MATTEO'S BROTHER

FELTON'S POV

Sinners was boring tonight.

I sat in the VIP section with a drink I wasn't touching and watched a woman who'd been trying to catch my eye for twenty minutes. She was stunning.

Two years ago I would have taken her home. Last year I would have fucked her in the bathroom. Tonight I couldn't even remember why I used to care.

"You look miserable," Marco said, sliding into the booth next to me.

"I'm bored."

"You're always bored."

"Exactly."

He laughed. Marco ran security for all my properties. He had known me since we were teenagers running cons in Miami. He was one of three people who knew what the D'Angelo empire actually was.

"Maybe you should try something new," he said. "Charity work, yoga and monogamy."

"Fuck off."

"Just saying. When was the last time you were actually interested in someone?"

I thought about it. I couldn't remember. People were entertaining  for maybe three hours. After that they wanted things; Connection, meaning and feelings.

I didn't do feelings.

"There," Marco pointed.

"Where?"

"That guy by the bar with the dark curly hair. He looks like he wants to die."

I followed his gaze and stopped. He was standing next to another guy who was clearly trying to make him relax; Diego Vaughn.

I knew that face. I had been waiting for that face.

"You know him?" Marco asked.

"No," I lied.

I knew everything about him. Diego Vaughn, twenty-six, art curator at Cross Gallery. Lived alone in Echo Park. Best friends with Avani Kapoor who I'd been fucking for six weeks until she made the mistake of showing up unannounced.

Whose brother Matteo had discovered my family's operations five years ago and died for it.

Victor had called me two days ago. "Avani's going to ask her best friend to seduce you for revenge. Let it happen."

"Why?"

"Because we're going to use him. To draw out Ashton. To destabilize your father's operation. To clean up the Matteo situation permanently."

"The Matteo situation is already cleaned up. He's been dead for five years."

"His brother's been looking and he's getting close. We need to control the narrative before he finds something we can't contain."

So I waited and here he was walking into my club like a lamb into a slaughterhouse.

"I'm going to talk to him," I said.

"The uncomfortable one?"

"Yeah."

"He looks straight."

"Everyone looks straight until they're not." I stood and walked across the club. 

I stopped at their table. "First time at Sinners?"

Diego looked up. Those hazel eyes were even better up close. Full of things he was trying not to show. "Yeah," he answered.

"You hate it."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. Your face is saying it for you." I gestured to the empty seat. "Mind if I join you?"

"Actually—"

"I'm Kevin," the friend said, kicking Diego under the table. "And this is Diego. And we'd love company."

I sat. "You always let your friends answer for you?"

"Only when I'm trying to be polite," Diego said.

Kevin excused himself. Something about finding his girlfriend, leaving us alone.

"So," he said finally. "Do you work here or just hang out looking expensive?"

"I own it."

"Of course you do."

"Problem with that?"

"No. Just explains the confidence."

"You say confidence like it's a bad thing."

"It's not. It's just—" He stopped. "Never mind."

"Now I'm curious."

"It's nothing."

I leaned closer, watched him tense. "You know what I think? I think you're here for a reason. I think you're looking for something or someone and I think you're terrified you might actually find it."

"That's a lot of assumptions about someone you just met."

"Am I wrong?"

"I should go," he said.

"Already?"

"I have work tomorrow."

"It's Thursday."

"I'm aware."

He stood. I stood too and stepped into his space close enough to smell his cologne. 

"If you change your mind about hating it here," I said, "I'm here most nights. VIP section. You're welcome anytime."

"I won't change my mind."

"We'll see." He left, practically ran.

I went back to VIP. Marco raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

"He's perfect," I said.

"For what?"

"For exactly what Victor wants."

I pulled out my phone and texted Victor.

“He was here. Exactly like you said.”

Response came immediately. “Good. Let him come back to you. Make him think it's his idea.”

I looked at the door where Diego had disappeared. He was Matteo's little brother. The one who'd been searching for five years. Who had no idea his brother was dead. Who had no idea I was there when it happened.

Who was about to walk into my life pretending to want me while I pretended not to know exactly who he was.

This was going to be fun or devastating, probably both.

Marco was watching me. "You have that look."

"What look?"

"The one you get when you're about to do something stupid."

"I'm not doing anything stupid. I'm doing exactly what Victor wants."

"Since when do you do what Victor wants?"

Since Victor had something on me. Since he knew about Matteo. Since he'd made it very clear that if I didn't cooperate, certain evidence would surface that would destroy what was left of my relationship with my father.

"Since it serves my interests," I said.

"Your interests. Right." Marco stood. "Try not to destroy him too badly. He looked like a decent guy."

"There are no decent guys. Just people who haven't shown you who they really are yet."

He'd be back.

They always came back and when he did, I was going to make him wish he hadn't.

Not because I was cruel because I was curious to see what it would take to break someone who was already lying to himself.

Curious how far he'd go for revenge.

My phone buzzed. It was Avani.

“Did you have fun tonight?”

I deleted it so I blocked her number. I was done with Avani Kapoor but Diego Vaughn?

Diego Vaughn was just getting started.