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Felik snorted but covered it with a cough.
"How are your studies going, Son? And your art?" Dad changed the subject as if nothing else was being discussed.
"Good." I was happy to move on to something less stressful. "Now that I’m getting close to graduation, I'm more than ready to be done with school. I wish I could say I had more time to paint, but exams have been kicking my ass, so the time I do spend in the studio on campus helps keep me centered."
"We'll have the studio cleaned and ready for you when you arrive home after graduation." Dad took a bite of his food, already moving on.
Right, because returning to my family home had always been my plan after I finished school. I wanted to help my family. But with Felik in my life, where did that leave us? Suddenly, my future felt all too uncertain.
Now that I knew the true circumstances of how we met, I found myself second-guessing all the things he had told me about himself. Did he really have a job waiting for him? Where was it? What had been a truth and what had been a lie? He’d been raised in a family not unlike mine, which simplified some things but complicated others.
Felik put a hand on my shoulder, threading his fingers over my neck. "We’ll figure things out, love. Don't borrow any trouble right now."
I met his gaze, and the acceptance I found in his eyes eased my concerns. We’d figure out what our future looked like together. We didn’t have to have the answers right now. The important part was our commitment and love for each other. Just like Joey and Andro, and Connor and Louie had found their way, we would find ours too.
“You’re right, and I trust that we will.”
12
FELIK
If someone had told me two months ago that I would be playing billiards with the three primary alphas of the Ferrini family, while one of them bounced a baby on his hip and we strategized the ways in which we could either convince my brother to stand down or take him out completely, I would have told them they were crazy.
When Vince first recruited me to seduce Jeremiah, my initial plan had not gone much further than actually being able to talk to him. But now, there was no way I would ever go through with what my brother had in mind. In fact, it was easier than I expected to switch sides completely.
If it meant keeping Jeremiah safe, I would go to the ends of the earth and kill everyone in the Mennetti family if I had to.
He meant that much to me.
"What the hell is Vince's story, anyway? We never had any problems with your alpha father. Hell, we had an amicable relationship." Andro lined up his stick with the cue ball, easily hitting and sinking the striped ball he was aiming for.
Meanwhile, I’d scratched on my last two plays. Billiards was not my game.
Maybe I could convince them to put up a dart board in here.
"Fuck if I know." I leaned on my stick like a crutch, having more success with it that way than on the table. "I never paid much attention. I'm only his half brother and a bastard son. My father didn’t bring me into any business discussion, but I think Vince is running out of people who trust him.”
Andro smirked. "Good. That works out well for me. I’m collecting allies like fucking candy. I probably know more about your family lineage than you do."
I shrugged, agreeing with him. He struck me as the type of guy who collected information and was fully informed before making any decisions. It was why he was so successful.
"You know, there’s a chance this will end with your brother's death." Andro was totally nonchalant as he chalked the cue in his hand. Like we were talking about losing a silly game rather than a family member.
But I couldn’t bring myself to care. I may not have been involved in the family business, but I wasn’t ignorant to what that world was like.
I took a deep breath and did my counting. "Yeah, I know that Vince has become hungry with power, and he's not going to let anything stand in his way. It started with this turf war between your family and ours, but at this point, he's breaking rules that aren't meant to be broken. Bringing in family members who aren't involved in the business, innocent omegas like Jeremiah, is crossing a line." As little as I knew about the rules of the world I now found myself at the center of, I did know that.
It was why I had been able to live a comfortable life prior to my brother dragging me in.
"You were actually willing to do it." Orsino paced in front of me, staring me down. “Give up Jeremiah?”
“I told Vince I would seduce him. I never would have gone so far as to take Jeremiah to him.”
Orsino stopped right in front of me, puffing up his chest as an intimidation tactic. “Even if you weren't in love with him?”
“Even then." I knew it was true. I agreed to the job to get my brother off my back. But would I have really delivered an omega to their most certain death? Not likely.
Louie handed off Matias to me, and I held the baby awkwardly in my arms as he gurgled with laughter.
