Page 78 of The Villain's Beast

“Who are you?” I asked again.

“My name is Vince Angelini,” he said, tilting his head against the door to alleviate some of the pressure against his throat.

“That name means nothing to me.”

Another lie on the list. I knew exactly who the Angelini family was, but I wasn’t about to let this cocky piece of shit know that. If his ego swelled up any larger, it would smother the both of us. The Angelinis weren’t anyone as far as the Thorns and the Roseswere concerned, but they had their own allegiances and their own rules…far outside the boundaries of the ways we ran.

“Then you’re slow,” he rasped. He might have known I was lying, but he wasn’t certain enough to call me out on it.

While I knew the family name, I had no idea who this arrogant little shit stain was. On the other hand, he clearly knew things he shouldn’t have, and that was enough to have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I didn’t know if he was a plant from my father to test my loyalty or what, but it was a rare thing for someone to have the upper hand on me, and I didn’t enjoy the way it felt.

“I’ll fucking bleed you out right here,” I warned him, “if you don’t start speaking in ways that matter.”

“Use that pretty little brain of yours,” he suggested, reaching up and tapping my temple.

I smacked his hand away, stepping back and letting him fall onto the floor in a heap. Vince sucked in breath after breath, then stood to his full height and gazed at me once again with that smug smirk that had found him against the door in the first place.

“Vince?”

Hearing the recognition in Daren’s voice was the absolute last thing I’d expected.

“Pretty boy,” Vince said, almost a coo. “Good to see you again.”

Chapter 55

Daren

Ialmost stumbled over my own feet when I saw Bellamy’s roommate Vince standing in the middle of the living room, red-faced but otherwise unbothered. I was quick to regain my composure, coming to stand beside Fletcher as if there was no unease between us, no rift, no disagreement. Folding my arms in front of my chest, I tipped my head back to angle my chin up, giving myself as much height as I could manage. Fletcher let out a low and pleased-sounding hum after I took my place on his right, but my solidarity was a job. It didn’t change anything between us.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Looking for my roommate,” Vince answered with a smirk.

“I told you the day I took him that he was our roommate now.”

Fletcher shifted the angle of his head, and there was enough question in it that I knew he was simmering I hadn’t mentioned Vince in any major detail. But when I’d met him, he hadn’t felt important at all. Hardly worth a thought, let alone a mention.

“This is Vince Angelini,” Fletcher murmured.

I immediately recognized the name. “Isn’t that curious.”

“Isn’t it?” Vince mused, smoothing a stray lock of hair back into place.

“I don’t have any business with you,” Vince said to Fletcher. “I just need to know where Bellamy is.”

“Do you have business with my father?” Fletcher asked.

Vince narrowed his eyes.

Fletcher licked his lips, rubbing the side of his finger across his nose with a disgusted-sounding sniff.

“I should have known,” he said, turning away from Vince and stalking into the kitchen.

Vince eyed him, then looked to me. Fletcher had just put something together, but he wasn’t going to share, at least not right away. Whether that was because he didn’t trust Vince or didn’t trust me, I wasn’t certain. I hated the thought that it might be because he didn’t trust me, but it was a feeling I hadn’t been able to shake since the day he sent Bellamy and Luca away. Asking me to lie to Luca had been a bigger test of loyalty than whipping him raw, and I could tell by the way he leaned away from me before leaving the room that he wasn’t convinced I’d done what he asked of me.

I had.

Even if it had killed me.