Arranged love

BONES

I WATCH HER from around the corner. She sits at the island, smiling down at her phone. One of the phone calls I made this evening was to get her a new one. I had no clue what all her brothers did to keep tabs on her when they showed up in California. The least they could have done was get her number. This was my best option.

I’m cutting off any contact she has with the world other than what I approve of. And that will be a very tight circle. My circle.

Pushing off the wall, I walk back down the hallway to my bedroom. I pick up her old cell phone off the nightstand and head out to the garage. Grabbing a hammer, I set it down on my tool bench and bang on it until it’s in fucking pieces.

Then I walk over to the sink, fill it with water, and drop it in. You can never be too sure. Entering the house once again, I go back to my bedroom to find her standing at the end of my Alaskan king-size bed.

She still wears my shirt, and my cock reminds me that the hand job I gave myself in the shower was not nearly good enough. “What?” I growl, irritated with myself.

She crosses her arms in front of her and drops her face to the floor. It reminds me of when I saw her all those years ago, back when I had no idea who she was. I should have made Luca tell me. But our fathers ended up taking us to Kingdom, and let’s just say there were other things on my mind. And over time, I just erased that memory. I believed her when she said she was no one. It was almost as if I had dreamed of the interaction between us.

“May I go to breakfast in the morning with the girls?” she asks softly. Her eyes rise, and she looks at me through her long, dark lashes.

I hate that my mind instantly pictures her on her knees looking up at me like that. “No.”

Her head snaps up, and she lets out a huff at my refusal. “The girls were messaging, and they want to have breakfast at Grave and April’s house so I can go.”

I run a hand through my hair. “That’s fine.” A smile grows across her face. Just like the one when she was in the pool and when I told her I’d teach her how to drive. “But come right back here afterward.”

She nods in understanding. “Thank you.”

My chest tightens that she’s fucking thanking me to walk across the driveway to go to breakfast with some women she doesn’t even know. “You’re welcome,” I say awkwardly.

“Were you hungry?” She changes the subject.

“No.” I’m starving, but I’m not telling her that. I have to be up soon. Right now, I just want to go to sleep and forget about the half-naked brunette in my bedroom.

“Oh, okay.” Her face falls. “I’ll go clean up the kitchen.” She walks past me but stops at the door. “Where are your blankets?”

I turn to face her. “Blankets? For what?”

“I need a blanket for the couch.” She points back behind her to the hallway. “I toured the house this evening, and this is the only room that you have any furniture in. Well, besides the living room.”

“I’m never here,” I say defensively. Like I need to explain why I have a ten-bedroom house but only enough furniture to fill up a one-bedroom apartment. I don’t want to make her sleep on the couch. The poor girl has been through so much already. “You can have my bed,” I tell her.

“Oh no, that’s okay,” she rushes out. “I can sleep on the couch.”

“It’s decided,” I growl. “You’ll sleep in my bed.” With that, I give her my back and enter my bathroom, slamming the door behind me. Walking over to the sink, I turn on the faucet and splash some water on my face.

Hearing my cell ring in the bedroom, I go back in there and pick it up off my nightstand to see it’s Titan. The Kings and I very rarely get much sleep. Our bodies are just used to it by now. “Hello?” I snap.

“I just got a call, and it looks like we need to go to the Airport,” he says in greeting.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“For what?” I ask, looking at the clock to see it’s almost two a. m.

The Mason brothers run the Airport. Three people I despise. But we ended up making a deal with them recently. We went into business with them for diamonds in order to help out Cross. It’s not the call I would have made, but it is what it is.

“Turner had a guy come in to fight tonight bragging about robbing a strip club a couple of nights ago.”

I frown. “But as far as I know, nothing was stolen from Glass.”

He sighs. “I agree, but it’s something worth looking into. Even if it’s not Glass, we may get a lead on something we can use.”

“I’ll meet you outside in five,” I hang up and walk over to my closet. Grabbing a Kingdom hoodie, I slip it on, pocketing my cell. Then I walk into the kitchen. My feet stop on their own at what I see.

Mia has her back to me, standing at the dishwasher. She’s bent over, placing dirty dishes in it. The shirt of mine she wears rides up, exposing her bare thighs to me. Her skin looks like it’s been kissed by the sun, and they look so smooth. I imagine walking up behind her and running my hands up her legs, reaching underneath the shirt and pulling my boxers down that I can see from here to expose her pussy to me.

“Dillan?”

I blink to see she’s now turned around, looking at me. “I have to go.” I clear my throat.

She frowns but doesn’t say anything.

“I’ll be back later.” With that, I turn and get the hell out of my house, thanking my lucky stars that the Mason brothers need to see me. Maybe I like them after all.

Titan already sits outside of my house in his car. I fall into the passenger seat of the candy apple red Maserati. “Grave didn’t answer his phone,” he informs me.

“He’s probably asleep.” I look over at his house, and not a single light is on. Grave would stay awake for days or sleep for days when he used. Now that the kid is clean, he sleeps whenever he can.

“Cross is meeting us there. He’s up at the club with Alexa helping her get it ready for the grand re-opening.”

We pull out of the gate, and I lean my head back, closing my eyes for a second. It’s a mistake. Because all I picture is me and Mia in my kitchen. Her body laid out on my dining room table like a feast, and my head between her legs with her hands in my hair …

“You okay?” Titan asks, bringing me back to reality.

“Yeah.” I lie and sit up straighter.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” he assures me. “We’ll find out who the fuck shot Luca.”

Right? That needs to be my main focus. Not the gorgeous brunette whose father runs the Italian-American Mafia. “It’s not adding up.”

“Which part?” he asks, getting on the highway.

“All of it.” I shrug. “Mia was so sure that it was her brothers who shot Luca. The timeline adds up with that.”

He shifts in his seat, and I look over at him. “What?” I demand when I see his hand tightening on the steering wheel.

He gives me a quick glance before placing his concentration back on the road. “Do you really believe her?”

“I do.” I nod and look out the passenger window. “I saw the look on her face at the hospital. Poor thing was scared to death.”

“Just marry her then.”

My head snaps back over to the left, and I glare at him. “You can’t be serious?”

He shrugs. “Not like you’re saving yourself for someone special.” Titan chuckles. “Throw the biggest fucking wedding of the century and marry her. Give them a show and rub it in John’s fucking face. And if what her brothers tell her is true, then her father will make his move, and we’ll be ready.” His eyes meet mine, and I see just how serious he is before he turns back to the road. “He may be John Bianchi, but we’re the motherfucking Kings. And that means something.”