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“Ah safe.” He smirked, the dimple on the side of his right cheek deepened like it knew I would stare for at least a second, making it impossible to look away. “Yes, because that’s what the mafia is, safe…” He tossed me the black helmet. I caught it with one hand and pulled it close to my chest. “Put it on, grab your backpack, strap on your heels and stop complaining. I actually want to participate in school and in the Family business, you can go to Hell for all I care.”
I hated it when he talked down to me like I was the trophy wife of the mafia, when my only goal one day was to be called boss and crush my enemies with the latest designer heel.
“You can suck shit!” I yelled, ready to throw the helmet at his face and see how much blood I could gain from that one small action. He had to know how much he set me off in every single human way.
Ash came out of the house and shoved his hands into the pockets of his black trousers, his matching jacket and shirt just made him look even more like the devil. His lip piercing and tattoos on his neck made a person wonder if he actually sold his soul to the devil to look like a tatted-up vampire, sometimes he looked more like Nixon’s son than Chase’s then other times when he dressed up he looked like a dirty politician with way too much money and time on his hands, well that and blood, always blood. “Do I need to find the bucket your dad used on you? Because it looked fun, and I woke up a bit… bored.”
“Yes!” we screamed in unison. Ivan narrowed his eyes at me, and I flipped him off down by my hips so my cousin couldn’t see.
Ash took a deep breath, like he suddenly needed the patience of every saint in the world. “You need to behave, remember the rules, don’t make me come over and put the fear of God into that school—again. No fighting on the lawn—Serena and Junior already took care of that a few years back—be nice, pave the way for your other cousins and stop being such spoiled little shits.”
He yelled the last part.
I winced.
Ivan looked away; it was the first time in months I’d seen a flicker of shame in his body language.
Ash turned around and slammed his hand on the side of the wall. “Seriously. So ungrateful.” He lowered his head like he’d failed us somehow and started walking off, only to turn back around and jab a finger in our direction. “Do you realize the empire we’ve built for you? The safety the last few years have created? And you’re arguing over helmets and motorcycles. Grow up and grow a pair.” He said that last part with fervor toward Ivan. “I’m serious, otherwise neither of you are going to inherit anything. We talked about it last night at our weekly meeting. You both get nothing if you can’t figure out at least a mild friendship. I’m not asking you to cure cancer, I’m asking you to be actual humans, which should be easy, but apparently after the last few days, you’d think I was praying for a miracle.”
Ivan started shifting on his feet. “Ash, I just want—”
“I literally give zero shits what you want, Ivan. I know you can do better, and I know Bella makes you want to jump off a cliff, same as I know Bella wants to provoke you to the point of driving you insane, but this business doesn’t call for your stupid games. It calls for seriousness and dedication, loyalty—”
He stopped and looked down. “—Maybe this is my failure as a boss.”
Ivan stepped forward. “Ash, no, it’s not you, it’s us, it’s me, I’ll take full responsibility.”
I rolled my eyes even though guilt crept in, Ash was only five years older than him, and he respected him a lot. “Yes agreed, we both take responsibility, and we’ll try harder.”
Ash looked between the two of us intensely for at least a minute before nodding his head. “You know what? New plan.”
Oh Hell. Ash always had the worst plans. When his wife gave birth to their first kid, his “plan” was to ask Chase to call in a favor and make sure the secret service would be at the hospital, just in case. Chase laughed at his son. Ash repeated the request, weirdly enough on top of at least fifty of the Abandonato men being stationed there, two Secret Service made their way to the front proving yet again the power our Family had even over the government. The President sent flowers. Weirdest thing I’d ever witnessed.
“You’re moving into the dorms.” He nodded, more to himself than us, like he’d already decided. “And you’re going to stay together, in the same room, fighting it out until you can finally learn to get along, no escape routes, no separate houses.”
Had pigs literally flown in front of my face, I would have been less shocked. “I’m sorry, what? You want us to cohabitate? In actual peace?”
We struggled with family dinner, and we were placed on opposite ends of the table for a very, very legitimate reason.
Knives.
Ivan held up his hands in surrender. “I would rather stab myself in both eyes, get a root canal without shots, and crawl into my own grave that I dug myself and eat the blood-soaked dirt, so thanks but no thanks.”
“Oh good,” Ash said, “Be right back, I think I have some extra spots where you can start your own burial, might even have a shiny shovel and why go to the dentist when I can pull your teeth directly from your mouth, more blood that way, and I hear it mixes well with dirt, as for your eyes, well, have at it, let me know when you’re ready.” He stomped past us through the open garage, we both followed while he dug his hands into soft scary looking brown dirt, grabbed it and threw it in Ivan’s face and grabbed a knife from the inside of his jacket, it was more machete than knife honestly. “Eat it, but no matter how many times you do, you’re still doing this, I’m sick and tired of both of you being such an issue, like I said, grow the hell up, be the solution, not the problem, you want to be made? The only way you”—he jabbed his finger at Ivan—“will ever be made in this Family, is if you get along with her and you…” I jolted at the way he thrust his finger in my face. “…need to learn humility in a huge way. I know Nixon raised you better than this, but you’ve been privileged and spoiled, it stops now. Pack your shit tonight and enjoy your first day at Eagle Elite. Don’t kill each other.” He walked off, while Ivan dusted the dirt from his face. “I almost thought he was going to break down and start quoting pop culture, then ask where he went wrong,” Ivan said in a horrified voice.
I snorted out, “Yup, and it doesn’t even seem weird because we’re about to go to war for an entire year, we’ve clearly pushed him beyond his emotional and physical abilities, which says we’re the worst.”
“I snore.” Ivan threw out. “I also sleep naked.”
“I also sleep naked and snore.”
“Why does this feel like war?” He turned to me, his sneer evident all over his stupid, beautiful face.
I didn’t even glance back as I put on the helmet and whispered, “Because it is.” I gave him a shove. “Now wash the dirt off your face, we’ll come back later and pack. I don’t want to be late for class and knowing Ash, he’s already calling the University to make arrangements for our dorm.”
Ivan paled. “Shit, we do not want to end up on the north side of campus, they only have six showers on the second floor.”
My eyes widened. “I try to block out the memory of when the freshman set rats loose.”
