Page 118 of Never Say Never

Shelly started the water works, clinging to what was mine. If she thought her future was bleak before, she had no idea the thoughts swirling through my head now. She'd beg me to end her life when I was done cutting off every inch of her flesh that was currently touching York.

"Shelly, calm down, he's not going to hurt you." York glared at me. "Are you, Paolo?"

"I am."

She let out a scream that made me smile. York shoved me away and I backed up a bit.

"Out!" York stared at me as if he was seeing me for the first time. "Get the hell out."

"York—"

"No. You're threatening her life in front of my children. Get the fuck out." The emotion I'd seen in the dark depths of his eyes was gone now. "I don't want to see your face. I want you out of here and out of our lives."

An ache built in the middle of my chest until it felt like there were hot knives steadily pumping in and out of me. York couldn't mean it. I knew he could get angry with me, but we were working it out.

"Don't look at her,” York snapped. “Get the fuck out, Gianpaolo."

York had my shirt on and the black button up was left open as his sweats hung low on his hips. Looking at him, everything screamed mine, but the words coming out of his mouth said otherwise.

“You don’t understand. The girls?—”

“I will handle my children,” he snapped. “And my nanny. I did not ask you to interfere with my family.”

I couldn't move, but it didn't matter as York broke free of Shelly and grabbed my arm, yanking me toward the door. The heat from his hand did little to erase the pain steadily radiating in the middle of my chest. He opened the door and shoved me out. Before the door could close, I slapped my hand against the wood.

"York—"

"I don't want to hear a goddamn thing out of your mouth. I was stupid to think you could be anything but a monster." His eyes were fierce; it was the same look he sported when he talked about catching criminals.

My hand dropped and the door slammed in my face, cutting me off from the one man I was willing to give the world too.

My head was a mess. All I could think about was York. The way he was so ready to defend Shelly without listening to anything I had to say bothered me. Yeah, I wasn't a saint, and there was no way I could attest to having high morals, but ninety-five percent of the time I didn't go around killing random people. Thinking about it was a whole other case.

I groaned. The girls had been right there. I should have sent them to their room but I hadn't been thinking clearly. My first reaction was to protect them, to get them away from Shelly. My stomach tightened. What if York knew she was disciplining them? Was he okay with it? I sure as shit wasn't, but at the end of the day, York was their father.

And I wasn’t.

Tattooed fingers snapped in front of my face, pulling me out of my own head. I blinked a few times, shaking free of my own melancholy. I should check the camera feed but every single time I did, I got even more upset. Staying home and forcing York to listen to me was out of the question. We only had tonight to take care of the problem before my stubborn ass boss went out and did something stupid.

"Damn, it's like no one's home," Gin said.

He came up on my side, knocking into my shoulder. We'd talked a bit after wrecking havoc but nothing like what we'd done in the past. I knew giving him some time would be best, but right now, I needed my twin.

"What's up?" I lifted my head and realized for the first time that we had multiple cars worth of people pulling up. It wasn't just the Vitales but the Fellaci brothers were there, the O'Brians, and even the Bianchi’s.

"You had the Bianchi's fly in?"

Benito shrugged. "Amadeo only sent us Nicolo and Ricardo. They were already on their way. Just so happens they get to take part in the festivities tonight, but those two alone can take on half the damn city."

A small guy headed our way and I recognized him as Jack O'Brian, the only son of Declan O'Brian, the current head of the Irish mob. He was flanked by Cian who had a wrap sheet just as long as Giancarlo's. Finnian on his left, the second to Declan, and lastly the one labeled as ghost, Ronan. I remembered every little detail that came across my desk while being an FBI agent.

"Thank you for coming," Benito greeted them all. Harlow was at his side, just as intimidating as his husband.

"Aye, Benito, are we going in or what? My hard-on is going to disappear at this point," Niccolo taunted, his smile infectious.

I should be up there. Giancarlo was already standing next to him, Silvy in his hand. They were ready to go like a bunch of lunatics.

Cian whooped and ran over to them. "You two are my kind of guys."