Growing up the way they did, it wasn’t easy, to say the least, so making everyone think they shouldn’t mess with Matthias while they always ignored or underestimated Angel had protected them. It was their armor. Over the span of their lives, very few had found out the truth about them, and when they had, they’d realized too late.
Until Lucca.
“Did you get it yet?” Matthias asked, getting to the real reason of the phone call.
Feeling the heavy weight of the ring deep in his pocket, he was able to tell him what he had been unable to yesterday. “I did.”
“Then it must have gone successfully.”
“Well, not exactly.” The image of the troublesome little brunette filled his mind. “I didn’t realize I had an audience.”
“Who?” A hint of worry appeared in Matthias’s voice.
“A Caruso girl.”
The wariness in his brother’s voice turned dark. “Will she be a problem?”
“I’ll take care of her,” he put simply, without a hint of remorse.
“Good.” Matthias paused. Knowing Angel would do whatever it took, he then gave his brother a final warning with the dark tone still present, “Be careful, Angel. Remember, no matter how much time you spend with them, you are and always will be a Luciano, never a Caruso.”
Angel looked at Tom, who remained down the hall, as he put his hand deep in his pocket. Seeing Tom’s muscles tighten and his eyes slightly narrow, becoming trained on what Angel was about to pull out of his pocket, revealed to Angel all he needed to know.
Rubbing his thumb over the ring, he thought about who it belonged to and why he had stolen it back. For family.
“I know, brother,” was all he said before he hung up and headed back to the spot he had come from.
When he finally pulled his hand out of his pocket, coming up clean, he saw Tom ease again. He had to refrain from rolling his eyes to the back of his head. Stupid fucker.
No, there was no fooling Angel, who knew every trick in the book when it came to watching someone. He had become an expert at it, and had gone undetected due to the act he played. Not only that, but the reason he had learned how to have a watchful eye in the first place was because he had felt what it was like to be watched from a very young age. Feeling the judgmental eyes of others was something he could and always would feel. It never failed to make his skin crawl …
…“You can each pick one thing,” his older brother, Dominic, had told them when they’d walked into the busy gas station.
Angel couldn’t help noticing the stares they got the second they walked in; not only from the customers, but the cashier, too. He wasn’t sure why they were looking at them that way. He wondered if it was because of the dirty, dingy clothes they wore, or if it was because their thirteen-year-old brother was taking care of his eight-year-old twin brothers.
“Ooo … I want this.” Matthias grabbed a bag of gummies from off the shelf.
“No.” Their older brother snatched the gummies out of his hand, putting it back. “It’s breakfast; pick doughnuts or something. Just hurry up or we’re going to be even later for school.”
It was hard for Angel to concentrate on picking something when the cashier came out from behind the counter to watch them closer. Therefore, he just grabbed a pack of powdered doughnuts, not wanting to make his brother any later.
Dominic took them to their elementary school every morning before he went to his classes at the middle school, which always caused him to be late. The school was going to fail his older brother if he continued with his tardiness.
“You better be paying for those, boy, and I want to check all your backpacks before you leave. You little shits are sneaky nowadays,” the foul-looking cashier spat at Dominic.
Now Angel understood why everyone was staring at them.
Looking down at his dirty clothes, he figured it didn’t look like they had enough money to afford a pack of gum.
“We have money,” a young Dominic growled back as he picked up a honey bun for himself.
The cashier laughed in their faces. “Yeah, I bet you do.”
A flash appeared behind his brother’s eyes. Even though he was only thirteen, his height and stature made him look older.
Taking a step toward the man, Dominic growled once more, pulling out a twenty-dollar bill their father had thrown at them earlier, “I. Said. We. Got. Money.”
Sure, they weren’t rich, but money was never the issue. With their father being who he was, people would give him their life savings if they thought he wanted it badly enough. The issue was parenting.
Turning his back to them, the cashier headed toward his spot behind the register. “Good, then pay for your shit and get outta here.”