After checking on Leo and Little Red last night, I spent some time in my office before grabbing a few hours of sleep in my spare room. But I didn’t stay away any longer, since as soon as I opened my eyes, my feet were moving back to my room on their own accord, not stopping until I was sitting in the armchair, watching her. Watching the rise and fall of her chest, the outline of her small curves underneath the linen. Why, I have no idea. There is something about her that has me on edge, and I seem to like torturing myself with the pretty young thing sleeping in my bed. When I brought her home yesterday, I could have put her in any one of the spare bedrooms, but like the fool I am, I brought her to mine. The look of her in my sheets, her scent in my bed, her hair splayed out across the pillow, is now permanently etched into my memory, and I don’t want her anywhere else. The itch to touch her but knowing I shouldn’t festers on the surface of my skin, making me itch. My fingers twitch just thinking about it.

“We’ve got to get this shit sorted,” Carter says, and by the look of him, he hasn’t had any sleep either. We have worked together for the past ten years, ever since Carter was 15 and Sebastian and I caught him pickpocketing. We offered him a job, and he has been with us ever since. He isn’t Italian, but learnt the rules quickly, and although he can never be second in command or head of the family, his role is no less important, and we consider him a brother. Like me, he has no living parents, but at least I have Leo.

My eyes flick to the clock on my wall, and I remember I must go down and have breakfast with him when he wakes in an hour or so.

“I know. Fucking Dominic is already shooting his mouth off about it to anyone who will listen. Of course, he doesn’t tell anyone who matters that he owes us money. Fucking rat,” I spit out. My hatred for the man goes deep, probably as deep as his cock was in my wife all those years ago.

He has no respect. None. And while I know many of the other families in the fold feel the same way, if he can cover his tracks as well as he thinks he can and say we acted without necessity yesterday, then it is not going to be well received in our wider circle. I already know Sebastian’s phone is running hot.

My cell rings then, and it was like I conjured him, because Sebastian’s name lights up the screen. “Sebastian.” I put him on speakerphone for Carter to hear.