Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 91979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91979 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“Low blow,” Junior grumbled while I laughed. He loved Izzy, Ash’s twin sister, more than anything, even resorting to helping braid her super thick hair when she broke her arm a few weeks ago.
“Look, this has been fun.” I slapped Ash on the shoulder. “But I have a guy to screw, so if you could just be anywhere but here… that would be great.”
Junior snickered then shoved Ash again and winked. “Maybe you should be our new lookout.”
“Fresh out of earplugs.”
“You’ll survive.” Junior grinned, then jerked me into his bedroom and shut the door.
We were a mixture of laughter, soft sighs, moans, hands, and all the touching in the world.
“He’s wrong, you know,” Junior said in between kisses. “You’re mine, and you will always be mine.”
“Yours.” I lifted my shirt over my head while he tugged my jeans down. “Always yours.”
“Damn right, you are.” His kiss was punishing.
And I took it. Again and again, never believing there would be a day where our love would start a war.
And our friendship would shatter into a million pieces.
Then again, the worst thing you could do in the mafia is hang on to hope that your life would be normal.
The second worst thing?
Fall in love with your best friend.
Enemy.
And heir to the Nicolasi throne.
“Shhhh…” Junior smiled against my mouth before he grabbed his black tank and pulled it over his body. Even at sixteen, he was gorgeous, muscular—we had our parents to thank for that.
We were a dynasty in the making.
We’d had no choice but to learn how to fight.
I raked my nails down his chest, already he had tattoos lining his right arm, the only reason Phoenix let it slide was because most of the bosses knew that the pain in getting a tattoo helped develop a tolerance for pain from a gunshot wound or blade.
Sick but true.
I yawned behind my hand, earning a quick smirk from Junior. “Really? You’re just going to lay there naked?”
I turned to my side. “See something else you like?”
He cursed. “I’m going to hell, aren’t I?”
“Probably.” I laughed, and then we heard more voices down the hall, mainly Asher yelling like a banshee.
“Quick!” Junior tossed me my jeans, I hurried and put them on, shoved my underwear under his bed then pulled over my sports bra and tank just as the voices grew louder.
It was my dad.
And Phoenix.
Chase.
It was all of them.
All of the bosses! I could hear each distinct voice and then an accented one meaning that Andrei the Sinacore-Petrov boss was also here.
“Why are they here?” I mouthed to Junior.
He just shrugged. “Family dinner?”
I burst out laughing just as the door opened. We looked as casual as ever, me on the bed texting, Junior at his desk working on a nonexistent paper.
See? We knew how to not get caught.
Chase stepped into the room. His eyes narrowed in on me and then Junior. “You guys studying?”
“Failing, he’s failing.” I pointed to Junior and earned a middle finger and grunt in response.
“You look fancy today, Uncle Chase.” I grinned wide. “Good day saving the world?”
“He’s a U.S. senator, not the president,” Junior mumbled under his breath. “This is why you go to school, Serena, to learn shit.”
“And so eloquently spoken,” I said sarcastically.
Chase watched our exchange too closely. And then he sniffed the air like some freaking tracker!
My pulse picked up.
I could see Junior’s slow swallow as he kept typing. His body was completely rigid. Okay, so maybe we weren’t the best liars, but we were teenagers! What did they expect?
“Something wrong?” I stood and crossed my arms.
Chase’s icy stare returned to me, his eyes laser-focused, his hair was longer now, swept to the side, I could see tattoos swirling out from underneath his black button-down shirt. “I would cut the shit before your dad finds out, Serena.”
I scoffed. “Finds out that I let Junior do my homework?”
“The hell you do,” Junior yelled.
“It smells like sex,” Chase said through clenched teeth. “We’ll talk about it later, but for now, you’ve been summoned.”
I gulped. “Just me and Junior?”
Chase’s expression hardened. “All of you, everyone over the age of thirteen.”
I mentally did the math.
So that meant Junior and me, as well as Asher, Breaker, Violet, Izzy, Maksim, and—I wanted to vomit— my younger cousin King, but he was only thirteen. A sickness washed over me as I nodded once to my uncle and waited for Junior to walk with me.
I needed his strength.
Because I knew what a summoning meant.
It meant we had to choose.
But that word was even a lie, wasn’t it?
To live meant to bleed for the Family.
To die, meant to turn your back on blood.
Bile rose in my throat as we followed Uncle Chase down the hallway, I knew I would remember each step, the way my heart thumped against my chest as we reached the main living room and looked around.