Fifty thousand dollars in exchange for three weeks of sheer commitment and consented submission. It was a simple proposal from the employer to an employee until feelings got in the way.
Being a college student and the legal guardian of her two sibli...
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I'm in deep trouble indeed. Knowing Arabella's sanguine temper as I do, I'm sure as hell that I'm gonna see a rather caricatured side of it before the day ends. Worst case scenario, she may pack her bag and demand the next flight to Vegas.
Just why did Reece have to mention the damn birthday that I almost forgot about? Who cares about it? Not me. It's a waste of time. It's bullshit! I lost the meaning of it ever since my brother passed thanks to Roberto Castle.
Everything changed. We were supposed to celebrate it together—not like this! I have no right to cut a damn cake when I failed him big time. Even if that bitch couldn't protect him, it was my responsibility to do it and I failed miserably.
"Hey?" Nicolai snaps his calloused fingers, demanding my lost attention.
I lift my distressed gaze at him. "What are you doing here, all of you? And don't tell me about the freaky birthday, or I'm gonna beat the crap out of you!"
They roar with laughter.
Bastards! A ghost of a smile strokes my lips.
"Oh, brother," Nicolai chimes in. "You may be as strong as a stallion but you're outnumbered. Surely we can kick your ass now that you're no longer the boogeyman you once were!" he sneers while pooping a can of beer.
I laugh, recalling how we used to loathe each other fifteen years back. Roberto found him in Japan, and until now no one knows how he ended up in the streets of Tokyo running small errands for some Yakuza gang. He's a taipan with daggers, very skilled and precise.
Truth be told, I found a new real family in these guys. None of us are blood-related, but we're almost as solid as I used to be with my real brother. We all share a shady childhood that makes us alike and maybe that's why we can't break the bond we have no matter how many trials life has thrown our way so far.
Lance was found beaten up to a pulp by a drug cartel in Bogota and that's how we found him. He was a street kid, passionate about music but earned his bread through drug delivery. When Roberto rescued him, I was at least twenty years old and on a mission to wipe off some Colombian kingpin.
And Z, this punk, was a pickpocket in Odessa. So rough and impulsive. He stole from Roberto and got himself in deep shit. As cruel and atrocious our father can be, he's a firm believer in second chances for the reasons his existence can testify.
He took him in. He took all of us in.
Reece is the only bloody child he has, and to us, she's someone we must protect with our lives if necessary. When she was born, the whole of Sicily's coasts blew in fireworks straight from Lampedusa. And when she was kidnapped two years ago, the same blue sky thundered from the Castle's fury.
Not something I want to remember. We lost a brother in the process.
Protecting the family is our number one rule, more sacred than the Holy Bible. If you mess with one, it becomes everyone's business. I don't fancy violence even though I grew up in it, and bathed in it, but when it comes to those I love, I can become the boogeyman again and again.
