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Staring right through the windows of his soul, Maria couldn’t find anything in the young boy.

Cassius was soulless.

Sliding her heels back on the bike, she jumped back on the handlebars, accepting his answer without a word. For someone who was a lot like him, that answer kind of stung.

Back on their way, Cassius waited until he was at a higher speed to take one shoe off the bar and launch it into someone’s yard. By the time Maria had noticed, he had already snatched off the other one.

Watching her brand new Jimmy Choos being launched hurt a hell of a lot worse the second time as the yard it landed in had a Rottweiler that had just found its newest chew toy.

“You little motherfu—”

“Oh, shut up.” Cassius kept pedaling so she couldn’t jump off to stupidly try to retrieve them. “I knew you were just using me for a little ride. Your ass would have started walking the second we got there.”

Maria snapped her neck forward furiously. He was right, but that wasn’t the point. This Luciano suddenly got knocked down to dead last.

“You’re lucky if I don’t kill you when I get off this thing.”

Cassius actually laughed. “Why the hell do you think I threw those?”

“That won’t be why,” she hissed at him as the wind hit her face. “I gotta wait three years.”

Thirty-One

Where Her Heart Was Supposed To Be

As soon as Cassius came to a stop, Maria jumped off. Having to walk barefoot on the filthy ground made her livid. Seeing that only Matthias’s car sat in the driveway meant Dominic wasn’t back yet, and she didn’t know if that made her happy or more pissed.

Storming into the unlocked house, she left Cassius behind, who was still getting off his bike in the dust. Maria went right up to the phone on the wall in the kitchen and started dialing a number. She pressed the last number right when Cassius ripped the cord out of the wall.

“You little …,” Maria grumbled, unable to finish the sentence to his evil but cute face. Shit!

Storming down the hall, she needed a different method. Throwing open the bedroom door, she walked right into the dark room casting light from the hallway inside.

Maria suddenly stopped when the light illuminated his sleeping face glow. Even in what should be a peaceful sleep, the dark circles under his eyes highlighted that his dreams were haunted.

“What time is it?” she whispered very quietly over to Cassius, who was following her through the house. “Isn’t it a little late to still be sleeping?” Her tone wasn’t judgmental, but held a bit of worry.

“Matthias”—Cassius took a second to finish his answer—“works kinda late.”

Maria’s emerald gaze slightly softened, staring at his sleeping face. She kind of felt … bad for what she was going to have to do.

Bursting through the room, she went right up to his nightstand.

“What the …?” Matthias groggily opened his eyes before they flew open. “The fuck are you doing here?”

“Looking for your phone, sleepyhead. Where is it?” she snapped, her kind demeanor toward him had clearly been left at the door.

Quickly, Matthias got out from under his covers and exited the bed on the other side. Holding up his hand, he dangled the rectangle. “You mean this?”

Maria slowly turned her head from the nightstand to the Luciano brother with intent to kill, but when her eyes landed on him, the emotion dissipated at his sight.

Matthias was only wearing a thin pair of shorts. Waist up, his body was on display. She had seen his twin, Angel, whom they shared mirror-imaging tattoos, but she had never seen him unclothed. She assumed the twins had more tattoos, as their fingers, hands, and necks were fully inked until they disappeared under clothes … but not this many.

Maria couldn’t see a patch of pale skin other than his face.

“Like what you see?” Matthias’s playboy façade had returned.

“No,” she told him truthfully. Even her voice made it clear that she wasn’t staring from lust but curiosity. “I just didn’t take you as a masochist.”

Matthias’s mask slipped at her words, shocked that Maria had called him out with one look.

“I can understand Angel being able to take pain,” she continued, still staring at all the ink that covered every inch of his skin. They were beautiful but … looked very painful. The amount of hours he’d had to sit in a chair as a needle constantly beat into his skin was almost unimaginable for a person his age, which was maybe a year older than herself. That kind of ink took a lifetime, not years. “But not you.”

Matthias smiled. “Then you’ll be shocked to find out it wasn’t Angel who first wanted them, princess.”

She drew her brows together for a second, then her curiosity disappeared. “Don’t call me that,” Maria hissed