Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Because I hadn’t yet gotten laid but knew I wasn’t going to wait until marriage, and I respected Rosie, I decided not to pursue her. Not even two weeks later, she was Gabriel’s girlfriend. Even after all these years, my jaw clenched just thinking about all of it. I never outright told him I held that against him, but he knew. It didn’t help that I acted like a total asshole whenever Rosie came over for dinner or to watch a movie with him. That was ten years ago, though, and his hiding Rosie from me was just one more thing to add to the list I was pissed off at him about. First, he led me into Costello territory, then, he led me to Rosie, and lastly, he was doing hard drugs? I couldn’t even choose which of those made me more upset.
“Is that all?” Gio prompted from across the table after hearing everything I had to say, from my brother’s voice message, which I’d played twice now, to the club, to Rosie.
The guys in this room were my brothers. My ride-or-die family. The ones I didn’t share a parent with, but would lie, steal, and cheat for me if I asked them to. People called us criminals, gangsters, but somehow the men in this room were more trustworthy than anyone else I’d ever met. Including my twin brother.
“What else do you want?” I asked.
“Do you think it’s wise for you to look after this woman, considering she’s involved with Costello?” Loren asked.
“You heard what he said. He told me to ‘find her and look after her’,” I said, mimicking my brother’s voice, with air quotes. “What the hell am I supposed to do, ignore him?”
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell you about her,” Rocco said, smirking. I shot him a look in hopes to make him shut up, but I knew he wouldn’t.
“Why would he tell him about her?” Lorenzo asked.
“What are we missing?” Gio added, frowning.
“Rosie is his brother’s girlfriend,” Rocco said, sounding entertained by all of this.
“She’s not his girlfriend.” I hit the table with my fist because despite myself, the fact that she had ever been pissed me off to this day. Rocco knew that, too, which was why he kept chiding. Besides, I was almost certain she wasn’t involved with my brother in any way. Not like that, anyway. Maybe they were acquaintances. Or, maybe I was just reading the situation like that since that was all I wanted them to be. I looked at every guy in the room and added, “It’s complicated.”
“It’s not that complicated.” Rocco chuckled. The rest of the guys turned their attention to him. I closed my eyes and counted to ten because even though I loved my best friend and took an oath to protect him, right now, I was liable to kill him. “She was Gabe’s high school girlfriend that Dom had a massive fucking hard-on for.”
“Good to hear you know how massive my hard-on is, Marchetti.” I reached for my drink and took a sip, smirking at him.
“It’s a saying, asshole.”
“Never heard it.” I shrugged a shoulder, enjoying his sudden annoyance, then turned to Dean. “Can you get access to the cameras in his building?”
“I can.” Dean nodded.
“You want me to track the last place he used his phone and get the outgoing and incoming calls?” Rocco asked, finally getting back to the issue at hand.
“How?” I finished the last of my drink and set the glass down on the table.
“Use a fucking coaster,” Gio muttered, tossing me one from the other side of the table. I caught it with a glare and set my glass over it.
“I know a guy.”
“What guy?” Dean leaned back in his seat.
“Just a guy.” Rocco took his phone out and started typing something.
“What did the Rosie chick have to say about Gabe’s absence?” Dean asked, lighting a cigarette.
We weren’t even supposed to smoke at The Place, which is what we called out hang-out spot, but Dean never seemed to bother abiding by that rule. I took a moment, trying to figure out how to explain what happened without looking like a complete asshole, first for wanting my brother’s high school girlfriend and now for not telling her who I was.
“Dom.” Rocco lowered his phone slowly. “Tell me you didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?” Loren asked.
“He pretended he was Gabriel,” Rocco said.
I kept my eyes on the deep scratch running down the round wood table that Gio deemed worthy of coasters. Sometimes I hated that Rocco and I could read each other as well as we did. It made it impossible to keep secrets. Dean and Gio started laughing at the same time, and Loren soon followed. I rolled my eyes, still not looking at any of them.
“I’m going to tell her,” I said finally. “I was just focused on finding out what happened to Gabe.”