Page 38 of Matteo
Matteo Vitale.
The painted face that terrified me the most. Gone was the boy I’d grown up with, and in his place was a ruthless mobster.
Much like every other person on this campus.
Roars of voices rolled through the clearing, the wordskill,kill,killrepeated over and over again, and it finally dawned on me why people were gathered here tonight, what their aim was.
They’d apprehended an enemy on East Coast territory.
Matteo had claimed that students here were a legacy of heathens, and he wasn’t wrong. Both of our ancestors were once deeply embedded in flesh trading with auctions, agreements, and prostitution rings.
I’d heard rumors of the punishments doled out to those who participated in it now. They—Matteo and his friends—would track down any reckless man who dared encroach on their family territory. They became judges, juries, and… executioners.
My gaze fell on my twin brothers.
They were glaring at me from across the field, unhappy to see me and my friends here.
I wouldn’t have recognized them if not for those identical glaring gray eyes, and we were too far apart for me to tell them apart. They held my gaze and one of them—Cassius, maybe?—mouthed,What the fuck are you doing here?
I smiled sweetly and turned my back on them.
Amara chuckled next to me. “Siblings. Gotta love ’em.”
“Only because we can’t murder them,” I said, but my voice was devoid of any real venom.
“Is this guy getting a bullet in his head, burning at the stake, or what?” someone yelled. “We don’t have all night for this shit.”
“We’ll teach him ‘predator and prey,’” Matteo answered, his strong baritone voice traveling through the entire clearing. “We’ll set him free and then hunt him down. Heck, maybe even take one of his organs or two.”
What the actual fuck?
“It would seem your brother’s leading this manhunt,” Penelope whispered the obvious to Francesca. “Better hope he doesn’t get locked up.”
She just shrugged. “This is why I need to get that law degree.”
“Just make sure you charge them an arm and a leg,” I added, and the girls fixed me with their disapproving stares. “What? A girl’s got to make a living somehow. It’s no different than robbery, and y’all are good with that.”
“I see your point,” Amara agreed. “We pat you on the back when you and Hannah steal money, and like you said, this is no different.”
Over Amara’s shoulder, I spotted a familiar face. I lost track of the conversation, blinking furiously to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.
Hannah.
Sure, her face was hard to make out, but there was no mistaking her. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, and the smileshe wore on that white-painted face with black skull lines was nothing short of terrifying.
We never willingly ventured into violence, not unless it was self-defense.
My eyes flitted to my brothers, where I registered their shock as they noticed the same person I did. That meant it had to be the first time Hannah was here; otherwise, they wouldn’t be surprised like that.
Hannah’s fingers circled a baseball bat resting on her shoulder, all her attention on the man Matteo was about to set free. She wore jean shorts, an oversized white Oxford that was tied at her waist, and black high-top sneakers.
“Run, because when you’re caught, all hell will break loose,” Matteo shouted as he unbound the prisoner. I always knew there was a dangerous edge to him, but I’d never gotten this close to it before.
“You have thirty seconds.” Hannah laughed, then she started counting. “One Mississippi… two Mississippi…”
My mouth parted in shock as I watched it all unfold.
“What in the fuck is going on here?” I hissed, staring in shock at the scene in front of me.
