𝐕𝐄𝐗𝐄𝐃 ❷

𝟐𝟎. ✭ 𝐀𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀 ✭

"Oh everything is fucking fine, Thomas. Tell my brother he can go fuck himself with a candelabra."

"A candelabra? That's rather specific."

"It's the first thing that came to mind. Sue me." I slurp my coffee a bit more. "What're you in the mood for watching, Tommy boy?"

"I will not be watching anything. I will be standing dutifully outside of the door while you watch whatever you want to watch."

"I get it. You enjoy spending time around me as much as I enjoy spending time around you. It's pure bliss for the two of us."

"Indeed."

"Who's on my detail later?"

"Roger."

"Ah, Roger Dodger!"

"That is my exit cue." He gives me a slight nod of the head before exiting.

"The man has not one fun or comedic bone in his entire body." I take a bite out of my muffin and savor the flavor, trying not to think of who had supplied its' mouthwatering goodness. I land on a series after more scrolling and think about how perfect that is. I can just sit here and binge watch this, get lost in a little bit of fiction for the day.

Several hours go by and so do a few chocolate bars and a bag of popcorn or two. A few adult beverages may have been added as well and right about now I'm feeling a little irritated at the male love interest on the screen.

"Bullshit! I call bullshit! Don't listen to him, Jess! He's a liar!" I sip my carbonated drink and make a rude gesture at the man on the screen. "Yo, for real though, fuck this guy with all his smooth talking horse crap. My girl, he ain't it. Fuck him. Like, don't actually fuck him, Jess, but like FUCK THAT GUY!"

"You'd think you knew the girl personally, the guy too, for that matter."

"I don't want to talk to you."

"Well tough shit because I want to talk to you." I turn the show up louder, ignoring my brother. What's transpiring on the screen has me about as angry as I'd been earlier with my brother. "What's got you so fired up over this dumb shitty show?"

"Pfffft this fucking guy Jake." I wave my hand at the screen, making a point not to look at Torey. "He's in love with his best friend and lying to his girlfriend about it. It's bullshit. Absolute crap. Garbage television." I turn it off and chuck the remote in the seat next to me.

"It's apparent you have a personal vendetta against Jake, I see."

"I do! Poor Jess is over here all in her feelings over this guy and he just... You know what... It's not even important."

"How many hard seltzers did you get into?"

"Not enough!" He snorts out a laugh, leaning on the doorframe casually. "Like I said, I don't want your company."

"Yeah, I heard you but, like I said, I don't care because I want to talk to you. I'm better company than hard seltzer, chocolate, and shitty television."

"I beg to differ." I cross my arms over my chest in defiance.

"I've missed you, sis." His tone is softer and I hate that it already has a part of me caving. "There were serious reasons why I couldn't get into contact with you, serious repercussions. You know that."

"Not one time, Tor? Just once?"

"No, not one time. Do you not think I was affected by that? I had no one when I lost Dani for those two years. I mean, for Christ's sake, I wasn't even allowed to know I had a kid. I just happened to put two and two together and that was on accident." He spears a hand through his raven-colored locks, ones I'd always been jealous of growing up, with an angry inhale. "You have no idea the shit that I have had to do, the things that I have been through all in the name for justice. Justice that I was completely fucked over by, by the way." He gestures to his abdomen. "I'm fucking scarred for life. I felt my soul leave my god damn body, Adri." The grimace he wears is one of complete disgust and contempt. "So yeah, maybe I flipped the fuck out thinking about how Dani and my son are over in some other country when I can't be. Yeah, maybe I hate the idea of someone trying to cozy up to her in my absence. I hate it because I'm the reason for it, Adriana. I'm the reason." He prods his chest with two fingers to accentuate the point. "Me. I brought them here. I put them in this situation. It's all my fault and I can't be the one who fixes it." My brother looks defeated and I have seen my brother look a lot of ways but never this. Not even in the toughest of games or in the worst case scenario has he ever looked so... beaten.

"You haven't told me about Dani really." I fiddle with a stray piece of hair absently, trying to not look as interested as I really am.

"What do you want to know about her?"

"Anything other than the fact that she's the daughter of the head of a crime syndicate and Wolfie's mom." He looks over his shoulder, presumably at the man in the hall before stepping inside the room and shutting the door. "Tell me about her. Who she is to you and what she means."

"I'm in love with her." The smile that takes over my brother's face is one I'd missed. I gesture for him to continue and he does. He tells me about how things started between them and how things ended, how they picked back up again but with a third party. Torey wouldn't touch on that subject much. He talked around it; Brooks. There was something there, underneath the surface though. I knew better than to pry at a time like this, when I usually would. Torey's being so open and honest. I'd genuinely missed him, this side of him that is— the familiar side. "So yeah, that's the gist of it."

"So you fucked around with your boss's daughter. Tsk tsk tsk." I shake a disapproving finger at him. "That's a big no no." Torey snorts incredulously at that. "What?"

"This is coming from a woman trying to seduce someone who works for her parents."

"Okay, yeah, I see your point but this is different. Our parents aren't like insane mafia bosses."

"Mafia bosses no but I have seen them do some pretty insane shit in my time."

"How the hell did they keep that side of themselves hidden from us?" He breaks down what happened to Boston all those years ago, how he'd tagged along to save the day, typical of Torey, really. "Speaking of your friend..." I clear my throat awkwardly. "So like I maybe slept with his dad a lot of times after my last relationship."

"I—" His mouth opens and closes a few times. "Why—?"

"It's a long story."

"Lucky for you, I currently have no where to go."

A/N:
Happy Friday!

I know it's been a week since I've updated but I hope to push out some serious updates this week. Life got crazy busy but I'm still aiming to hit my NaNo goal of 40K words in a month! Which will actually really only be half a month since I didn't write for two weeks of it. Anyway, I'm half way there. Wish me luck because the more I write the more content you get!