Breathless & Bloodstained

Abriella Trentini had been called a lot of things in her life. A principessa, a beauty, stubborn, and difficult. She had been praised for her tenacity, adored for her place as the oldest granddaughter of the Outfit’s boss, and respected simply because of her last name.

What she had never been called was a whore.

Until now.

“Just like our mother,” Joel snarled. “A whore, Ella.”

Abriella flinched as if her brother had reached out and slapped her with his hand instead of his words. Squeezing Abriella’s arm tighter, Joel dragged her down the dark hallway. His fingers dug so deeply into her skin that he was going to leave bruises. With every step they took, she could barely hear the thrum of the club behind them.

“Let me go,” Abriella hissed.

She tried to jerk out of Joel’s grasp, but he yanked her hard enough to make her stumble. The short club dress she wore did nothing to protect her knees when she hit the floor. Joel forced her back on her feet, sneering.

“Stop fighting, or this will get a hell of a lot worse,” Joel warned.

Abriella sucked in a hard breath, wanting to stay calm. For the most part, she followed the rules set out by her family. Being mafia bred, meant women didn’t get much of a choice when the men in their lives made calls on certain things.

The women who fought back lost.

The men of the Outfit won.

Always.

Abriella had too much stubbornness to go out like that. She’d always been close to her grandfather. There was no way in hell that Terrance Trentini would stand for his granddaughter being treated like she was worthless, no matter what she did. Terrance might have been the boss, but he loved her. He let her get away with anything, even if that meant he had to hide things for her. Terrance wouldn’t stand for Joel acting like this.

“I want to call Granddaddy.”

Joel barked a bitter laugh. “He’s out of town. Shut up. Don’t make me tell you again.”

“I said—”

Joel kicked open a door and shoved Abriella inside before she could finish her sentence. Abriella fixed the skirt of her dress and spun around to face her brother, thinking she had just made the worst mistake yet. Her brother was angrier than she had realized. When he took a step toward her in the dark room, Abriella stepped backward.

Her back hit the edge of a desk, stopping her from moving further away. The room looked like some kind of office for the club. Joel flicked on a light, illuminating the space. A leather couch rested along the far wall. Black and white pictures of Chicago lined the walls in a haphazard fashion. The desk she bumped into was filled with paperwork, a laptop, and other personal belongings.

She had picked the wrong club tonight. With the help of high heels, a tight dress, and a fake ID, Abriella was able to get into just about any club she wanted. Eighteen wasn’t legal, but her ID said she was twenty-one, and no bouncer would refuse her.

She just wanted a good time tonight.

Respirare was the newest, hottest club in town. She heard about it through her friends at college. Abriella checked it out, ended up dancing with a guy who bought her a few drinks, and then she found herself being shoved down a dark hallway by her brother. Abriella didn’t even know how Joel found out she was there.

“Christ, look at you,” her brother spat.

Abriella blinked away the tears stinging in her eyes. “I didn’t do anything wrong, Joel!”

“Is that what you think, really? Where I stand, you didn’t do a goddamn thing right. Is that what you want to be, a fucking whore like our mother?”

“No,” Abriella said, forcing herself not to cry.

“Hey, come on.”

A familiar form darkened the office doorway behind Joel. Abriella looked away from Tommas Rossi as he came to stand beside his friend. Tommas had always been respectful to Abriella when they crossed paths. The Outfit Capo was never rude, but he never went out of his way to talk to her, either. They were at two different spectrums in the family.

“Joel, chill out,” Tommas said quietly.

Joel flipped a hand at his friend. “Stay out of it.”

Abriella refused to let her brother see any tears. Joel liked that shit too much. Other people’s pain was nothing more than amusement for him.

Joel waved Abriella’s clutch for her to see before he opened it. Digging in the purse, he pulled out the fake ID. “Where did this come from?”

“A friend,” Abriella said.

“Which friend?”

“Someone from school.”

Joel shoved it into his pocket. “It’s mine now.”

She would have a new one in a week.

Fuck him.

“And as for you—”

“I want to call Granddaddy,” Abriella interrupted sharply.

Joel scoffed. “You’re an idiot. I told you, he’s out of town. Our parents are gone for the weekend. I am the only one left watching you.”

“Then I’ll take a cab back to my dorm.” Abriella shrugged, feeling worse the longer she had to stay in the room. “You can let Granddaddy know what happened. I’ll deal with the consequences when he’s back.”

Abriella moved forward to leave and tried to push past Joel as she went. It was a stupid move. Joel had a short temper. Before Abriella had blinked, Joel grabbed her arm, spun her around to face him, and raised his hand. Abriella couldn’t have gotten out of the way even if she tried to move, but she was too stunned to make the attempt.

No man had ever hit her.

None tried.

Abriella was a Trentini—no one touched a Trentini.

Joel’s palm met Abriella’s cheek with a loud enough crack to take the air from her lungs. The sting of the hit radiated over her face. Gasping, Abriella stared at her brother with her mouth open and a hand on her cheek where heat bloomed.

“You …” Abriella started to say.

She tried to speak, begged the words to form, but nothing came out. Joel’s hold on her arm loosened briefly. The two stared at one another for what felt like minutes, but was probably a few seconds.

Joel released her fast and let her go. “I-I—”

While Joel struggled with his own words, Abriella jerked back into reality.

“You,” Abriella hissed. “You … hit me!”

Joel stuttered stupidly. Abriella rammed her hands into her brother’s chest hard enough to knock him backward. Shock flitted over Joel’s features as he righted himself. Abriella shoved him again the second she could, forcing Joel away from her.

She didn’t want him anywhere near her.

Abriella wasn’t a dog to be beaten.

She was no man’s toy.

“Don’t you ever fucking hit me again!” Abriella screamed at him.

Tommas Rossi stared between the siblings, but stayed out of it.

Abriella took another step toward her frozen brother. “I might have done wrong being out tonight at a club, but out of the two of us, who do you think is going to take more shit for this? Me, with my slutty dress, or you and the bruise you just left on my face? Huh, which one?”

Joel swallowed hard, his shoulders stiffening. “You shouldn’t have—”

“I did nothing,” Abriella snapped. “Don’t blame your abuse on me. You are a piece of shit, Joel. Just wait until I tell Granddaddy what you did to me tonight.”

Like someone had lit a fire under his feet, Joel lurched forward to come at Abriella again. Tommas Rossi moved faster, sliding in between the siblings and hitting Joel hard on the shoulder with a closed fist. The smack echoed in the quiet office. Joel froze on the spot. For the moment, Abriella felt safer.

She silently thanked Tommas.

“Enough.”

Tommas’ one word was deadly quiet. A promise of violence that made Abriella shiver in her heels.

“Excuse me?” Joel asked.

“I said that it is enough,” Tommas repeated, still quiet but firm. “Leave her be. You have done more than enough, Joel. She gets it. But I won’t let you touch her again. Try it, and I’ll physically throw your ass out of this room before I have the bouncers remove you from this club. Test me, Joel, you know I can fucking do it.”

“That’s how you want to play this?” Joel asked.

Tommas nodded once. “It is.”

“She’s—”

“Young, man. She’s eighteen, trying to have a little fun, and made a goddamn mistake. You made your point. No more, Joel. It’s enough.”

Swallowing hard, Joel flicked a hand in Abriella’s direction as if to shoo her away like she was a piece of trash. “If you want to handle the little whore, then handle her. Make sure she gets back to her dorm. I have better shit to do.”

“I bet,” Tommas muttered.

Joel turned on his heel and stormed from the office. The pictures on the wall rattled when the door slammed shut with a bang.

Tommas’ shoulders heaved. Abriella could practically feel the anger flowing from the man as he stared at the spot where Joel had vacated.

“Thank you,” Abriella whispered.

Her throat was tight. As fast as her fight had come, it was gone.

Tommas didn’t act like he had heard her.

Clearing the thickness away, Abriella said, “Tommas, thank—”

“Hush,” Tommas interjected sharply.

Abriella stiffened, surprised all over again. “I beg your pardon?”

Slowly, Tommas turned on his heel to face her. “I said hush. It means be quiet.”

“I know what it means.”

“Then listen.”

What?

Where had the man from two minutes ago gone to?

“Hey, don’t be an asshole.”

Tommas’ brow furrowed, softening the sharp lines of his features as he grinned.

What was amusing?

It wasn’t the first time Abriella had gotten a good, close-up look at the man, but it was the first time she took notice of how roguishly handsome Tommas truly was. His easy stance, tall frame, and broad shoulders that filled his suit perfectly, only added to the smirk he sported. From his steel-blue gaze, to his strong jaw, and his dark hair that was swept upward like he’d been running his fingers through the short strands, the man oozed confidence and …

Abriella blinked, caught in her daze of staring.

Sexy.

Tommas was sexy as sin.

She’d always had a bit of an interest in the quiet Capo of the Rossi family, but Abriella kept her distance for many reasons. One, because he was a goddamn Capo. Two, because he was her brother’s friend. And three, because he was eight years older than her.

Abriella willed away the sudden heat flooding her cheeks and the rest of her body as Tommas looked her up and down.

“Stop that,” Abriella said.

“Stop what?” Tommas asked.

“Staring at me like that.”

“You’re staring at me.”

She was.

Abriella glanced away.

“So?” she asked.

“I don’t mind,” Tommas admitted. “I told you to be quiet, because I don’t want you to thank me for doing that. Never thank a person for doing what is right, Ella.”

Abriella’s gaze snapped up to meet Tommas’. He’d never called her anything but her full name before.

“Okay,” she said.

“And I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Two things.”

“Do tell,” Abriella said.

“I should have stopped him sooner. Joel is an ass, I know. I didn’t think he’d go off like that on you, especially not with someone here.”

Abriella shrugged. “I guess you don’t know my brother all that well, huh?”

“Apparently not.”

“What was the second thing?”

Tommas wet his lips with his tongue, drawing Abriella’s gaze in again. A question passed through her thoughts so quickly, she almost missed it.

What did he kiss like?

Tommas’ next words did not help to take away that errant idea. “I called him to let him know you were in my club. I shouldn’t have done that. You were having a good time, it seemed like innocent fun, but I thought your brother should know you were out. That was my mistake. It won’t happen again. You’re free to come and go from my club as long as you can get in, Ella.”

Damn.

“Thanks.”

“One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not, Ella.”

She frowned. “Not what?”

“A whore,” Tommas murmured.

Heat pinked her cheeks again. She didn’t want to rehash all of that. It was bad enough that Tommas had heard what Joel said about Abriella’s mother.

Sara Trentini wasn’t an angel. Abriella knew her mother’s darkest secret, but only because she’d accidentally stumbled upon some paperwork regarding Sara and Joel’s father. Biologically, Joel belonged to Terrance, although their father Peter had claimed him as his son. Skeletons like those wouldn’t stay hidden in the closet forever.

Abriella didn’t judge her mother.

She couldn’t.

Sara was her mother.

“I just … it doesn’t matter,” Abriella said lamely.

Tommas rubbed at his right temple. “No, it isn’t. You’re eighteen, and you can consent to whatever you want to do when it comes to a man. What you were doing tonight wasn’t any different than what Joel does with whoever he picks up on any given night.”

Abriella cringed. “I don’t want to hear that.”

“Well, it’s true. Double standards are reserved for hypocrites and assholes only.”

Unable to stop herself, Abriella laughed.

Tommas flashed her with a sexy smile. “That is a much better sight and sound.”

“Huh?”

“Your smile. Your laugh. Not that the fight you showed wasn’t good, because it was. A strong fight makes for a good woman, but I like your smile and laugh more.”

Abriella’s throat went dry. “Oh.”

“Don’t let anyone take that from you, either.”

“I won’t.”

“Good. You’re not a whore, Ella. Don’t ever let a man call you that, or label you with that title unless you want him to.”

Her mind blanked.

Tommas’ sharp stare caught Abriella’s as he asked, “Do you get what I’m saying?”

“No,” she confessed.

“You’re not a whore, sweetheart, but you can be anything you want to be for the man you want to be with. It’s that simple. What you do in private with a man is nobody’s business but yours and his. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

Abriella’s bottom lip caught under her teeth as she took in his words. “You don’t think so?”

“No.”

Oh.

“Outfit daughters shouldn’t act like who—”

“What did I say about that word, huh?” Tommas asked, taking a step forward.

Abriella tipped her chin down, but grinned all the same. “Sorry.”

She didn’t realize how close Tommas had come to stand in front of her until his fingers were sliding under her chin and tilting her head up. She decided right then and there that she liked the feeling of this man’s hands on her skin.

That was so bad. Wrong, even.

But she liked it.

“Do what makes you happy, Ella. Let the assholes like your brother keep their judgment.”

“Easier said than done. You know where I come from, Tommas.”

“Tommy. I prefer Tommy.”

“Tommy,” she echoed.

“Let them keep it,” he repeated. “Just get smarter about your ways, girl. That’s all.”

She didn’t know how to respond to that.

“Are you encouraging me to break the rules?”

Tommas chuckled. The sound of his amusement rocked through Abriella. “If you want to call it that, then sure. The thing is, I have a feeling this wasn’t your first time doing something you shouldn’t and it probably won’t be your last. Just get smarter about it; that’s all. You want to have some fun. Have it. You want to go out. Go. Don’t be stupid about it, though.”

“Are you always this … strange?” Abriella asked.

“No, sometimes I’m even worse. Moody. A prick. Quiet. Depends on the day.”

Abriella wondered if she could find out more about Tommas.

“Huh.”

“I do have a question for you, but you don’t have to answer.”

“Maybe I will, but you won’t know unless you ask.”

“A smartass. I like that, too.”

Abriella smiled. “You’re not the first to call me that.”

“I’m not surprised.” Tommas tipped his head to the side a bit and asked, “The man you were dancing with … would you have taken him to your dorm or wherever tonight?”

“No,” Abriella said instantly.

“Why not?”

“Because he was good for a little fun, but not much else. Two dimensional men are boring.”

Tommas cocked a brow. “What would it take, Ella?”

Was he asking?

Because almost everything she learned about Tommas tonight was a great start. She wasn’t an angel. She hadn’t been one of those for years. She wasn’t going to act like one now.

“The right kind of guy.”

Tommas laughed. “And who is that?”

“The one who can give me what I want.”

His gaze caught hers, holding strong. “Care to let me in on the secret?”

“I just want to be free, Tommy.”

What good was family if they didn’t storm in your home without knocking while barely saying a word to you as they went directly to where the food was?

“Cousin,” Tommas greeted.

Damian strolled past Tommas’ spot at the small kitchen table. His cousin hit up the fridge, his broad shoulders blocking Tommas’ view of Damian as he dug to find food.

“You need to go shopping, Tommy.”

“I’m aware, D.”

“There’s fuck all in here.”

Well, there was, but Damian didn’t like healthy food. He preferred junk food, and then he worked it all off with his crazy morning regime. Tommas had lived more than enough years with his cousin to know what the man liked.

“Eat an apple for once,” Tommas said. “It’s better for you. An apple a day and all that crap.”

Damian popped up from the fridge, closing the door and biting into a red apple at the same time. “Not my first choice.”

Tommas cringed. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“You sound like my wife.”

“She has better manners than you do.”

Damian chuckled, swallowing his bite of apple. “She is my better half for a reason, I guess.”

“Truth.”

Tommas shut the laptop he’d been working on and pushed it away. Damian joined his cousin at the kitchen table, twisting the chair around so he could rest his arms over the back as he regarded Tommas.

“I went to your house first,” Damian said.

“I haven’t been there a lot lately.”

His apartment was easier and safer. Joel Trentini wasn’t aware of Tommas’ second, much smaller place in the heart of the Trentini territory. Tommas had only picked up the apartment a couple of years back, because he wanted a safe place for Abriella to come to if she needed.

Looking around the two bedroom, one bath apartment was a bad idea for Tommas. There wasn’t a single part of the apartment that was unmarked by Abriella in some way. Her little touches were all over it from the colorful artwork on the walls, to the black appliances in the kitchen. Tommas knew the things she liked and had picked accordingly to decorate. Abriella had added a lot over the years like the silver throw pillows on the sectional and the white chaise by the bay window.

“There you go again,” Damian said. “Off into another world.”

Tommas slammed back down to reality in a blink. “Hmm, what?”

“You’re dazed, Tommy. You’re out of it.”

“I—”

“Don’t deny it.”

Tommas sighed. “All right, so I’m out of it. I’ve got a lot on my mind. What did you want coming here, anyway?”

Damian passed a look at the blankets on the couch. They were messy, like someone had been sleeping in them and hadn’t bothered to fold them up. “Still sleeping on the couch, huh?”

It was easier than the bedroom.

She was all over that, too.

“What do you want, D?”

“To talk,” Damian said.

“About what?”

“Whatever you’re planning. I’d like to know this time around instead of getting surprised by whatever in the hell you’re going to do like the last time.”

Tommas ignored the heat of his cousin’s tone. Trusting that Riley would do what he needed to do and kill Joel, Tommas had inadvertently put Theo DeLuca in the crossfire. The man nearly lost his life more than once, but shit happens sometimes, and people became casualties. Once Tommas had known about Theo’s involvement with Evelina Conti, he’d changed plans and tried to correct what was already in motion because of Riley. Tommas was hoping Theo would see it the same way and move on.

Unfortunately, the war was far from being over.

“I apologized for Theo.”

“Not to him,” Damian replied.

“All right, that’s true enough.”

“When are you going to do that?”

Tommas shrugged. “Soon. What more do you want, man?”

“A guarantee it won’t happen again.”

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

Damian’s shoulders stiffened. “Don’t go stupid over someone you don’t even have, Tommy.”

“It has nothing to do with not having someone, Damian. It’s getting what is mine. That’s all.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” Tommas murmured.

“I think you should make your way over to Theo’s hospital room before he gets out,” Damian said. “Make face, and give the man the respect he’s owed for the shit he’s had to go through the last few months.”

Tommas nodded. “I will. I told you soon, okay?”

“He’s getting out today, Tommas.”

Oh. Well, then …

“And I think he might want to step out of this,” Damian added quieter.

That caught Tommas’ attention. “The war?”

“Yeah. He’s never had much to do with it except to be used by people for their own gain. Theo is at a different place right now. This mess is the last thing on his mind. So yeah, he wants out.”

Theo DeLuca was smart as hell for doing it, too. Tommas didn’t blame the man.

“Does that mean he isn’t taking any sides?” Tommas asked.

“I don’t know, Tommy. You’ll have to ask when you make your way over there.”

Tommas scowled. “Mmm.”

“Someone else to consider is Adriano Conti,” Damian said. “What about him? Where does he stand in the mess right now between you and Joel? It would be good to know where he is in all of this.”

Adriano Conti was a young Capo that Tommas had learned to respect over the last few months. For a long time, Tommas simply took Adriano’s age and compliance to Riley as a weakness. Tommas was ten shades of wrong on both fronts. Adriano had more than proved he was capable of handling his own business without his father at his side. With Riley dead, Adriano hadn’t even skipped a beat with his crew or life.

The kid was moving forward.

That was the important thing.

Tommas shrugged. “His wife’s sister is stuck firmly on Joel’s side of things, man. Think about it.”

Damian scowled as he took another bite of his apple. Tommas waited his cousin out while Damian chewed and swallowed. The men sat in silence until Damian put his apple aside.

“Adriano won’t do anything that risks Alessa, her family, or her happiness.”

“Exactly,” Tommas said quietly.

“But that doesn’t mean he’ll jump into Joel’s side of things, either.”

“Probably not. There’s a lot of love lost there.”

Damian leaned forward, letting his arms hang down over the back of the chair. “You’re on your own against Joel Trentini.”

Tommas chuckled dryly. “Not entirely. I’ve got you, D.”

“True,” Damian agreed, flashing a wicked smile. “But I still don’t have the first clue what you’re doing or where you’re going, cousin. Joel, like he usually does, has made a lot of threats and sent out a bunch of warnings, but he’s yet to put any of those words into actions. That makes me nervous. We don’t know what he’s doing or when he’s planning on doing it. You need to make a choice where you’re going, Tommy, before Joel decides something for you.”

“Up.”

“Up?”

Tommas passed the decorative glass bowl on the table a look. A handful of silver bangles had been tossed haphazardly in the bowl months ago by Abriella when she woke up early one morning to cook breakfast. She hadn’t wanted to get her jewelry messy while she cooked. Tommas had driven her back to her apartment so she could make it to church with her sister.

No one suspected a thing.

No one ever had.

To get mornings like those back, the very best mornings he could ever remember, Tommas only had one option. He needed to take the empty boss’s seat. He would have to clear Abriella’s house of Outfit men, so that she was free to make her own choices.

Guilt still chewed at Tommas.

“A lot of people have died,” Tommas told his cousin.

“I know.”

“They shouldn’t keep dying, D. They didn’t cause this feud. The people have done nothing but be born or married to certain families.”

“I never knew you to be the kind of man who worried about other people,” Damian noted.

“I’m not.”

“But Abriella is, right?”

“She is,” Tommas said under his breath. “And I know she wouldn’t want this to keep going. I can give it up, D. I can say fuck the seat, leave it alone, and let Joel take it.”

Damian didn’t give a thing away as he said, “And her, too, yeah?”

Yes.

“I could do it,” Tommas said, meeting his cousin’s gaze. “I could let her go if I thought she would be happy, or that she would find someone who could make her happy. I wouldn’t mind. I could do it, D.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I know I could.”

Because Abriella’s happiness was all Tommas had ever cared about at the end of it all.

“But,” Tommas added, “I know Joel. And he won’t let her be happy. All the blood in that family is so sour that it stinks. They’re poisoned against one another. Joel doesn’t care about his sisters or his parents, he never has. He won’t do a damn thing for her. If I let it all go thinking that he might give her the chance to be happy, I’ll be sorely disappointed in the end.”

“You’re choosing to go up, then?” Damian asked.

“Up,” Tommas echoed.

Damian blew out a quiet breath. “Then that’s where we’ll get you, man.”

Tommas wondered if being up as high as he needed to go would be a lonely place. It certainly would be if he was alone once he made it there. What if he took the seat as the Outfit’s next boss, and Abriella still pushed him away?

As if Damian could read his mind, he said, “It’s a risk, Tommas.”

“Nothing worth having comes easy, right?”

“Right,” his cousin said. “Besides, the Outfit needs a change. A good change, Tommy. You could be that. Don’t make this about only your selfishness, make it bigger than all that nonsense. We haven’t been a famiglia for a long time. Do what needs to be done, man. Get us back to that place. You’re capable.”

Damian was right.

“Doing what needs to be done could be messy as hell.”

Hadn’t enough blood spilled?

“So let’s play dirty.” Damian laughed. “We can do that.”

Tommas caught sight of the bangles again.

“I saw Abriella yesterday,” Tommas admitted. “She was having dinner with her mother.”

“Oh?”

“She didn’t see me.”

Damian chewed on his inner cheek. “What about it?”

“Love and business never mixes well, but I don’t know how to make it about anything else right now. That’s dangerous, D.”

“Dangerous men are the best ones.”

The problem with that was Tommas wasn’t the only dangerous one. Joel was lethal, too. Erratic at times, demanding like a spoiled child, and unpredictable in his moves at best. That didn’t make for a good situation when Tommas needed to carefully plan ahead to take the seat and the Outfit from Joel without spilling more blood than what was necessary.

“You could play it like Riley did,” Damian suggested. “Best Joel in the areas he’s most weak and cut him off at the knees when he thinks you’re down and out. You’ve got to give Riley the credit where it’s due, even if he did get killed in the end. He played one hell of a good game.”

“I’m not Riley,” Tommas replied.

Damian chuckled. “No, you’re right. You’re far too bloody for that.”

Tommas didn’t bother denying it. He had a taste for spilled blood when it was needed, and sometimes, even when it wasn’t. Spilling blood always made a damn good point.

“Yeah, Bloody Tommas, right?” Damian asked.

“Right,” Tommas agreed.

He hadn’t earned that nickname for doing nothing.

“Just make sure to give me a heads up this time before you do something crazy again, all right?” Damian asked.

“Yeah, I got it.”

“Good. And you know, be careful, Tommy. I want my boy to have some kind of family to grow up around. Something better than what we had, which was practically fucking nothing. Certainly nothing worth having. Next to Theo, you’re going to be the only other family I really have for my son. It takes a village and all that.”

Tommas froze in his seat, taking in his cousin’s words. “A boy?”

“Shit. I said that, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

Damian smirked. “I wasn’t supposed to tell. Lily wanted to do some kind of reveal thing.”

“I won’t say anything,” Tommas promised.

“Thanks.”

The shitty bubble Tommas had been floating in for the last few weeks suddenly burst without warning. All it took was his cousin reminding him that there was more to life than the Outfit and selfish desires.

Love wasn’t always selfish.

Neither was family.

Tommas was thrilled his cousin and Lily’s first child would be a boy. Damian was too high-strung for a girl, as far as Tommas was concerned. Damian would likely spend his life in a panic as his daughter got older, so a boy was a relief. But at the same time, it wasn’t. Boys followed their fathers. Just like Tommas and Damian had growing up.

“This needs to be better,” Damian said quietly. “The Outfit can’t be like it is right now for my boy in the future, Tommy. Is that how you want your kids growing up? Is that what you want to hand off to them? This legacy?”

“No,” Tommas said.

“I didn’t think so.”

“It’s not that simple, D.”

Damian frowned. “It rarely is. Are you doubting yourself?”

Tommas scoffed. “Hardly.”

Being a boss hadn’t been in his long-term goals, but Tommas didn’t mind the added task.

“Her again?” Damian asked.

Tommas simply nodded, but said nothing. It was always about Abriella even when it wasn’t.

“I could always try to scare Joel into compliance,” Tommas said, more to himself than his cousin.

“That’s an interesting idea.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure it all out.”

Damian sighed. “I know what you’re doing, man.”

“What?”

“You do realize that with the boss gone, there’s only a few people who could really fill the other seats for the front boss and underboss, right?” Damian asked.

“Obviously.”

“And if Joel doesn’t hand the boss’s seat over, you’ll end him.”

“I might end him even if he does,” Tommas said honestly. “I still want what is mine, D. He’s got what belongs to me in a gilded cage. It’s the one thing holding me back from slaughtering him when it’s all I really want to do. I don’t want to hurt Abriella, or worse, get her hurt in the process of making my moves.”

“That’s not my point, Tommy.”

“Then what is?” Tommas asked.

“Don’t make me your right-hand in this. I never wanted something like that.”

Tommas didn’t even blink at the statement. “But you’re good at it. You’ve always been my right-hand, even when we were kids. This shouldn’t be a surprise to you. Don’t act like it is.”

“That’s not important.”

“It is to me, Damian. And right now, that is all that matters.”

Damian didn’t even try to hide his displeasure. “You’re putting me in a spotlight. You know I don’t like that kind of bullshit.”

“Comfort zones are only useful for weak men who are afraid of the unknown. Time to step out of yours, D.”

“Point taken,” Damian muttered. “So, what are you doing today?”

Tommas pushed out of the chair and stood. “Well, I have to check on my mother and make sure she hasn’t gulped back enough alcohol to kill herself over the last few days.”

“And?” Damian pressed.

Goddammit.

“And I’ll head over to Theo’s hospital room.”

“I knew you would. Good men apologize when they do wrong, Tommy.”

Tommas didn’t reply.

Why should he?

He hadn’t been good for a long time.