“What happened?”
“Same old shit that happens every time I get close to a girl,” Roman says, fixing his hard stare on me, a silent reminder as to why he refuses to ease up and accept the fact that there’s something growing between us. “We were pretty fucking close in high school. First love and all that shit,” he mutters, rolling his eyes as though the admission physically hurts him. “My father hated it and right after locking us up in this fucking castle, he swooped on her.”
“What did he do?”
Roman sighs. “Put a bullet through her mother’s head and then promised to do the same to her baby brother. Her assignment was clear, stand at his side and eventually become his wife. If she failed at any point, or refused him, he would take our lives too and she’d be left with nothing.”
I narrow my gaze and slowly shake my head, doubting their father. “Was he not bluffing? He’s threatened death a million times and you’re all still breathing.”
Levi sighs and grabs the collar of his shirt, moving it across to show off a faint scar just under his collarbone. “He wasn’t fucking bluffing,” he says bluntly. “Her baby brother died the day I got this. He was only fourteen and it left her with no one. He was her only remaining family. My father wiped out everything she had until she had no choice but to lean on him, and after all these years, she’s stuck by his side to ensure that he doesn’t take our lives too.”
I swallow hard and turn my gaze back to Roman, finally understanding why he moves heaven and hell for her, but there’s still no denying that I’m right. She’s a snake, and while life might have been hell for her ten years ago, she’s more than adapted to this new lifestyle filled with luxury and power.
I adjust myself so that I sit sideways on his lap and relax into him, my brows drawn, deep in thought. Something still doesn’t sit right with me and I refuse to accept that the boys will simply continue catering to her every need and desire because of a decision she made ten years ago.
“What?” Roman murmurs, his hand low on my back. “You’re thinking so fucking loud that it’s giving me a headache.”
Levi and Marcus raise their stares to watch me as I struggle with my thoughts, trying to make sense of them. “I don’t know,” I mutter, keeping my gaze locked on the wolves sleeping peacefully on the ground. “I just … I don’t trust her. She’s a snake.”
“She’s not the hooded bitch,” Marcus says, reading into it. “I’d have known if it was her. That girl was too short and too blonde to have been Ariana.”
“I know,” I agree. “It’s not her style. She’d prefer to bitch about me to Roman than go to all the effort to storm in here with a getaway car and try to convince me to run, but something else just isn’t sitting right with me. I don’t trust her.”
“You don’t have to,” Roman tells me. “I barely trust her myself, but I respect her and owe her my life. She may be playing the game now, but ten years ago, she sacrificed her life so my brothers and I could live. So while I don’t expect you to get along with her, I do expect you to make a fucking effort. Once we overthrow our father, she will be ruling right along with us.”
My jaw clenches as fierce jealousy and anger pulses through me. Despite the fact that I want the boys all to myself and don’t like to share, the very idea of her having a part of what they promised me angers me like never before. I don’t expect to have any power in this world once the boys are head of the DeAngelis family, but I expect to have the kind of respect that comes along with being theirs, and to have to share that role with a bitch like Ariana is like a slap in the face.
I pull off of Roman’s lap as the fury takes over. “Absolutely not,” I spit, stepping over Dill as I make my way back to my original couch and flop down. “Think about what you’re asking of me before you go saying stupid shit like that.”
Marcus laughs, the amusement tearing across his face. “Well, fuck. I thought I was the one with jealousy issues.”
“I’m not fucking jealous,” I spit, lying right through my teeth. “I just don’t want anything to do with the bitch who spread my legs while I was too fucking scared to say no. And for the record, I’m holding each of you assholes accountable for that shit as well, so bite my fucking perky ass. It’s her or me.”