VIOLA
My room is the same as when I left it, but someone took the time to clean up the blood—Dino’s blood. I shower and change, putting on some of Quinn’s pajamas. She has so many pairs and loungewear sets I’m beginning to think the girl lives in nothing but them.
Dante is waiting for me when I come out of my room. The sneaky fuck. I didn’t even know he was there.
His arms are folded, and he’s looking at me strangely.
“What?”
“They’re a bit revealing, aren’t they?”
I look down at the cute t-shirt and shorts I’m wearing with the words ‘Pillow Fight Queen’ on them in big fluffy letters and a tiara hanging over the Q. “They’re Quinn’s. And you’ve all seen me in less.”
And that’s true. Even Quinn has seen me naked.
He blinks at me and then exhales. “Tell me what you need.”
“You want a job?”
“I can’t sit here and do nothing.”
“I thought you had work?”
“That’s done. I told you I had to straighten it out. From now on, I’m all yours.”
I narrow my eyes at that. Dante only cares about work. He wouldn’t give that up for me.
“My father said he’d hired someone to kill Duke. Is that you?”
He cocks his head. “I would have done a thousand times over if it was me.”
He’s right. I can’t dispute that. Dante wouldn’t let something like that slide.
“Then there’s nothing I need you to do for me,” I say, shaking my head. “You’ve done enough. Unless you can get me a car.”
The muscle in his jaw clenches. “You’re being a brat.”
“Am I?”
“Yes, you are.” He tilts his head, trying to figure me out. “And I think I know why. It’s the redhead, isn’t it? You’re still blaming yourself.”
I open my mouth to make a scathing remark back, but I suddenly don’t have the energy. I walk off, leaving him standing there. He can psychoanalyze me all he likes because he’s wrong. I don’t think anything about Dino, nothing at all.
Because if I do, I’ll fall apart.
When I headdown to the apartment’s open-plan sitting and kitchen area, Jude and Lorcan are waiting. Lorcan is the first to notice me. He’s on his phone, standing in the kitchen, scowling at something he’s reading on there when he looks up.
“Fuck, V,” is all he says, and then I’m in his arms.
He kisses me like there’s no tomorrow. His woodsy cologne is all up in my senses when I break away from him. Hand on my waist, he frowns, drawing me back to him.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Lor asks.
My eyes dart over to Jude, who is leaning back on the sofa, beer in hand, a soft smile edging onto his lips.
“Oh, right,” Lor says, taking his hand away. He runs it through his hair. “You’ll want to see Jude too.”
“I want to see both of you,” I say practically.