Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72496 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“Her accent was fake. Brits don’t talk like that.”
“This again…” He ran his hands through his jet-black hair. “Oh shit, King’s looking outside, quick, laugh!”
“He’ll be even more suspicious!” I hissed, slapping him on the arm. “Better that we just fight and get it over with. He’s scary as shit these days now that he’s the new Capo.”
“I prefer calling him Godfather, he gets that weird twitch in his eye. Also, what was weirder he’s only four years older than me and he looks like he eats squirrel raw just because they grabbed a nut from his yard, or his nuts, meh same thing, why does he hate squirrels so much again?”
I frowned. “That’s what you’re focusing on? Hurry, hit me!”
“I have zero death wishes, just kick me in the leg and I’ll fall or something, but if you hit anywhere in between both legs, all bets are off.”
I smiled. “Like you’d even feel it.”
“Ha, ha. Hurry his eyes keep narrowing. I can see it from the window. Man needs a hobby other than killing and having loud enough sex that everyone can hear. I still can’t stare at bread baskets without a moment of silence.”
“Yeah, what’s his thing with bread? It’s weird.”
“Or your uncle’s thing with bagels?” He snorted. “Maybe they’ve lost their sanity, too much screaming and death, go, go, go!”
I hurried and kicked him in the shin, then did a quick takedown while he rolled me to my back. “Still there?”
Ivan exhaled, his hands gripping my shoulders. “He’s still looking, head butt me, he needs to see blood.”
“It’s your turn this time!”
“I know, but every time I do, Junior looks like he’s going to kill me even though it’s normal in this world, hurry the hell up and make me bleed, bitch!”
That did it. I punched him in the mouth, hurting my knuckles in the process, while blood spurted from his lower lip. “Hurt?”
He nodded. “I can at least respect you’ve been hitting the gym. It didn’t tickle. Congrats, you’re a woman now, maybe one day you’ll know what it’s like to buy tampons and lose your virginity?”
I didn’t give him time, I just rolled him onto his back and punched him again.
Fake fighting turned into real fighting, until we returned to family dinner, and awkwardly cleared our throats at the same time.
I had grass in my hair.
He had blood running down his chin.
The skin on my knuckles bled a bit. I smiled over at Ivan. “Dearest Ivan, can you please pass the rolls?”
“I would love nothing more, bestie.”
It was business as usual.
To outsiders it may have seemed weird, but everyone just kept eating and talking, pouring wine, while I shot him glares the entire time. I chewed another bite of steak.
I kicked him under the table, causing him to choke on his bite. “Sorry, my foot was cramping.”
“My. Ass.” He rolled his eyes, and all was right within our world, the mafia world, the second generation of the most powerful Families in the US.
Welcome to the world of Eagle Elite.
Blood in, no out.
As burns this saint, burns my soul, I will get into this life alive, and get out dead.
Amen.
CHAPTER TWO
“Family dinners are kind of like war, blood will always be spilled, and the spoils will always go to the victors.” —King Campisi
Ivan
Bella and I had just finished bleeding on the table, eating our meal, and everyone was already getting their assignments and going their separate ways so why was I the one person who was getting lectured less than twenty-four hours before I had to start senior year? I had shit to do, but if I showed my temper even more than I already had, I’d get sent downstairs.
And you did not want to meet anyone in that boxing ring, women included, hell, even the dog with the missing eye petrified me, and he was adopted from the pound, though it was disconcerting how many milk cow bones it looked like he was eating. I brought it up once.
And all I heard was silence and slicing through meat as knives scratched against porcelain plates.
Everything was tense until two years ago when the Five Families gave the De Lange Family—hi, that’s me, orphan spawn of them—a treaty and money to rebuild what had been taken from them. Junior De Lange was the acting boss, but in one week they would vote to either stay as part of the Five Families officially, branch off, or betray everyone again. Junior had rebuilt them from the ground up and also put the fear of God in them by way of blood accidentally getting spilled, but he was good for the job—a job I would rather be buried alive than have.
So, to say things were extremely tense during family dinner when the parents and second gen bosses were present… well, to be a fly on the wall would honestly be the most interesting thing if you could avoid getting murdered by one of the many people sitting around eating and staring at their plates like the world could potentially burn down.