She’s the mom we never had, even if we never say it out loud. Marie is the heart of this household. If anything ever happened to her, we would avenge her without blinking an eye.
“We are leaving in ten minutes. Be ready.” I stroll down the hallway and slam the door to my room. I try to calm down, but Ari is right; I’ve always had anger issues, issues with things I cannot control.
How do people keep people in their lives? This situation with Delilah is already maddening. I’m obsessed to the point of wanting to kill everyone who looks in her direction.
“She’s agreed to be yours. She will not break the contract,” I mutter to myself, sounding like a man about to jump off a cliff if he doesn’t rein himself in.
I roll my shoulders to loosen the tension and step into my closet. I dress in a deep purple blazer paired with black trousers. Purple isn’t a color I wear often, but I do when I want to feel empowered. I want the upper hand; right now, Delilah thinks she has it.
She’s wrong.
We can play. She can be a mouse; I will be the cat, hunting her until she’s in my hands. Delilah needs a reminder that I’m a predator, and she’s my prey.
And prey gets devoured.
I tuck my gun at the back of my shirt so my blazer covers it. The last thing I need is for a professor to catch sight of my gun’s handle while I’m on campus-,
a campus I donate to, actively. So, they won’t be surprised to see me on campus checking how my funds have been allocated.
Strolling through my room and back down the hall, I’m confident, yet, rage still tickles my senses.
Ari, Matias, and Gianni wait at the end of the hall. I don’t know what comes over me, but I land a punch in Ari’s stomach. He tries to double over, but I hold him up by the back of his suit.
I lean closer and whisper, “If you ever let her walk out that door alone again, I will pull the nails from your fingers, Ari.”
Ari wraps a hand around my throat and shoves me against the wall. “Fuck with me, and I’ll fuck with you, brother. If I don’t challenge you, no one will. And someone needs to exist to bring you down a few notches.”
Matias pulls Ari away from me, and I straighten my blazer. They watch me, pure hatred shining in their dark gazes. Finally, I hold out my hand in a truce.
Ari shakes it, and the brotherly dynamics are back, the anger and violence forgotten. Ari makes it so damn easy to lose my patience. He pokes at me, but I need to be better.
We all climb down the steps and swing the door open, my eyes zeroing in on the gate. “I want more men on security at the gate. The new rule is that Delilah is not to leave without an escort. It will normally be me, but if by some chance it isn’t, then someone needs to be with her at all times. Okay?”
“Agreed. No one will fuck with our sister-in-law,” Matias says, the bloodlust in his voice evident. He barely knows Delilah,
but because she belongs to me, that’s all he needs to know.
“Shotgun!” Ari shouts, quickly jumping into the passenger seat.
Matias and I curse as we climb in the back.
Calling shotgun is an absolute rule. Whoever calls it first gets to ride in the passenger seat for the day. It’s the one thing I’ve always done since the twins were kids. With such a large age gap between us, I need to remember that their mindset differs from mine. Ari calling shotgun reminds me of that every time.
The engine rumbles, the gate swings open, and all the while I’m staring at my phone to make sure she doesn’t move from the fucking spot she’s in. I feel the muscle in my jaw twitch, knowing she snuck away from me so easily. I’ve never slept so hard before. I wake up at the slightest noise, gun at the ready, but with Delilah by my side, I slept better than I had in my entire life.
“You might not want to go there raising hell,” Matias suggests. “We will be around people. In public. You can’t do anything drastic.”
“I’m not going to do anything drastic.” Except maybe wrap a hand around Delilah’s throat, press her against the nearest wall and slamming my lips to hers so she knows who is in charge. The contract be damned.
I can’t do that. I can’t go back on my word. It’s all I have with her right now, and if I let her come to me, then there is a chance for us to be more than a business arrangement.
The school is only a few miles away, and I’m curious how my little troublemaker got there. If she walked…
I don’t even want to think about that. Surely, she wouldn’t put herself in harm’s way. She’s stubborn, though. She might have walked just to prove that she could.
She’ll be my reason for insanity, but it’s a good thing I love the madness.
“So, what are you going to do when you see her? Talk? Yell?” Ari asks.
“It’s good to come up with a game plan.” Gianni rolls down his window and lights a cigarette. “We can’t just barge in there. Campus security will kick us out.”
“Please,” I scoff, looking out the window and watching through the tinted glass as the town passes. “I pay their fucking salaries. They would be idiots to do that. There won’t be any issues.”
“Good because we are pulling into the campus now.” The blinker clicks as Gianni takes a left, and immediately we are staring at tall buildings and dormitories. We follow the signs, passing college students along the way, and Ari is distracted by every woman he sees.
If they only knew the danger of just stepping on campus, they wouldn’t dare walk around so freely.
Gianni finally parks in front of a modern two-story building with large windows to let in the natural light.
I donated the money for their new library after a snowstorm caved in the roof and ruined all the books, computers and printers. Now, they have a state-of-the-art library with private rooms for studying, laptops for the students to rent, the best desktop computers and any book they could ever want.
This is my city, my people, and it’s up to me to take care of them.
Even if it means getting my hands a little bloody.
I step out of the car and stride to the front entrance of the library. I don’t wait for my brothers to follow me. I leave them behind, my legs carrying me faster. A few students see me and stare. A guy wearing glasses grabs his friend’s backpack and yanks her back, so she’s out of my way.
When I reach the doors, I yank them. Steel and glass clang against the library walls
and every head turns.
Including hers.