Page 39 of Villainous Kingpin
I shook my head and scoffed silently at that notion.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked me, his deep voice made my pulse flutter.
I took another step, leaving two feet of space between us. He must have noticed me eyeing his cigarette because he pulled it from his lips and handed it to me.
“I don’t want you to die from lung cancer,” I murmured, because admitting my other thoughts wasn’t an option. At least not yet.
Dark amusement ghosted through his expression. “You’d miss me?”
Something squeezed in my chest at the thought of losing him. It wasn’t anything I had ever felt before.
“I would,” I admitted, taking his unlit cigarette. “Very much so.”
I watched his beautiful mouth curve into that half-arrogant smile and a languid rush filled my bloodstream. My body reacted to him so strongly, I feared he’d destroy me without even trying. And I’d let him.
My mother’s words came back.First love shatters your innocence and ends your dreams.
Then why did it feel like my dreams around this man took me higher and higher? He’d never shatter me.
“So why did you bring me to Philly?” I asked in an attempt to change subjects.
“My cousin runs this city.” My eyebrows rose. “And I have some business to take care of.”
“You have a lot of cousins?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I do. But only Dante and Priest count. And of course, my sister.”
“Priest, huh?” I inquired curiously about his cousin. “Nickname?”
Bas nodded. “He recites the last rites to men before he finishes them off.”
I felt my eyes widened and a gulp sounded between us. Unsure how to respond to it, I decided it was probably better that I said nothing. Priest must be one scary dude, and now I wasn’t quite sure whether it was smart to meet someone like that.
So I reverted to a safer subject. Bas’ sister.
“You mentioned your sister before. What’s her name?” It was true that I didn’t know much about the families of the Syndicate, but I didn’t recall seeing anything about a sister when I looked him up. He mentioned his baby sister on our first date too.
“Emory. She’s twenty-three.” I tilted my head studying him. “And you?”
“Just the two cousins I mentioned,” I said. “It’s mainly Jules, Mom, and me.”
“Jules, the crazy one,” he mused. “That should be her title.” When I cocked my eyebrow, he explained. “I saw the footage. It was her that gathered the supplies to set the house on fire.”
I sighed. “She’s going through some rough times.”
Jules found a birth certificate naming her birth parents. At first we thought they were fake, but it turned out they were real. It was a shock to all of us, most of all Juliette.
“You’re protective of her and your friends.”
I nodded.
“Are you close to your mom?” he asked and my eyes shifted back to the city.
It was a complicated answer to a simple question. I sighed, because I had nobody to compare my relationship to Mom with. Davina grew up under her grandfather’s care. Juliette and Killian didn’t have a mother. And Ivy’s mother died when she was very young.
“I think so,” I finally answered. When Bas cocked his eyebrow, I tried to explain, “She’s my coach too. Some days it feels like she’s more my coach than anything else. My breakfast was determined by my coach, not my mother. My class schedule. My holiday. Everything.” I returned my attention to the fascinating man in front of me. “It was probably why I picked Yale. It was on the opposite coast from Mom.”
“I’m glad you did,” he drawled, the deep timbre of his words setting off flames inside me. “What does she coach?”
