Katarina, she loved. Angel, she respected. Matthias, annoyed her. Dominic … was complicated. The one in front of her, she knew nothing about, other than he was a little Lucifer in the making.
“I don’t know,” Cassius told her truthfully without an ounce of emotion. “You can come in,” the young kid told her, stepping to the side. “Dom will be mad at me for letting you in, but I know he’ll kill me if I don’t.”
Letting her heels hit the old wooden floor, she stepped inside the Luciano home. Last time she was there, she hadn’t paid too much attention to the home, enamored instead by the oldest Luciano brother and too busy looking at him.
At first glance it was old and rundown, a house people wouldn’t want to step in, but looking at it now, she noticed how clean it was. Usually, old homes with ancient appliances and furniture had layers of dirt in places impossible to get rid of, but she didn’t see anything wrong with it, other than it needed updating.
“Dom should be home soon,” Cassius told her, closing the front door. “Want to watch my show with me?”
“Sure.” Maria nodded, already watching the youngest Luciano walk to the couch before she even answered.
Sitting down on the brown, leather couch next to him, she raised a brow when her gaze shifted to the little TV screen from the sound of bullets being fired. “And this is …?” she asked, watching a swarm of zombies get nailed in the head.
“The Walking Dead.” Cassius, who had his hazel eyes glued to the screen, gave her a quick glance. “You’ve never seen it, have you?”
Maria motioned to her baby blue dress and nude heels. “What? I don’t dress the part, so how could I possibly watch it?”
“No,” Cassius told her, nodding toward the screen that had a greasy but badass-looking man shooting a crossbow into a zombie’s eye. “If you don’t know who Darryl is, then you’ve never seen it.”
“Oh,” Maria muttered, glad she didn’t have to hate this Luciano yet. “I was about to tell you I left my apocalypse clothes at the dry cleaners.” Telling her lame joke, Maria studied Dom’s mini-me, hoping he’d laugh. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, her curiosity was killing her over finding out whether the dirty dream about Dominic was true. If the kid smiled and showed a dimple, then she was pretty sure she’d have her answer.
But Cassius didn’t even break a smile, much less a laugh. Hell, Leo at least gave her a pitying chuckle, even when her jokes missed the mark.
“If you had them, you shouldn’t wear them anyway. My brother likes the way you dress, you know.”
“Matthias …” Maria rolled her eyes. The wannabe playboy had made it very obvious he had when he asked to take her coat when she came here the first time. “I know he’s—”
“No,” the young Luciano stopped her, shrugging. “Dom.”
He does …? A slow smile tilted her lips that she was unable to hide.
Making a mental note of that information, her smile disappeared when she watched the Darryl character pull the arrow out of the zombie’s eye, taking it with it.
Normally, that stuff didn’t bother her, but with what had happened to Leo, that particular action was a little too real.
“I see where Kat gets her taste in TV shows.”
“What did she have you watch?” he asked curiously.
”Deadly Women.”
Cassius gave her another glance and nodded. “I thought you’d like that show.”
“Oh, I did,” Maria assured him. Unlike this show, it was a documentary about women killing men, even though they didn’t deserve it. That wasn’t the point, though. It, at least, portrayed women who didn’t run scared.
“Well, you’ll like this part coming up.” Cassius nodded back toward the TV so she wouldn’t miss it.
Staring at the television screen, she watched a woman with glistening, ebony skin pull a katana out of the sleeve she carried on her back. Walking right up to the pack of deadly, gruesome zombies, she swiftly began decapitating them, one by one, as her dreads swung around her with each kill.
“Who is that?” Maria asked, unable to pull her eyes from the TV.
“Kat and Dom’s favorite character.” If Maria had turned her head, she would have seen Cassius’ little smile before it quickly vanished. “Michonne.”
Looking at him a second too late, she raised a brow. “Got any popcorn?”
“I think Kat still has a stash here,” he said, getting up to throw a bag of popcorn into the microwave.
Maria’s eyes were glued to the TV as The Walking Dead marathon continued.
The bowl of popcorn was long gone by the time Maria glanced down at her phone to see what time it was. What had her squinting her eyes was the fact that she didn’t have any missed calls or texts. Usually, Lucca would have blown up her phone by now, knowing she didn’t have a suit with her. After telling him she no longer wanted or needed protection, he hadn’t bothered her. Hell, she hadn’t even talked to him since the night she slapped him, and she wasn’t planning to. Not to mention she hadn’t talked to her father after telling him she danced with the Luciano boss. She was sure he now knew that Kayne was a cop, so the chances of her father ever speaking to her again were slim to none. But she was okay with it. Her brother, on the other hand, she tried to deny it bothered her as she blackened her cell phone screen.