Angelo (The Marchesi Family 2)

“Thank you, Lola.”

“You’re welcome.” She looked around the table. “Does anybody need anything else?”

“Just more bread since this asshole stole mine,” Devil said.

“Language.” Lucien glared at him. Devil flipped him off, and Lola shook her head as she left the dining room.

“You don’t have to be such a stuck-up asshole, Luce.”

“I don’t give a fuck how you speak to most people, but you keep your words clean when you’re talking to Lola. She’s the closest thing to a mother we have now.”

Devil huffed. “Fine.”

A lot of times, Lucien pissed me off, but right then I found it really fucking adorable that the older-brother dynamic never changed, even though he was thirty-two now and Devil and I were almost thirty.

We managed reasonably civilized conversation for the rest of dinner. Lola brought us all pieces of tres leches cake for dessert. Once I’d basically put myself into a food coma, I pushed back my chair and stood. “I’ll see you all later.”

I thought I was in the clear, but Lucien said, “You’ll see me right now in the office. I’ve got a few questions for you.”

“I’ve got plans.” That was a lie. My only plans were to pour myself a large whiskey, take it to my room, and jerk off thinking about Cameron.

“I don’t give a fuck what your plans are. You’re avoiding me. And there’s a reason. Office. Now.”

Peter glanced at Lucien, obviously picking up that there was some tension between us. I looked at Peter, willing him to use his wiles to convince my brother to go upstairs with him instead, but he didn’t intervene.

“Look, Luce, I’m handling things.”

Sabrina pushed back her chair and laid a hand on Peter’s shoulder. “I was thinking about an evening stroll. Would you like to join me?”

Peter nodded, looking relieved to be able to escape the tension. Dammit, I wasn’t going to get any help from either of them. I glanced over at Devil, but he shook his head. “You’re on your own. Whatever the fuck he’s pissed off about, I don’t want to get in the middle of it.”

Devil always wanted to get in the middle of anything resembling trouble. “Is this because of the garlic bread?”

He grinned. “Maybe.”

“Fucking asshole.”

Lucien rose from his chair, and I did the only thing I could. I followed him to the office that used to belong to our father and now belonged to him.

Lucien gestured for me to enter and closed the door firmly behind himself. I sank into a chair and considered propping my feet up on his desk, but since I wanted to diffuse this confrontation, not make it worse, I decided to behave myself. I occasionally showed self-restraint.

Lucien sat down behind his desk and watched me for a few moments. “You’re hiding something.”

How the fuck did he always know?

The same way you always read him easily.

Sometimes having a brother you were close to fucking sucked.

“You sent me to do a job, and I did it.”

“So you’ve secured an agreement that Cameron will continue to pay off the loan the same way his father was?”

I shook my head.

“I’m sure he doesn’t have the money. That must mean the bakery is ours now. He gave it up and walked away?”

“You told me to give him until the end of the week to decide how he would pay up. That’s what I did.”

Lucien studied me for so long I started to sweat. Damn, he was good at this interrogation thing. When he finally spoke, he said, “You walked in there, informed him of the situation, told him his choices, and walked away?”

“Why the fuck do you need a play-by-play? You told me you want me to have more responsibility, but now you’re trying to micromanage me. Leave me the fuck alone to do the job you gave me.”

“I could do that if I didn’t know you were hiding something. You haven’t told me what that is yet.”

“Why do you care so much about this? In the grand scheme of our business this is small-time shit.”

“We don’t ever treat a debt this size as small-time shit. If we did, we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

I grabbed a folder from his desk and threw it across the room. So much for restraint. “Stop being a fucking dick for once.”

Lucien didn’t acknowledge my tantrum. “If I wasn’t sure something was off before, I sure as hell am now. Since when is it a big deal to get a status report from you? But you’re right. I am being a dick.”

I don’t think I could’ve been more startled if he’d shot me. “Did you just kind of apologize? Are you feeling all right?”

Lucien rolled his eyes. “I’m pushing you on this because I’m worried about you. After I sent you to Cameron, I realized I’d likely made a mistake.”

He probably had, but I wasn’t going to admit that. “I’m handling it. Just trust me. There’s nothing to worry about.”