22

Eh?

"Peony! You can't just ask her that! What have I told you about manner of approach?" Rose gasped and scolded her sister.

"What? I couldn't help it anymore, and it's not like she isn't; why else would she be here with him?" Peony shrugged as she scrutinised me with the same morbid curiosity that everyone at the party had been giving me.

Was this a mean girl confrontation like in the movies, or was she just curious?

They didn't seem to give off the 'stay away from Lorenzo because you don't deserve him like we do vibe,' but it was obvious they had come to drill information out of me.

"No, I'm not Lorenzo's b*tch or whatever. What does that even mean?" I asked.

"You aren't? But—"

"Can we go sit? My legs are killing me." Rose said, eyeing her sister, and she gave me a sweet smile.

"I would have loved to stay and chat, but Lorenzo will be back for me any moment, and I don't want him to have to look for me." I hesitated as I took a step away from them.

They might not give off 'I'm your foe' energy, but this was the mafia world. Being two-faced and tricky was kind of their thing. And Lorenzo had warned me not to wander off with anyone. If anything happened to me, I had only myself to blame.

"We aren't going to do anything. We're curious about Lorenzo's... strange behaviour around you. And we are just sitting there. There's no way he can miss you." Rose explained, nudging to neatly the arranged tables and chairs at the sidelines.

My gaze flickered between the twins and the chair, and I pressed my lips to a thin line.

As far as I was concerned, Lorenzo was completely normal to me: flirty, cocky and arrogant.

But these girls have known him longer, so they might be on to something. And there wasn't any harm in knowing a little bit more about him. The more info, the easier it would be to come up with the perfect escape plan.

"Fine, I—" I gasped as they grabbed each of my arms and yanked me away.

"So, tell us everything about you and Lorenzo. I—"

"Are you sure you aren't his new b*tch?" Peony asked, interrupting her sister as they forced me to sit.

"Oh my god, Peony! She already said she wasn't. You're going to make her uncomfortable." Rose glared at her as they sat opposite me.

"But she was his date. He only takes his b*tches as dates."

"But it's obvious she isn't? Didn't you see the way he has been holding her? I told you there's something else."

"You—"

"Excuse me. I'm still here." I cleared my throat and crossed my arms over my chest. "Again, I'm not Lorenzo's b*tch or anybody else's. What the hell is that anyway?"

"They're like his 'girlfriends', but not really his girlfriends since he breaks up with them once he gets bored, which happens a few months into the relationship. He ends things with one b*tch, and in the next few months he pops up with another one. I think the last one was... What was her name again? Sarah? Simone?" Rose snapped her fingers as she picked a small cake from the mini cake tower at the centre of the table.

"Sylvia, silly. And oh, she was a b*tch. Not just Lorenzo's b*tch but a b*tch b*tch. I'm not surprised she was the shortest. I don't know how he managed to put up with her for that long." Peony crinkled her nose and rolled her eyes.

Sylvia? The same Sylvia at work?

I frowned. That didn't sound like the one I knew. It was common knowledge that there was something between her and Lorenzo, but she was a b*tch... well a b*tch-b*tch. Delusional, yes; strict and sometimes a pain in the ass, yes, but for the right reasons, but b*tch seemed too heavy for her.

"Should we really be calling them b*tches? It sounds derogatory." I scrunched my face, and both their lips curled to smiles.

"I forgot you aren't from... around here." Rose giggled, propping her elbows on the table and resting her head on her hands. "Let me tell you a little secret... there are only two classes of ladies by a Don's side. Either a b*tch or his woman. B*tch is his fling or mistress, good for f*cking and showing off once in a while but nothing serious, and they both know it. And there is his woman, his queen. Either his actual girlfriend, fiancée or wife. That's the serious relationship."

"So since you're not his b*tch, then you're his woman." Peony blurted, and Rose let out a long, dry, tired groan.

"Could you shut up and let me ask the questions? Your straightforwardness is killing the vibe." She hissed, nudging her side.

"Look, I am not his b*tch; neither am I his woman. Our relationship is complicated." I explained and grabbed one of the cakes. They stared at each other, as if communicating with some sort of weird twin telepathy.

"Explain complicated and don't say just friends because..." Rose drawled as her lips twitched to a small smirk. "I can swear on my life that that man doesn't see you as a friend."

"Probably because we aren't. I'm actually his niece's friend, and I'm only with him now because I got myself into a ridiculously sticky situation that I can't tell you about." I shrugged and threw the cake into my mouth. "He sees me as a pesky fly he unfortunately can't swat away because I'm annoying."

"Girl, you're either blind or stupid to not notice how the man looks at you." Peony snorted as she waved at the waiter, and Rose cringed.

"No, I'm not even going to try to correct you anymore." She threw her hands in the air and shook her head. "But she's right. You can't tell me you haven't seen the signs. The way he stares at you and holds you protectively so no man can touch you. It's like he's afraid someone is going to try to take you away from him, and he's ready to throw hands. It's literally giving 'back off, she's mine' and 'touch her and die' vibes. The man is obsessed with you. O. B. S. E. Whatever, whatever, whatever – obsessed! Ugh, my heart can't take how f*cking sexy it is."

Was that what Lorenzo holding me from trying to run away seems like to other people?

I bit my bottom lip as I took a flute of champagne from the waiter.

Oh, he wasn't going to hear the end of it from me. I was going to tease him so hard that he would almost kill me.

"Have you f*cked him yet?"