Step Bride: A Bad Boy Mob Roman(50)

I yanked open my room’s door and went inside. I headed over to the bar and poured myself a nice, stiff drink.

It made no sense. I wasn’t the one acting out and treating her family like an asshole; that was Camille. I didn’t get why Natalie would be angry with me, her only real ally and the only person who really gave a shit about her in the whole house. All for speaking the truth?

I slammed back my drink and collapsed onto the couch. I replayed the conversation over in my head, trying to figure out what was really going on.

And then something jumped out at me, something Natalie had said her mother had mentioned about the driver, Franklin.

He spoke Russian.

I stroked my chin, thinking. It was a pretty thin lead, but I was pretty thin on anything else at the moment. And besides, none of our guys spoke Russian, and most of them took pride in that. From what I knew about Franklin, he was just some low-level driver; what was a guy like that doing speaking multiple languages?

I got up and poured myself another drink. I was going to have to investigate this Franklin guy, just in case, which was annoying, since I was already busy as hell with everything else.

And now Natalie was pissed.

Oh well. She’d get over it eventually, or not. I wasn’t going to go groveling back to her like some dog.

I slammed back my drink and headed to bed.





Chapter Twenty-Five: Natalie





I woke up late in the morning, feeling almost like I was hungover.

The conversations from the night before came swirling back into my brain with a vengeance. The image of my mother and Franklin lingered too, but I tried to keep myself from dwelling on that.

I got up and grabbed the breakfast tray from the hallway and carried it inside. The coffee was still hot, which was exactly what I needed. I sipped the strong, black stuff and looked out the window, frowning.

I couldn’t believe how willful and reckless my mother was. She was putting us both at risk. Lucas seemed to think that everything would be okay, or at least that he would make sure I was protected, but that didn’t make me feel much better. I wanted my mother to be okay as well, not just me.

Even though she was crazy and selfish and stupid, she was still my mother. And Lucas just couldn’t call her a whore, just couldn’t disrespect her that way.

Even if she was acting like a whore.

I couldn’t let him talk to me that way. He didn’t seem to understand, didn’t seem to care about anything other than the fact that he was being nice to me and that he was technically right about my mom. He completely missed the point. I wanted him to respect me, and part of that respect meant he couldn’t call my mother a whore.

Maybe I had overreacted. I didn’t feel as angry about it this morning, but still. I knew I had to draw the line somewhere, or else risk letting him talk to me however he wanted.

I felt at a complete loss. I had pushed away my biggest ally in the house right at the time that I needed him the most. And the feeling of his skin against mine kept ringing in my ears, infusing into everything else. Everything had happened so fast, and right at the moment when I was feeling the best about the sudden change in my life.

I was almost back to square one. It felt like I had finally broken through with Lucas, finally given myself up to him despite the obstacles, and suddenly my mother fucked up and sent it all careening off a cliff.

Frustrated, I dressed quickly and went walking through the halls. The place felt like a museum all of a sudden, and I had nowhere I could go that was even slightly comfortable. I felt like I had to keep my hands to myself and stay as quiet as possible, or else someone would yell at me.

Almost on a whim, I found myself heading toward Louisa’s room. I didn’t know why, but I felt like she was someone I could talk to. Maybe that was dangerous; maybe she was closer with her father than she let on, and telling her about what my mother was doing could cause some real problems.

But I had a feeling about her, and I couldn’t shake it. I stopped outside her door and knocked.

“Go away,” I heard her yell from inside.

“Louisa?” I called back. “It’s Natalie.”

There was a pause. “Hold on.”

I waited a second and listened to what sounded like furniture moving around. A minute later, the door slowly pulled open.

“Hey there, sister,” she said, smiling.

“Hi, Louisa. Mind if I come in?”

She cocked her head. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks.” She turned and let me in and I followed her. We sat down on her couches.

Instantly, I couldn’t help but notice the influx of computer equipment. It all looked like it was wired into a central mainframe computer, with all her other computers running complicated-looking programs. I could tell it was way above my head, even with my own solid knowledge of the field.