn’t have a say in.

We walk down the hallway and enter the metal door at the end of the hall, stepping into the meat locker. Nite and Titan are already inside with Jeremy.

The man jumps to his feet. “Bones …”

I raise my hand. “Sit down.”

Jeremy licks his lips nervously. “Bones …”

“If you don’t sit down, I’ll break both of your kneecaps,” Titan warns casually.

Letting out an aggravated breath, Jeremy does as he’s told.

“What happened?” I’ll give him one chance to tell me how things went down last night. Let’s see what he does with it.

“What do you mean?” he asks, tilting his head to the side.

Reaching into the pocket of my jeans, I tell him, “That was not the correct answer.”

Titan grabs his arm and stretches it across the table as I flip open my pocketknife and stab him in the hand with it.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

His shrill scream fills the concrete room as blood instantly pours onto the surface. I yank it free and wipe the blood off on my jeans before shutting it and placing it back in my pocket. Titan lets go of him, and he falls out of his chair like butter melting to the floor, cradling his left arm to his chest, crying. Then Titan bends down, grabbing his shaking body, and rips his shirt up and over his head.

“Put his hand on the table,” I order.

Titan picks him up with his hands under his arms and sits him back in the chair. Snot and drool run down his face and naked chest while Nite steps up behind him. Titan hands him the shirt, and Nite wads it up before cramming some of it into Jeremy’s mouth while holding it in place.