Page 77 of King of Ruin

To be fair, I know the point. Money. Power.

I tip my chair back at the desk, staring at the immaculate top in front of me. I’ve worked so hard to please my brother, growthe business, fight the war with the Italians; it’s been ages since I even asked myself what I wanted.

I like work. I like to be successful, I’m motivated. I want to be busy. But do I like running casinos?

Do I want to be Mason’s lackey?

I scrub a hand over my face and push up from my desk.

Heading out to the living room, I find Maddie curled on her side on the floor staring into the whelping box.

“Have you been here the whole time?” I chuckle as I slide behind her, cradling her body against my own.

She leans her head back against my shoulder, a smile tugging at her lips. “I can’t seem to tear myself away.”

“How’s our sick kitten?”

“Fine,” she answers. “Eating like the rest of them.”

I kiss along her neck, wrapping my arm around her to pull her even closer. She lets out a long sigh.

I know she’s got something on her mind. I don’t know if it involves me or not. “Nice way to spend the afternoon.”

“Good for thinking,” she replies.

“Thinking about what?” I start lightly brushing my fingers up and down her arm, trying not to show the tension I feel.

She blows a piece of hair back from her face. “The past, I guess. My present and my future.”

I relax, giving her a squeeze. “That’s so funny. Me too.”

She turns her face toward me, the tip of her nose brushing mine. “What are you thinking about?”

Do I want her to share? I think it might be time for me too as well. “I know you know that both my parents died, but my mom died in a car accident first.”

She keeps brushing the tip of her nose over my skin, making it easier for me to keep talking. “She was drunk behind the wheel. She’d gotten a call that I remember. She’d been screaming into the phone, babbling almost incoherently. Icouldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but I know what it was about. She left minutes later.”

“What was it about? Why did she leave?”

“I think she was going off to catch my dad in his latest affair.”

Maddie winces against me, her cheeks pulling taut as her hands tighten on mine. I close my eyes. “The last two years of her life, all she did was drink. All the time. She didn’t cook. Didn’t clean. When she was really drunk, she’d scream long ranting tirades about my father and his affairs.”

She gasps against my cheek. “You’re the youngest?”

“No. I have a younger sister. Arabella. She’s away at school in New York now. She tries to spend as little time as possible with us, and who can blame her?”

“Mason and Leo. Where were they when all of this was happening with your mother?”

“Leo was already working a casino floor, and Mason was off at business school. Harvard.”

“Oh,” Maddie’s breath rushes across my face. “You were the one stuck taking care of your mother, weren’t you?”

“My mother. My sister. The house. Cooking. Cleaning. Walking my sister to school.”

“Roman,” she turns in my arms, her chest pressing to mine as her arms loop around my neck. “That is so much.”

She’s not wrong.