Page 19

Everest

I’m practically tripping over my heels to keep up with Madd’s long ass legs as he leads me down the stairs, through the hallway, through the living room, and into the formal dining room.

Really? We can’t just eat at the kitchen table? They really have to make a big show out of all this?

Why the hell won’t anyone listen to me? My presence in their life is dangerous.

But the men who are watching as Madd pulls out my chair and waits for me to lower into it are no longer the same sweet boys. They’re full-fledged criminals now.

There is so much hate and anger in their eyes, and it’s all aimed at me.

I can’t seem to work up the courage to tell them I didn’t abort our child, that I’ve grieved that loss as well as the loss of my husbands for the last four years.

That I’d run away to keep them safe.

I still haven’t seen Christos since I arrived, but the asshole could either be away on another of his trips with one of his many girlfriends or out doing business. Not like he or my father ever spent all that much time with their families when we were younger. Why would he start now that Kato is grown?

I haven’t really paid much attention to the time, but if it’s dinner time, that means the wedding planner should be arriving soon. There’s this part of me, some piece of that eighteen-year-old girl who is more than ecstatic over the prospect of walking down the aisle in a white gown toward the loves of my life.

Then there are two other sides – the side who fears the moment my father becomes aware that I’m back in town and currently housed inside the Antoniou’s house, and the side who almost wants to spend as much of this family’s money as possible and become the stereotypical mafia wife and make Kato’s life pure hell.

I’ll spend every penny he makes, buy stupidly expensive bags and clothes and jewelry. I’ll throw lavish parties and balls on his dime, hack my way into his account and blow through his money.

Something tells me I will have very little privacy and absolutely no trust from any of these three so hacking into shit would require a laptop, and I doubt I’ll have unsupervised access to that. I wonder if they’ll at least let me have a phone.

Though…who would I call? I left my friends behind when I ran from here and hadn’t bothered making a single friend when I lived in Georgia.

I don’t know these men anymore. They no longer love me, and I no longer love them. I love thememoryof them. I love the dream of them.

Yet Kato is having a blast with this whole wedding thing.

There’s always the chance he’ll make it one big show only to have me executed by a sniper on the steps of the church. Then he can use it to start a war with my family and the Bratva.

This city wouldn’t survive a war of that magnitude.

Maddox smooths his hands over my shoulders and dips both under the dress, cupping my boobs and massaging them a second before pulling back and taking a seat at my right elbow. He’s seated me at the foot of the table with Kato at the head, and it’s not lost on me that Brix is on the side opposite of Madd, about three chairs away from me as though he can’t stand to be near me.

“You didn’t put your belongings away,” Kato says as the staff brings out the meal, a young woman I haven’t met setting plates in front of each of us.

“There’s a lot of it,” I say, nodding and smiling at the woman as a thank you when she gets to me.

“I’ll send someone up to help you. I want that room clean before we go to bed tonight.”

“We?” I ask, raising a brow at him.

Just because I’ve slummed for the past four years doesn’t mean I forgot all the bullshit etiquette that was drilled into me through the years. I shake out the cloth napkin and lay it across my lap before my plate is filled with spanakopita, and my mouth instantly waters.

Damn, I forgot how much I love Greek food. And if they feed me like this on a regular basis, I’m going to end up gaining a few pounds.

Maybe then they’ll lose interest in whatever game they’re playing and let me leave.

Wishful thinking. Kato has staked his claim. So, unless he plans to have me executed for the sole intention of provoking my family, I’m stuck.

“Yes,we. I told you; we’re not letting you out of our fucking sight. You can’t be fucking trusted. Or would you rather Brix or Maddox in your bed tonight?” Kato asks with a smirk as he raises his glass of wine.

I open my mouth to say absolutely I would rather either of them, until I look from one to the other. Madd has already fondled me and has a hungry look in his eyes like he’s biding his time until he can devour me whole.

Brix…