Reckless & Ruined (14 page)

“I took a night to relax. What is that?” Adriano asked, waving at the pictures.

“Joel Trentini has been busy, it seems.”

Adriano forced back his irritation at the mention of Joel. “Oh?”

“Very. I’ve had someone tailing him since Terrance’s death, just to see what he might do. Wining and dining the Artinos, chatting up Theo DeLuca on the side, and getting cozy with Tommas Rossi. Although Tommas isn’t such a stretch as they’ve always been friends, I suppose. Nonetheless, Joel is a busy boy.”

“It’s only been a few days, Dad. Maybe they’re giving their condolences.”

Riley snorted under his breath. “Sure. And Joel’s soaking it up.”

“So?” Adriano asked.

“So, he’s trying to gain allies, Adriano. I cannot let him get so far ahead of me in this game that he believes he can stand up to me at the table. That little bastard is not boss material and I won’t allow him to think he is, either.”

The ‘little bastard’ comment struck a chord with Adriano. He didn’t want to outright ask his father if he knew the truth about Joel Trentini’s paternity. Not yet, anyway.

Riley glanced up from the pictures and asked, “What did you need, son? You haven’t been around since our last discussion.”

Their last discussion being when Adriano was nearly killed in the rental car. It didn’t end well, especially when Adriano refused to retaliate on Joel just because his father said so. Adriano had more to lose than his father understood. Alessa, most importantly. Going after Joel could very well put Alessa in a dangerous situation.

He couldn’t do that.

Adriano steeled his nerves and decided to just go straight for the kill. Even if that meant giving up the things he believed in when it came to the Outfit so that his father could gain whatever it was he wanted. Adriano didn’t care. As long as he got Alessa in the end and she was safe, Adriano didn’t give a fuck.

Not about anyone else.

“I’ll do whatever you need,” Adriano said quietly.

Riley raised a single brow. “You’re going to have to explain that, son.”

Adriano gestured at the photos, shrugging. “This, the Outfit, and your plans.”

“I never said I had plans, Adriano.”

“You don’t have to. It’s obvious.”

Riley sighed, eyeing his son curiously. “I’m listening.”

“I’m not going to fight about it or take any sides but yours. You want loyalty, you’ve got it. You want a compliant son that’ll do what you say and need, here I am.”

“And what you do want in return?” Riley asked.

Adriano cleared his throat. “I didn’t say I wanted something.”

Riley laughed, throwing Adriano’s words right back at him. “You don’t have to. It’s obvious.”

“Alessa,” Adriano murmured. “Joel is going to marry her off to the Artino asshole. Right now, it’s just the promise of an engagement, but that could change any day.”

“Dean?”

“Yes.”

Riley nodded once. “Interesting. He’s definitely working his angles by strengthening the closer allies he already has in his pocket. And we can safely assume you don’t want the marriage to happen.”

It wasn’t even a question.

“No,” Adriano admitted.

Riley stood straight, drumming his fingers to the desk. “I will see what I can do.”

“Dad—”

“No arguing, Adriano. For now, it’s the best I can do. We’ll see how agreeable you are when the time comes for you to step up. Just remember, the worst gift might be exactly what you wish for, my boy.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Adriano didn’t care or ask. He got what he wanted.

That was all that mattered.

CHAPTER SIX

“Y
ou should answer him back,” Abriella said.

Alessa refused to grace her sister’s know-it-all attitude with a response.

The phone in Alessa’s hand vibrated with another text. She passed the screen a glance, knowing who it was and what he wanted. Adriano’s messages to her over the last three days since she saw him last were vague at best. Simple
heys
and little else.

This text was nothing like his others:
Talk to me
.

Frank, bold, and demanding.

Just the way Alessa liked Adriano the very best.

She shuddered at the unexpected ache rising between her thighs.

“Do you think he did it?” Alessa asked. “Killed Terrance?”

Abriella cocked a brow. “Riley?”

“Yeah.”

“According to Tommas, he said Riley denies it,” Abriella said. “Which is interesting, if you think about it.”

“Nothing about this shit is
interesting
, Ella.”

Abriella glared. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that Riley doesn’t have a reason to lie about it, Alessa. If he did it, it’s done. What is there to hide? Nothing.”

She had a good point.

“No one else had a reason to go after Terrance,” Alessa said. “Riley did.”

“What difference does it really make?” Abriella asked. “You know, when you go messing with a man, you’re accepting his crazy, too.”

Alessa laughed. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Including his family. You can’t blame Adriano if Riley is at fault for this.”

“I don’t blame him,” Alessa replied honestly.

“Then what is up with you?”

Alessa wished she had a good answer.

“I don’t know what to say to him,” Alessa finally decided on saying.

“Start with hello,” Abriella replied.

“Easy for you to say.”

It wasn’t Abriella’s man whose father had likely killed their grandfather.

“What is the point?” Alessa asked.

“You’re going to have to be a bit clearer than that, Lissa.”

“It’ll never happen. Me and him, it just won’t. Why bother continuing with something that’s only going to seriously mess with my head and heart? Doesn’t that seem like I’m asking for trouble?”

And now Alessa also had Dean looming in the back of her head like a little poisonous tumor that was slowly killing her. It had been just a couple of days since the dinner, but the man was already trying to stake his claim by showing up outside of Alessa’s college and apartment every chance he could. It was annoying.

“We’ve all got a little bit of a masochist inside us,” Abriella said. “Besides, you know me. I’m more than willing to urge you on in bad behavior.”

Alessa scoffed. “The rebel, I know.”

“Hey, you’re just cleaner about it than I am. Don’t act like you’re some kind of angel, Alessa.”

She definitely wasn’t one of those.

Abriella’s cell phone rang, cutting their conversation short. Alessa was grateful for that. She didn’t know how to explain to her sister that admitting she loved and wanted Adriano Conti, regardless of what problems it could bring or what his father might have done, would be like locking herself into a personal hell she couldn’t get out of.

They couldn’t be.

They just
couldn’t
.

Alessa wished her heart would start listening to the rational side of her brain.

“Hey,” Abriella said as she answered her phone. “Where are you?”

“Who is it?” Alessa asked.

“Tommas,” her sister mouthed.

Alessa rolled her eyes. While Alessa was wavering on her own issues, Abriella didn’t seem to have a damn problem knowing what she wanted. Abriella didn’t seem to mind the risks involved with taking what she wanted, either.

“I
know
,” Abriella groaned.

Alessa watched her sister pace the length of the living room. Abriella, with a cell phone stuck to her ear, looked like she was at her wits end.

Joel had all but demanded the Trentini sisters move out of their apartment and come back home, but somehow, Abriella convinced their brother to lay off. They needed space and time to process everything, she’d said. Joel fell for it.

If Alessa could help it, she wouldn’t be moving back home any time soon.

“You’ll be there on Monday, right?” Abriella asked.

Alessa frowned.

Monday was their grandfather’s funeral. Alessa shivered, the sound of her mother’s scream reverberating through her mind. Sara found Terrance’s body in his office. His face had been blown off from the gunshot to the face. There were no witnesses. The security video that constantly recorded in the home and outside for the front and part of the backyard had been wiped. It was like no one had even been there.

Except someone had.

“I miss you,” Abriella mumbled.

Alessa hated seeing her sister cry. Abriella Trentini wasn’t an emotional person. She was too good for that nonsense. But the feud between the families had taken away the one thing Abriella wanted more than anything—Tommas Rossi.

That man might as well have been Abriella’s drug.

Withdrawal was a bitch.

“I
can’t
,” Abriella snapped, surprising Alessa by the anger heating her tone. “Every time I make a goddamn move, someone is right on my ass, Tommy.”

“If you don’t, you know I’ll come to you, baby.”

Alessa heard those words loud and clear. She raised a brow in question to her sister, but Abriella gave nothing away.

Abriella turned her back to her sister. “Tommy …” She sighed and said, “Yeah, all right. Just don’t be stupid. Your fucking father is stupid enough for everybody.”

Tommas’ laughter was all Alessa heard from the call before her sister hung it up. Abriella turned fast and tossed the phone to the couch, glowering.

“What?” Alessa asked.

“He wants me to go out,” Abriella said, blowing out a heavy breath.

“Really?”

That was kind of ballsy. Not that anything about the relationship between Abriella and a man eight years her senior was innocent.

“I should go,” Abriella said, glancing at the darkness outside. “I could sneak out the back and grab a cab. Cover my face, just in case.”

“Abriella—”

“Stop,” Abriella interjected fiercely. “Don’t even start with whatever you’re going to say.”

“All right. I won’t.”

Abriella nibbled on her bottom lip. “He’s dead, right? Granddaddy is dead, so nobody is going to say a thing about us going out right now. Everyone is way too focused on who is killing who and who is going to kill who next.”

“Joel,” Alessa pointed out quietly.

Abriella scowled. “Fuck Joel. He’s useless, Alessa.”

Sure. Until he pulled his weight as their older brother. He seemed to like doing that a lot lately.

“I was just saying,” Alessa said.

“Before you try to talk me out of it, maybe you should come, too,” Abriella said, smiling slyly.

The idea was tempting.

“And if someone sees us?” Alessa asked.

Abriella shrugged. “We’re drowning our sorrows.”

Sure they were.

Alessa didn’t give a damn. “Let’s go.”

Before they left the apartment, Alessa sent out one text to Adriano:
I’m going out. Tommas’ place.

Adriano could do with that what he wanted.

Tommas waved a finger over Alessa’s head. She batted it away, but the man acted like she hadn’t done a thing.

Nonetheless, the bartender still noticed his gesture.

“Yeah, boss?”

Tommas tipped his head in Alessa’s direction. “Keep her sober. One more after this, but she’s cut off. Got it?”

“Fun sucker,” Alessa mumbled around the rim of her glass.

“Twenty-year-olds are not legal in my club,” Tommas retorted.

“Got it, boss,” the bartender responded.

“You’ll be okay?” Abriella asked her sister.

Alessa tipped her gin and tonic up for her sister to see. The one good thing about Tommas Rossi’s crazy relationship with Abriella was the man’s club. Alessa was a few months shy of her twenty-first birthday, but she never got carded at Tommas’ place.

“Perfect.”

“Good. Text me in a couple of hours and we’ll head out before it gets too packed in here and someone notices us,” Abriella said.

“Will do.”

Abriella disappeared into the crowd with Tommas. Alessa turned her back to the crowd and sipped on her drink, deciding her sister’s words earlier sounded pretty damn good. Drowning her sorrows for the evening was a decent plan.

Alessa wasn’t sure how long she sat at the bar, but she felt someone creep in behind her long before she heard the person. A warm, large hand grabbed the curve of Alessa’s waist and held tight as another swept her hair to the side and familiar, hot lips pressed to the back of her neck. A lust that was all too wicked burned through her body instantly.