Page 12 of Alive and Kicking
She shrugs her shoulders. “I just know the basics. The school’s system is very outdated. I would have probably had to hire someone else to do it if it weren’t and I hadn’t been able to do it on my own. Then I would have had to kill them and it would have just been a bunch more work.”
I blink at her just casually mentioning murdering someone. Sometimes I forget that Viv is more like Zane than any of us. She just comes in this cute little package with wide hazel eyes that make you forget how vicious she can be.
I sit in the computer chair and jiggle the mouse to wake it up before tugging Viv down into my lap so she’s sitting sideways across my legs. “So, who’s first?” I ask her as I pull up various government websites to get info on the people she’s considering.
“That’s another one in the discard pile,” Viv says, tossing the girls file on top of the stack of files at our feet.
The discards consist of people who have records of sexual assault, spousal abuse, and being caught doing stupid shit. This one is a girl that had been caught stealing. I frown at Viv. “I don’t agree with that one. She was twelve and her siblings were starving.” I point out the court records where it shows she was given a less severe juvie sentence because of her circumstances.
Viv bites her lip, looking it over and sighing. “Fine. She can go back into the consideration pile.”
She bends down to scoop up the file and her ass rubs against my cock just right. I grunt and one hand grasps her hip subconsciously. She sits back up with the file in hand, seemingly oblivious of the effect she has on me. “That’s all of them anyway. Now I have to decide who gets positions.”
Viv shimmies herself off my lap and sits down on the floor to set out each file. She reads over the notes her father had oneach member and sets them out in a strange order, two out in a horizontal row with a stack of four under each. I watch as she mutters to herself before she sets one file all the way to the left by itself.
“What are you doing?” I ask, standing up to look over the files she has set out.
“I’m organizing the family how I want. With everything that happened we’re down an under boss, two Caporegimes, and all of their soldiers. So I’ve decided on Giovanna and Nico to become the new captains. They each need four soldiers, so I’ve got those selected as well.” She points to the four files under each captain’s file.
“What about that one?” I ask about the girl who she had discarded for shoplifting without looking at her circumstances.
She smiles up at me. “Well, I’m stealing Kian from Enzo to be the under boss, so he needs a new soldier. He’ll be a good option for her. He’ll break any of her bad habits and make sure she doesn’t get caught again. He’s a good teacher.”
I have to agree with her. The times I’ve heard Viv and Zane discussing disposal methods, she really does know a lot. Enzo taught her well. Maybe she can teach Zane some of those lessons so Cain doesn’t have to go along behind him to make sure he didn’t leave any evidence. “Is there going to be any trouble with that?” I ask, pointing to the woman’s file she has set in a captain’s spot.
Viv shrugs her shoulders, “I expect a fight with all the women I chose. But my dad left it to me, and I’ll just stab anyone who disagrees with me.”
Laughter leaves me, but falls short when I realize she’s being serious. Now I’m worried that this mafia meeting is going to be a bloodbath. At least I know Viv and Zane would have fun if it turned out that way. I crouch down to look over her shoulderat the people she’s picked, seeing that there’s almost an equal selection between men and women.
My arms wrap around her, pressing a kiss to her temple. “Now that’s all figured out, I’ve got to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. Do you want to come with me?” I lean to the side so I can see her face when she looks up at me.
“Can we go to Walmart?” she asks with wide excited eyes.
My brows furrow but I shrug, jostling her with the gesture. “That’s fine.”
“I’ve just got to put some normal clothes on, then I’ll be ready to go,” she tells me, looking down at her leggings and sports bra.
I let go of her to stand up, and she accepts my hand when I offer it to help her up too. Then she whirls around, wrapping her arms around me and pressing a firm kiss to my lips before she pulls away, not even stopping to clean up the mess all over my floor. Chuckling to myself, I scoop up the discarded files and put them into the briefcase before neatly placing the other file on the side of my desk.
Viviana
“There’s just so much stuff!” I exclaim as I look around the store.
Nox is being a good sport and letting me walk around the store before we head over to the grocery section. I stop at an end cap with packages of sparkly gel pens, grabbing a package and tossing them into the cart with the other awesome things I’ve found. There’s a set of fuzzy, baby pink throw pillows I grabbed for the couch in my apartment, and I even found a little rug that matched them. This store has just about everything I could possibly think of.
“Capitalism at it’s finest,” Nox says, looking around us like he’s trying to see the store from my point of view.
“Do you think they sell tarps and bleach here?” I look around like it would be just on the other side of the stationary aisle.
A choked laugh leaves him, but he shrugs. “I know they do sell bleach, and they probably have tarps in the garden section.”
My eyes go wide. “They have a garden section?”
His lips curve up just a bit as he gives me a nod. “Do you want to go see it?”
I nod my head vigorously like I can afford to shake the few ounces of sense I have left free. Nox starts pushing the cart andI rush to the front to hop on. With my fingers threaded through the gaps in the front of the basket, I look around as Nox pushes me through the store.
I jump off a few times to grab little odds and ends to throw into the cart, and Nox puts up with my antics without complaint. I just know if I’d ended up here with Cain, he would not have looked at me fondly as I spent twenty minutes deciding between a ‘midnight sun’ and a ‘pink sand’ candle.What exactly do those things smell like?I had no idea, that’s why it took me so long to decide.
