Page 34 of Calavera Society
She tried to help me out with Joyce’s desperation, but I’d much rather listen to exaggerated moans than to ever feel even the slightest pinch of a debt owed.
I don’t need Valeria’s protection; I’ve had plenty of the Calavera protection to last a lifetime. I’m my own man now and this last name bestowed upon me at birth is nothing but a tool to gain my own power. I’ll be damned if I slip back down the mountain because of a rosy lipped beauty who I may or may not have been visualizing while Joyce screamed through her orgasm…until I heard Valeria’s wicked moans.
They should have added to the visualization, but they didn’t. Instead, a cloud of red almost tainted my vision, but I breathed through it as well as I could. It wasn’t until I stepped through the door, finding the air clean of sex, that I knew nothing had happened.
My first thoughts were that she was once again trying to play a little game with me. That perhaps hearing Joyce’s voice of ecstasy, she thought she’d make her own sounds and knock me off the high horse she thinks I’m on. But it was a total failure.
Still, my anger got the better of me and let words spill from my mouth that practically showed my inner thoughts.
I shake my head and descend the stairs.
At the bottom, Roberto stands there in one of his many pinstripe suits, his hands folded in front of him. I’m surprised to see him here, but I keep it from showing on my face. Just one of the many lessons Valeria will learn here. Never let them see your thoughts and never trust a smile. Though knowing her, it’ll be one fuck of a lesson for her to learn.
“I thought you wouldn’t be here to welcome home your daughter.” Though my stepfather is only an inch shorter than my six-foot three height, I find it remarkably satisfying to tip my head back a little and look down my nose at him.
“Business settled sooner than expected.” He stares up expectantly at the open door of the jet, ignoring me as he waits for Valeria to come through.
Is he kidding himself? Have his lies built up so high that even he believes his bullshit? He acts as though he fully expects the little girl, he left years ago to bound down the stairs and jump into his arms. It’ll be satisfactory when his grown ass daughter with the attitude of a rabid viper greets him.
As I step to the side, I notice members of the Calavera Society standing watch. Now that the lost princess of the society has returned, they will be solely focused on Roberto and his actions from this moment forward. Searching for weaknesses and loose threads to unravel him. I can’t have that. His threads are mine to unravel.
“Your mask,father.”
He quickly snaps his irritated attention to me, and I glide my eyes over his shoulder toward the suited men standing off to the side. No, I’m not trying to protect him, I honestly don’t care what happens to this man, but the only target on Valeria’s back will be the one I put there. I don’t know what game he’s playing at with this fake ass dotting father charade, he’ll once again fuck things up for me.
People are so troublesome.
Thankfully his mask of indifference slips in place before he turns back to the jet where Noah emerges followed closely by Valeria who holds his hand tightly.
I feel my gut twist with something sour as I watch them. It’s the same emotion I had when I heard her moans earlier.
I’m man enough to admit I don’t like the two of them cozied up together. I’m not a jealous guy but territorial is a whole other thing and I’m a fucking beast when it comes to my property.
Valeria isn’t mine, not yet at least, but she is tied to me, nonetheless. My little stepsister, mine to protect, mine to break. But this united look she and Noah have going on has already shown those who have stood witness to her arrival that she is closely tied to him, if not claimed by him.
I motherfucking digress.
Luckily, their bond isn’t something new to me and I’m already forming a way to have them both under my ruling thumb. Hence the reason I’ve told Noah we’d be speaking again.
He is important to Valeria and that is something I can use to my benefit.
“Welcome home, Valeria.” Roberto says stoically, completely ignoring Noah’s existence.
“Hello, dad.” Valeria says through her teeth while Noah gives the man a stare that would rival my own. He fucking hates Roberto. Good.
Per the Society’s demand of propriety, Roberto bends down and lays a barely there kiss to Valeria before giving her a smile that looks like cracking ice on his face as though the muscles are unused to the motion.
“Welcome to your new home.”
I force back my eye roll as I step away, not wanting to hear him describe the beauty of the golden cage Noah and Valeria just landed in.
Coventry, despite the grandeur of the town, has a sinister feel to it. It’s not something you can ignore and it makes you all too aware of the invisible eyes that watch you everywhere you go.
Built and established back in the mid to late sixteen hundreds, it’s beauty can take your breath away. Older than New Orleans, which is only a town away, and rivals the colorful city.
When Coventry was first established, it was mostly the Spanish who populated it, and as time went on and centuries passed, the population grew and created a whole new world here.
Money, power, sacrifices—in every sense of the word—rule this town of the absurdly rich and cold hearted.