“Really?”

Finally, I bring my eyes up past the angry veins pulsing in his neck, and to his sharp jaw and pouty lips. “Yes—” I settle on his dark eyes. “Really.”

I wasn’t sure how tonight was going to play out with Giovi and Marcu. They’ve, if anything, been protective over me my whole life. The thought brings a smile to my face. Wicked may have Papa wrapped around his finger, but my cousins are made men and are sixth-generation La Rosas. Wicked doesn’t have a leg to stand on, no matter how big, or scary and mean he may look. I know he’s not as bad as a La Rosa. No one is as bad as a La Rosa.

“You coming home with me tonight too?” I ask, not bothering to hide the smile.

He raises his brow. “Sit the fuck down.”

I lower myself onto the chair as the gala begins. I hate these things. The auctions, the fancy way to say I’m rich as fuck, but I’m also pretending to be a good person. No one here is a good person. I remember the first charity gala I attended as a little girl. I was ten or eleven, and Mama made me wear a ridiculous gown that frilled around my shoulders like fat puffy cushions. I didn’t talk to her for twenty-four hours after that. Safe to say, I was a bit of a brat. She plays house and my father loves and treats her like a precious piece of gold, but make no mistake… There’s one commandment my father does break, and that’s the cheat on my perfect wife commandment.

I give it two hours before I’m picking up my clutch and making my way out to the front lobby, grabbing my phone out and swiping it unlocked when I see Giovi’s pearly white smile flash over my screen.

“Baby girl…” he purrs, and my cheeks sting from my grin. “Is it about that time?”

I laugh, grabbing the packet of smokes I snatched from my mother’s stash. Pulling one out, I bite on the end and light the tip. “Yes. Please. But Papa has someone new stuck on me, so—”

“—you know we can handle Papa La Rosa’s little hellhounds.” Before I can blow out the cloud of smoke, a bright orange Lambo slides around the corner with Fifty Cent thumping out the windows loudly.

It skids to a halt in front of me and my idiot cousin’s face fills the space of his empty window, flashing me a wide fuck you, I’m a badass smile. Gio is good for those. “Get in.”

I toss the cigarette and lift the door up high before shutting it closed just in time to see Wicked at the door.