Page 13 of Ruin

Pick me up at 7

My dad reads the text over my shoulder and nods approvingly. He doesn’t look me in the eye when he leaves.

The moment he’s gone, images of Tommy and Lexi flood my mind like a poisonous tide. Kissing. Touching. Fucking. The betrayal tastes like copper pennies and broken glass.

I need answers. I need to hear from him what happened before I lose my mind completely. I need him to tell me why he stops anyone from touching me while he’s been after my best friend the whole time.

I open my text thread with Tommy.

You’re meeting me for coffee.

5

Tommy

I’ve spent the last two weeks at the bottom of a bottle, drowning in the thought of that fucker Tony putting his hands on Giovanna. My girl. My beautiful, sweet girl that I spent years protecting. The one who asked me to kiss her on New Year’s Eve, who leaned into me like she already belonged to me. And I told her no.

Now I can’t stop picturing him taking what should have been mine.

My phone’s been dead for days. Matti and Vin finally show up at my suite at Dragovari Tower and pound on the door like they’ll break it down. I don’t answer. Fuck them. I don’t need Vin’s smart mouth or Matti’s ‘I told you so.’

Finally, Matti uses his master key to unlock the door.

“Jesus, you look like shit,” says Vin, going to my refrigerator. He cracks a beer open and tosses another to Matti.

Matti catches it and nods. “You do. Take a shower. We’ve got work.”

“Fuck you,” I mumble, turning up the TV. The screen blurs in front of me. I’ve been drinking so long the boozebarely hits anymore, but nothing else does either. I haven’t been taking my medicine, so my heartburn is killing me, but I don’t care. I can’t do anything but torture myself thinking about Giovanna.

Did he hurt her? Did she bleed for him? Did he go slow with her? I know I couldn’t. As much as I fucking worship her, there’s no way I could take it slow with her the first time. Fuck. The idea of him pounding into my girl the way I want to makes me want to rip my skin off.

She hasn’t texted me since New Year’s Eve. Not once. Is it because she’s with him, or did she hear about me and Lexi? Or both? I’m fucking tortured not knowing where her head is at, but I can’t bring myself to text her and get answers I don’t want to hear.

Vin snatches the remote and kills the TV. I groan, dropping my head back against the cushions. I’m in no mood for their shit. He whips a pillow at me and hits me square in the chest.

“Get the fuck up. We’re leaving.”

“You’re leaving. I’m staying right fucking here,” I grumble.

Suddenly, the couch tips forward, and my ass is sliding onto the floor. Vin and Matti laugh as they drop the couch with a thud.

“Nah,” Matti says. “You’re coming with us. We need your expertise.”

I split a scowl between them. “For what?”

“Convincing someone to step into the CEO role at Lumina,” Vin says, offering me his hand.

I take it, dragging myself up. “And?

“And the person that Aurelio chose isn’t interested in trading in his private jet for a desk,” says Matti mildly. “Or working with a bunch of ‘thugs.’”

Thugs. Never fails to amuse me when I’m lumped in with low-level gangsters. I have an IQ of 180, but sure, call me athug.

Vin smirks. “Since you have a relationship with him, we thought you’d like to play with your knife instead of…whatever this is.” He gestures to the messy suite.

I grab a water bottle and down it. “Relationship?”

Matti gives Vin a warning look, and Vin shrugs. “You’ll see.”