Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 102546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102546 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 513(@200wpm)___ 410(@250wpm)___ 342(@300wpm)
I flip the page and see another picture of him. He’s on a baseball field this time. Dressed in a blue-and-white uniform that says Wildcats on it, he’s got a bat in one hand, a ball in the other, and he’s smiling. One that shows off his dazzling smile and two dimples. He’s beautiful.
Turning again. I see another picture, and I frown. He’s wearing a T-shirt like I have on, but it’s white with black letters reading Kingdom across the chest. He still doesn’t have any visible ink. He stands there with my brother Luca in a hallway next to a set of glass double doors. I tilt my head to the side. “Why does this look familiar?” I whisper to myself. “Like I’ve seen this before.” I didn’t know him. I never met the Kings …
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.