Page 64 of Kingpin

“I don’t want it to be bad. I don’t want any of this to be bad. And I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a say in things. This is your home. What we are holds no bearing on that. Your home is here now. Any room you want, anything in this place you want is yours as much as it is mine. Feel free to speak your mind, and feel free to be yourself.”

She held her head high. “Do you mean that?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Then I have a request.”

“What is it?”

Her eyes darkened. “I want war, Israel.”

I cocked my head. “War.”

She took a step toward me. “Yes. War. My uncle has crossed the last line he will ever cross in his life. He’s fucked me over for the last and final time. I want war, Israel. At your side. I want my uncle taken down once and for all. And if his wife and that spoiled little brat of a daughter of his stands by his side, I want them taken down as well.”

I shook my head. “I don’t harm women and children. Ever.”

“Then you leave them to me.”

“No person in my life will, either.”

“I never said anything about harming them, Israel. You might want blood, but I want revenge. And for me, that doesn’t mean killing them.”

“What does it mean, then? For you?”

She closed the distance between us, and I felt her heart beating against my body.

“I want them to lose everything. When I’m done with them, I want them to have nothing. This empire my uncle is trying to build? I want it to crumble at his feet. And then, I want them to be forced into the life they proclaimed they saved me from. From the time I was five years old and a scared little girl, they manipulated me. Groomed me. Used me as a ploy to advance their family before discarding me like trash. This time, I want them to feel like discarded trash.”

I grinned. “Now that, beautiful, I can do.”

She nodded. “I’ll go get my things. I’ll be staying down here in the second bedroom on the right.”

“How did I know you’d pick that room?”

“You didn’t. But good try in convincing me otherwise.”

She’s quick. I like that.“Are you sure you don’t need any—”

She moved toward the stairs. “I’ve got it, Israel. Really. I’ll be moved in there by tonight.”

As I watched her glorious body ascend my steps, my grin turned into a full-blown smile. I didn’t much care for Brianna Moretti. That woman was too meek. Too mild. Too fake and way too done up with makeup. But Bonnie Moretti? This feisty, breathtaking, grounded young woman?

She and I were going to get along fabulously.

27

Bonnie

“Could you pass me the salt?”I asked.

I pointed toward the end of the counter, and I heard Israel slide it to me.

“Thanks.”

“You didn’t even look up to see where I was sliding it.” He said.

“I knew where it was going. No biggie.”

---