Page 8 of End It All

Harlow fixed me with a glare. "If you'd come when I called?—"

"Hey, I'm here, don't start." I ran my hand over my blond buzz cut. "Har, you called, and although I was shoulder deep in dirt, I came."

Harlow flipped me off. "Is my brother handling things right?"

Right, Harlow knew nothing. His father made sure to cut him out the moment he became a Vitale.

“We'll talk about it later. Now, what about your father dicking down anything with a womb?” I was with Harlow on this one. The world didn't need another Vitale in it. The ones we had were a pain in the ass already.

Benito groaned. “He’s not in town right now which leaves this newest brother my responsibility.”

"Okay, so what? I’m not seeing why I was called.”

"The thing is, we don't know him," Benito started.

"And Benito is a paranoid freak and I don't like strangers near my daughter."

I nodded, understanding that Harlow wasn't trusting. He could talk about Benito being the paranoid one but he was no better. And ever since they officially adopted Emica, he'd gotten worse.

"We need you to watch over him, for a while," Harlow said.

Nope.There was no way in hell I was watching a Vitale. I just got out of babysitting duty and now they wanted to strap another charge on me. "I didn't know my new job title was babysitter."

"Come on, Quincy. Remember when I took care of the biker gang thing?" Harlow batted his eyes at me like he used to do when we were kids.

It would work, except I knew what kind of people the Vitales were, and they weren't my kind of people. Sure, I could be friends, even bash a few skulls together, but that was about as much as any sane person could handle.

I nodded. "And do you remember me stripping in the middle of Chinatown so you could jack my clothes?”

"You did what?" Benito twisted his husband around.

Harlow groaned. "Nice." He kissed Benito's cheek while whispering to him.

The mafia boss glared at me, my immediate death shimmering in the dark pools of his eyes. I waved it off. If I folded every single time one of them glared at me, I’d be six feet under by now.

"Har, taking on a Vitale bastard is a lot." I shrugged at Benito. "Full offense, your whole bloodline is a chaotic mess."

Benito didn’t argue with my fully valid observation. "You dealt with Harlow. I've heard how you kept him from going off the deep end plenty of times."

"Hey, I'm a calm individual," Harlow argued.

I laughed because there hasn't been a single time when my childhood friend has ever been the calm one in a room. His fist came at me and I skipped back with a smile on my face.

"What the fuck are you laughing at? I’m goddamn calm.” Harlow hit Benito with the back of his hand. “Right?”

I looked at Benito and Harlow. There was no way in hell the man was going to be able to pull off that lie.

“Right, Benito?” The glint of a knife appeared out of nowhere and pressed against Benito’s abdomen.

Harlow’s husband didn’t so much as bat an eye at the threat. His focus was on me as he spoke. “This issue is foreign for both of us. I met my brothers at a young age. This one is more than ten years younger than me and his mother isn’t someone I know.”

But he’s still a Vitale.

“Okay, but just to be clear about the Harlow being calm thing, you’re agreeing with me, right?”

The man shook his head. "Are you trying to get me stabbed?"

I touched the side of my neck, just where the small cut on Benito's was. "Something tells me you like it."