Page 28 of Indulge
I blow out a breath and pull my cigarettes out of my jacket pocket. I am very distracted.
“You’re going to send me into an early grave before these do.” I hold out a cigarette to him.
He laughs and shakes his head.
“I almost met my maker once. I think I’ll hold off for now.”
I need them for stress relief. This life catches up with you, and I need a vice. Our parents chose drugs, ain’t no way in hell you’d catch me snorting or shooting that shit. But these, they do the trick.
And that menace of a Princess sleeping peacefully next door is about to raise my blood pressure to the extreme.
“Oh, before you go. Apparently Lyla is in shit in Inferno. Beat the shit out of one of the rooms. Threw a glass at a girl's face. You might need to have a word before she gets fired,” Rowan tells me.
“She isn’t mine to worry about. She’s a grown-ass adult, and it was a contractual arrangement.”
Rowan bites his lip.
“Just thinking we might need to put out the flames there before she comes back to haunt us. She’s crazy. And you now have a fiancée to worry about.”
I blow out a breath. “She’d have a death wish coming near my wife. I’m only pleasant for so long.”
I’m pretty sure Bella can stand on her own two feet. Three mafia brothers and a mouth on her like she has? I bet my life she can back herself up.
From what Theo tells me, I’m the one who needs to be on my guard with her.
But something in my gut tells me I’m wrong. In a violent sense anyway.
13
BELLA
I’ve been up since six a.m., and I’m already bored out of my skull. Am I a prisoner here? Surely not. This is a marriage, not a kidnapping.
Well. Shit. I’ve spent weeks running away from this problem rather than actually trying to learn anything about it. And here I am.
Grabbing my phone, I stab Theo’s number. My brother dearest.
“Alright, Bel?” he grumbles.
“Yeah. I made it to America fairly unscathed. Thanks,” I shoot back, sarcasm dripping.
“I’m sorry,” he sighs heavily. “I didn’t know what else to do that didn’t make you hate me.”
I laugh, he’s fucking ridiculous sometimes. This is why he’s single, Theo. He does not understand women.
“So you thought—oh, I know—I’ll send some scary-ass Irish man she’s never met to drag her out of a party?” I snap.
“When you say it like that…” he trails off, sheepish.
“Exactly.” I jab my finger at the counter like he can see me. “I will be kicking you in the balls for this. But for now, I have questions.”
“Shoot,” he mutters, already sounding wary.
“What are my expectations here for this alliance? Like, I’m not a prisoner, right? I can leave the house? Get a job?”
He chuckles, the sound now infuriating. “Because how many days have you been employed in your life, Bella?”
“I’ve spent years fixing the family’s financial messes, actually,” I retort, pacing across the spotless kitchen.
