Angelo (The Marchesi Family 2)

I grinned at my brother. “Like I said, he wouldn’t help me out.”

“Right. He inherited the bakery. He owes us, and he’s not paying.”

“Have you talked to him?”

Lucien shook his head. “I’ve sent him some messages, but they’ve all been ignored. Now that he’s had some time to settle in, I thought you’d like to be the one to make contact.”

Would I ever. “Thanks. I’ll try to be nice to you for a day or two.”

“Just promise me you’ll impress upon Cameron the importance of keeping the authorities out of this, and try to restrain yourself enough to leave him in one piece. The bakery is convenient for us. I want a working relationship, not a dead man.”

“He’ll be in one piece.” Beating a scrawny little asshole like him wouldn’t be any fun. I had other ways to make him regret ignoring our demands. “You got a deadline on this?”

Lucien frowned. “Why?”

“I want to do some research first.”

“Research? Are you feeling okay?”

I held up both middle fingers. “I try to be fucking responsible, and you make fun of me. I can’t win with you.”

“Is this really about being responsible, or are you researching how to torture him without leaving marks?”

I huffed. “You honestly think I don’t already know that? What kind of amateur do you think I am?”

“Angelo.” The warning in his voice was clear.

“I’m going to scare him. That’s all. Okay?”

He gave a sharp nod.

“I just want to know what he’s been up to so I know best how to approach him.”

Lucien’s frown deepened. “Maybe Devil should handle this after all.”

“No!” My shout echoed in the room.

Lucien’s sudden smile unnerved me. “How did I never realize?”

My pulse accelerated. No way in fuck did Lucien mean what I thought he did. “Realize what?’

“You had feelings for him, didn’t you? I just thought he pissed you off.”

“Don’t,” I growled.

“Angelo—”

“I fucking mean it, Luce.”

My hands flexed at my sides. It had been a while since Lucien and I’d had a serious fight, but I was ready to go at it if he pushed me. Fuck yes, I’d wanted Cameron back in the day. I still didn’t understand why. He was nothing like the kind of guy I would go for now.

I wasn’t out back then, not even after Lucien told everyone he was gay. I liked girls too—I still did—and fucking them was so much easier. But I jerked off so many times to the thought of Cameron on his knees before me, and Cameron spread out on my bed, hands tied, unable to run from me the way he always did when he saw me in the hall at school.

I could have him now if I wanted him. I could pin him down and punish him for ignoring my family’s demands. I was not a good man, but there were lines I wouldn’t cross. If he was unwilling, I’d make him pay another way, one that would be a lot less fun. I’d still get to punish him, though. I might have been physically superior to him in high school, but he’d had something I wanted, and he’d refused to give it to me. I was the one with the upper hand now.

Lucien’s words echoed in my head. All you wanted was his homework.

Lucien was wrong. I’d wanted so much more, and while I had asked Cameron to let me cheat off him, when the fucker had failed to respond to my charm and give me an easy out, I’d asked him to tutor me. I’d even offered to pay him. I knew he needed money. But he refused to do it. He didn’t want to take my money. He thought it was dirty.

When I looked at Lucien again, his expression had softened. He must have realized how serious I was because for once, he actually backed down. “If you need to talk, you know where to find me, and if you think you can’t do this without getting yourself in trouble—”

“I’ll be fine.” I wasn’t sure that was true, but I had to be the one to do this. Cameron was mine. Mine to terrorize. Mine to bring down a notch or two. Mine to punish.

I left Lucien’s office and headed to my own. Lucien couldn’t see me here, so I propped my feet up on my desk, set my computer on my lap, and began to learn all I could about Cameron Bellini and what he’d done in the last thirteen years.

My obsession with him had begun during my junior year, the year after my mom died, the year I was determined to do better in school because that was what my mom would have wanted. Cameron hadn’t returned to school the next year. I’d heard his mom had finally had all she could take from his asshole of a father. She’d taken Cameron and fled town. I’d never known the whole story, and by the time the summer before my senior year ended, I’d gotten more involved in the family business. Once school started back, I was focused on how to get my dick into as many people as I could while staying drunk most of the time. If Lucien hadn’t tried to beat some sense into me, I might not have survived until graduation.