Page 33 of The Devil We Crave
“He’s a degenerate, Selene,” Kyle says abruptly. “And just so you know, he fucksdudes.”
Selene looks completely unfazed. “He’s bi. That’s…part of the deal?”
Kyle snorts, eyeing the rest of us. “I mean, pick a fucking team, right?”
Lochlan sighs and shoots me a “this fucking guy” look.
“I don’t get why you’d want to hang with that pervert, Selene,” Kyle sighs. “Also…can I just say, you’re lookinggood.” He winks lecherously at her. “How come you and I never got to know each other better when I was a student here?”
“Probably because I’mwaytoo old for you, Kyle,” she says with saccharine, sarcasm-laced sweetness. “At the ripe old age of twenty-one.”
“Hey, I need to talk to you,” I growl at him.
He shrugs, following me out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen.
“What’s up, Drakos? Looking for some leadership advice?”
Not in a million fucking years.
I turn and level a cold look at him. “What’s the deal with the proposed twenty-story addition to the building your father and Nero De Luca bought?”
I’ve already talked Lochlan, Ronan, and a few of our other cousins down from the proverbial ledge after that PR post dropped the other day. But I'm sure it’s one of the reasons Lochlan was so heated just now to Selene about Kirill.
He’s notthatprotective of her. He’s just still furious at the prospect of this motherfucker's dad building a goddamn high-rise next to Ya-ya’s house.
Frankly, so the fuck am I.
Kyle sighs and spreads his arms. “You know my pops, Achilles. He’s just beating his chest, you know?”
“No, I don’t. What Idoknow is that Nero made a promise to my father when he bought that building that there’d be no vertical expansion. It’s right next to my great-grandmother’s house, Kyle.”
He spreads his hands again. “It’s fucking Manhattan, man. An island. The only way to buildisup.”
“Notthere,” I snarl.
He chuckles. “Relax, bro. I’m sure it’s just my dad being a dick, you know? But I’ll talk to him.”
I nod. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, well, you can pay me back by inviting me to the next party full of co-ed hotties, douchebag. You almost forgot to invite me to this one!”
Forgot.
Yeah…that's what that was, asshole. A memory slip.
The thing is, my restraint when it comes to Kyle isnotout of politeness.
It’s politics.
He might be a slimy, predatory piece of shit. Unfortunately, he’s not an idiot and I don’t think he’s completely oblivious to the fact that I despise him. This past summer, when he was opening his hedge fund, the motherfucker went tomy father, told him he and I were best buddies, and got Dad to pony up twenty million dollars as seed money for the fund. Kyle even locked him in for a two-year period, which means Dad can’t take his twenty miloutof the fund until those two years are up.
Consequently, that means if I were to, say, punch Kyle in the mouth because it would feelawesome, there’s truly nothing stopping him from deliberately tanking dad’s investment to zero in retaliation.
“All right, bro.” Kyle claps me on the shoulder. “I’m gonna take off. Don’t be a stranger. My new office isright downtown. And hey, buddy,” he grins. “You’vegottacome check out the new boat I’ve got moored in the harbor. Total pussy-magnate, bro.”
He turns to go, but then it comes tumbling out before I can stop it.
“What’s the deal with you and Yelena De Luca.”
