Page 14 of Hot For Her Stepbrother

Paulie's eyes gleam with joy as he opens his arms. "Of course. Anything, Bode."

"At what point did you decide to keep the kid you were paid to kidnap?"

I don't see the men Bodey gave instructions to, but I'm certain they're exactly where they need to be. Paulie's joyful gaze morphs into an anxious expression as it darts around the room.

"I don't know what you're talking about,” Paulie says.

"Wrong answer." Bodey moves swiftly, kicking Paulie's chair under the table, causing Paulie to slide and tip back onto the floor. Bodey grabs the corner of the table and flings it away from us, out of his way. He's out of his chair with the elegance of adancer, but the movement of the knife unsheathing itself shows how lethal he truly is. His dark brown hair falls in his face as he pins Paulie under his knee with the knife at his throat.

"Please, okay, Bodey. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lie. I, um?—"

Bodey presses the blade against Paulie's jugular, and my sadistic ass wonders if he likes it as much as I do. But the knife between me and Bodey is foreplay. This is a quest for answers for him.

"All you had to do was tell the truth." Bodey bares his teeth, drawing blood from under his blade. "That's the money, the ransom you were supposed to collect before dropping me at a church in Chicago where a priest was supposed to take me back to my parents. Tell me their names, and I'll let you live."

"Bodey—" my mother interrupts, but I grab her so tight she yelps.

"Not now, Mom," I warn her.

Paulie trembles as his eyes shift to me and then to the front doors of the restaurant.

Bodey snickers and knees Paulie in the gut with his free leg. "Your boys aren't coming to your rescue. They'll be lucky to leave here alive. Can you say the same, Paulie? Tell me their fucking names."

CHAPTER 8

Bodey

Anger has me seeing red, my vision focusing on Paulie's face as he tries to weasel his way out of karma.

"Terese and Louis Scarpella!" Paulie screeches at the top of his lungs.

I am a man of my word, but still, there's a price to pay. Three quick jabs of my blade into the side of his gut, piercing his liver and intestines, leave him bleeding profusely as I get off him.

"You said you'd let him live!" Debbie shouts and dashes to his side.

"He is living, and I suggest you call him an ambulance if you want to keep him alive. Let's go, Summer." I turn to her, waiting to see the fear, the rejection, but all I see is lust and desire in her eyes.

Fuck, she's perfect. My kind of perfect.

I hold my hand out to her that she takes, stepping over Paulie's bleeding body as her mother cries over her husband. There's a pile of five bikers slumped beside their hogs as we walk to my car, and I open the door for Summer to slide into the passenger seat.

My soldiers approach me, my eyes looking at the men unconscious by the motorcycles.

"Are they?" I ask.

"No, sir. The five others around the back are, but they're being handled. Is there anything else you need?"

"No. Thank you all. I'll be sure my father knows how helpful you were," I tell them as I circle to get behind the driver's seat.

"Who are you?" Summer asks.

"Bortolo Dante Calisi-Scarpella." I tell her as we hit the road, heading north, away from Atlantic City. "The kid I helped protect in prison, the nephew of Don Louis Scarpella, is actually my cousin. I was never supposed to get out of prison. Paulie twisted you into pointing me out to the District Attorney all those years ago because I started working for my own father, unknowingly."

"How did you find out?"

"When Nicky Orso made parole, he had his uncle, my real father, pull some strings to get me out. When he brought me to the home of Louis and Terese Scarpella, my mother recognized me almost immediately. I had no idea who they were, and after several blood tests, we talked. Paulie was supposed to kidnap me for some rival boss. I was three or four, but unfortunately, my father got to the rival boss before I did. Paulie couldn't get his money, so he kept me, and I paid for it every day since."

"You should have killed him," she mumbles and looks out of the window.