He grinned. “Moonshine. My cousin got it for me. You remember Devil, right?”
I did. The two of them had been inseparable. Two hot-as-fuck bad boys who got everything they wanted. Most students envied them, and all the teachers hated them.
I handed the flask back and took a few slow sips of water.
What the fuck was I going to do? I wanted to deny the debt, to tell Angelo the agreement had been with my dad, not with me, and it had no legal bearing. But legal consequences were the least of my worries. There’d been plenty of rumors about the Marchesis and just how far they were willing to go to protect the territory they controlled. If even half those rumors were true, they would do whatever it took to get the money out of me.
Maybe the best thing to do was run. How far would they go to track me down? Did they have resources all over the country?
I should never have come back. I should have just told the lawyer who’d contacted me to sell the place. I could’ve found another job or gone back to school to do something else. Now I was fucked, and I was probably going to have to resort to using some of the skills my father had taught me when I was a kid.
4
Angelo
I thought I’d enjoy the hell out of making Cameron squirm, making him realize this time I had something he needed, and he had no choice but to give into my demands. I’d intended to be cruel. I’d wanted him scared. I’d wanted him to beg, but he looked so damn defeated. That wasn’t nearly as hot as having him tremble with fear, looking at me wide-eyed, stepping back as I moved closer. That was what I’d fantasized about.
I expected him to still be an arrogant son of a bitch. He’d been scared of me before, and I’d only gotten bigger and more dangerous. But as his anger had faded, he’d wilted rather than quivering, like the weight of what his father had done to him was too much.
I couldn’t let myself go soft on him, though, no matter how much sadness I saw in his blue eyes. He owed us and no way in hell could I ignore that. Lucien would fucking kill me, and he’d send Devil to do the job. Devil was not getting his hands on Cameron. Cameron was mine.
I hadn’t expected to still feel what I had for him in high school. I’d hated myself for having such a stupid-ass crush on a guy who was never going to look at me, but I’d make him look at me now. I wanted him, and I’d get him. Cameron would go to his knees for me, not shaking with fear, not begging for mercy as I held my gun to his head and told him to give me my fucking money or asked him who was dirty now as I waited for him to piss himself. That plan was trash.
I wanted him to kneel for me and beg for my cock, beg me to take him because he couldn’t deny how much he wanted me.
What if I offered him a way to pay back his debt with what I knew he had—his body? What if I told him I’d wipe the slate clean if he let me take him whenever I wanted, however I wanted? Lucien might fucking kill me for that, but it wasn’t like he ever thought he’d actually get half a million out of Cameron. What he really wanted was for the bakery to stay accessible to our family business. I’d find another way to clean up the dirty money Cameron had hated so much back in high school. I could be creative when I needed to be. And we could find another place for the gambling ring Cameron’s father had hosted in the back of the bakery after hours. Devil could help me with that. He had some underworld connections even I wouldn’t touch.
Lucien didn’t need to know my methods. I’d tell him when it was done. I’d been working fucking hard, and I deserved a reward. Lucien had handed me Cameron, and I was going to take him. “It’s time for us to work out a deal. How are you going to pay off this debt?”
“I don’t have half a million dollars.”
“I’m well aware of that, and it’s too bad because you’re out of time. My brother, Lucien— you remember him, right? He runs things now that our father’s retired. The old man’s having a blast, by the way, going on cruises, playing golf, rarely bashing heads anymore.” Cameron looked as horrified as I expected him to, and I fought the urge to smile. “Lucien’s not a patient man. He wants the money by the end of the week, and if you ain’t got it, you’re going to have to figure out another way to pay off your debt.”