Page 31 of Pretty Pink Poison
I grabbed it and he froze mid-sentence. “This’ll be your last meal, Krawson.”
“What?”
I nodded at Cade, “We’re done here. Security can cauterize his wounds and bandage him up. I’m sure his cousin would like to eat with him before he dies.”
“You can’t kill me. I’m Zarelli’s nephew. I—”
“Why don’t we ask him at dinner, Krawson?” I held up the blade and said, “I’ll take this just in case.”
With that, I waved Cade and Jameson into the private dinner ballroom. It was designed to soften people before we sharpened and cut them into the shape we needed them to be. I walked in with Cade and Jameson, glancing around to see if my brothers had made it too.
Ezra was already seated next to Rafe on one end of the table, a crystal flute of champagne twinkled under the chandelier lighting.
The Zarelli family was on the other end. Bianca’s mother brushed a hand over the bone china and silver that had been placed before her. Mr. Zarelli glared at her motion, and she snapped her hand back quickly. He hated when someone outdid him, and his wife admiring someone else’s dinnerware was a blow to his fragile ego.
Staff filed through to offer appetizers while security stood where an untrained eye would never see them.
Between Rafe and Bianca’s mother were a couple empty seats. I expected Bianca to take one when she finally got there. A game of chess was being played with open seating, giving Bianca a choice at where her loyalties would lie.
Jameson, smarter than the whole fucking lot, sat down right in the middle, an empty chair on either side of him. And instead of taking the head of the table, I went to sit across from him. Rafe didn’t glance up, and Ezra chuckled to himself before he lifted his glass toward Jameson and me, “To the games we’re going to play tonight.”
Angela had been invited, and she chose to sit on one side of me immediately. It was a testament to the sort of friend she was to Bianca.
Not one at all.
The girl fawned over me as she told me, “I’m so excited to be here. My father was so happy you invited me.” She and herfather must have been measuring their importance by proximity to male attention from my family.
God, this is who Bianca complained about wanting to talk to?
Angela leaned closer to me and kept talking while Bianca’s father stood up with a frown on his face as an ashen Krawson was shoved in by my security. The man stumbled like he had no pride and then he walked hunched over to his uncle with puppy eyes. He held his bandaged hand cradled close to his chest as he whimpered, “Uncle Stef, they mutilated me.”
Stefano’s gaze sliced my way, but I didn’t care to stand or give an explanation. So, I lifted a brow, waiting to see if his uncle would go to war for him.
His jaw ticked once but that was all the gray-haired man showed in irritation toward me. Instead, he turned his wrath on his insignificant nephew. “Sit down and stop whining, Kraw. You’re embarrassing the family.”
“Embarrassing?” Krawson almost cried, but he took a seat on the other side of Mr. Zarelli and hung his head like a shamed pet dog would.
“Sorry for his antics. Should we discuss over some food? We’re starving from—”
“We eat when your daughter arrives,” I told him.
“Oh, we don’t have to wait for her. She’s always late.” He chuckled like leaving his daughter out was par for the course.
“We wait for the women in our family always,” I replied, my voice leaving no room for argument. I glanced at Rafe to see if he would corroborate. It was his fiancée we were waiting for after all.
Yet, he didn’t so much as look up from his work phone.
Not until a few seconds later when a throat cleared from the doorway and Pepe walked Bianca in.
She wasn’t in her usual attire. I’d come to glance at each villain she’d pick for the day. Yet, this evening she’d opted for alight dress with a row of buttons climbing her torso, woven from fabric that whispered old money. Modest, demure, with a skirt that flared soft at her knees.
She looked fucking devastating.
She scanned the room before her gaze landed on each of the faces, and I saw her emotion as she recognized every single one of them. Joy came from seeing Ezra and Jameson. I saw how she tried to look happy to see her mother and father. I think she tried to muster some sort of respect, but it was barely there. She was learning, it seemed. And then there was a nervous acknowledgment and feeling I couldn’t place between Rafe and her. Like she had unearthed secrets with him.
It was the look I hated most. I wanted to dissect it and tear it apart until I understood it completely, but it wasn’t mine to understand.
And then her gaze found me.
