Page 28 of Matteo
Everyone groaned in unison. The youngest member of the Vitale family had changed her major as frequently as the seasons.
“It would make more sense to finish out with your current major,” I stated. “It’s your last year; you can do it.”
She let out a loudpfftsound. “Physics was a good excuse for Yale, but I don’t want to study that hard. I mean, what’s the point? I’m going to marry some mafia dude, not make a career out of it. Besides, physics was… boring.”
The girls scoffed, but nobody argued.
Arranged marriages were common in our circles. Penelope was arranged to marry some Italian dude. Amara swore up and down she would never get married, but I caught glances between her and Gabriel Santos once or twice at the end of the last school year. And then there was something between Skye and Nikola too…
But none of that applied to my sisters and me.
Our father promised we wouldn’t be forced to marry as part of some silly arrangement.
Like I said, he was a good one.
The conversation veered to a discussion about various majors and what would be the easiest to stomach for Francesca,but I tuned it out. She might be asking for our opinions, but I’d bet she already made up her mind.
My gaze kept flitting to the exit, eager to leave all the commotion behind, when Skye’s hand flagged me for attention.
“There’s a party to crash, and then we have a surprise for you.”
I stared back at a smiling Skye and grinned. “What is it?”
As if the rest of the girls remembered, they all exclaimed at the same time.
“You’re going to love it,” Amara assured, smiling devilishly.
Anya frowned. “We shouldn’t steal her family’s thunder.”
I beamed, intrigued. “Don’t keep me in suspense. Tell me.”
“Nope.” They all shook their heads. “Party first.”
“Get your priorities in order.” Francesca bumped her shoulder against mine, grinning like she meant to set the world on fire. “It’s time to show them who’s the life of the party.”
“Some welcome this is,” I muttered under my breath, but I let the girls drag me away anyhow.
CHAPTER TWELVE
MATTEO
When Ari told me the shooter had brought up my family name, I dug up everything there was to know about him—from the moment he took his first breath to his last one. That included everything I could find about his sister who had mysteriously gone missing recently.
It was how I found myself in New York City, specifically one of Soho’s most luxurious residential streets, with Nikola and Gabriel. The shooter’s family owned this luxury redbrick manor among many others. We’d checked them all out, but this one raised questions.
It was rented out to a company that didn’t exist. At least not legally. And then there were the women that we witnessed being smuggled into the manor, which was an obvious glaring red flag.
The manor stood at the end of the dead-end street, away from prying eyes and the noise of the city. The lawn was immaculate, the gardens manicured, and the amber glow of lights bled through the blinds, telling us what we needed to know.
It looked like a typical home, blending in with the rest of the neighborhood, but my gut warned it was serving a different purpose.
“Should we run this by our parents?” Nikola asked.
Gabriel snorted. “Since when do you want to run shit by our parents?”
He shrugged. “Trying to be a good influence.”
“You?” I narrowed my eyes on him. “Does this have something to do with Skye or impressing Dante Leone?”
