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"𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬"

"Bella!" Kara squeals as she jumps into my arms.

I giggle and encircle her tall figure with my arms.

"I missed you so much! Oh my, I have to tell you about the hot babes, oh, you would die."

In comparison to Roman, I have my doubts.

Arabella, enough.

"I think I missed you way more," I mumble in her neck making her laugh.

I notice my other best friend, Aydan, as we pull away.

He gives me a cheeky grin and opens his arms causing me to throw my arms around his waist.

"I'd tell you I've missed you, but that'd be a lie." He muttered.

I smack his chest, making him groan, I smirk and back away.

"You deserved that." Kara pipes in wrapping her arm around my shoulder.

While Kara and I begin walking into the home, Nicolo rolls his eyes and walks up to Aydan.

"I was only joking Bella; I missed you more than your brother!" He yells, and I laugh and shake my head at him.

"I know, dumbass," I yell back and follow Kara into the kitchen.

She immediately raided our fridge, snatching the cupcake container and dumping them on the counter.

I put myself up on the counter next to her and we begin devouring the cupcakes right away.

"This is the shit," She muffled while pointing to the half-eaten cupcake in her hands.

With a mouthful of cake, I nod my head agreeing with her.

Our friendship revolved around food; if we weren't gossiping, we were eating.

"So, how was it?" I ask, shifting my weight towards her.

"It was incredible. So bright and pretty. I even hooked up with a hot local babe."

"You would have hated it." I laugh at her words. I hated hot weather, summer was definitely just not me.

I enjoyed the cold, rain, and dark, gloomy days since they provided me with total serotonin.

I sighed and laid down on my back, staring at the creamy ceiling. I felt Kara come down beside me.

"Are you excited to be back at college?" She asks me.

"Sure," I shrug.

"That's convincing," She says with a laugh.

"Anyway, I believe Aydan is talking to someone."

My ears perked up at this; Aydan was known as a man whore, though most girls knew that once they got involved, they weren't coming back, and my brother was the same way.

"That's a first." I grin.

She smiles as she hums and glances at the ceiling.

"I wonder who it is..." I say.

"I tried asking him, but he simply refused and walked away."

I scoff and grab my third cupcake and take a bite.

"How's it going with your 'seduce and kill' thing?"

I turn to her, laughing at her choice of words.

"It's good, same old," I replied blankly, although the thought of Roman came to my mind.

We fell silent for a moment, and I noticed Kara staring at me from the side; she knew me like the back of her hand, and I knew there was no way out.

"Who?" She asks.

"I can't tell you here," I sigh. "Eyes and ears everywhere," I mumble.

"Plus, it's not like it's anything special; we've only met twice and had basically one conversation, if you can call it that," I mumble to myself.

"Arabella Malik, even thinking about a man is the most absurd thing anyone has ever heard."

I roll my eyes at her dramatics; it wasn't like it was a big thing; Roman was just a forbidden fruit that I seemed to be drawn to.

"Come on," She says this as she rises from the counter.

I sigh and rise with her, jumping from the counter to the floor.

We both start walking towards my room, Aydan and Nico seemed to have taken off as his car was gone.

I led us both into my room, where Kara sat down on the bed and crossed her legs, while I did the same.

"Spill." She grins.

Her excitement makes me shake my head.

"Roman Agnello," I begin.

"Fuck, he sounds hot." Kara groans and flattens herself on the bed.

I stare off to the side before sighing, "He is, very much so," I respond.

"So, who exactly is he? Is he a student at our school or someone you met on a job?"

Before I say anything, I glance at her.

"He's the next leader for the Italian Mafia."

She gasps and sits up straight, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Oh god, he's bound to be a fucking king in the sheets."

"Kara!" I flush and give her a playful smack.

"It's true," She laughs and shrugs.

"What else?" Kara asks, tilting her head and squinting her eyes at me.

"What gives you the impression that there's anything else?" I said innocently.

She shrugs and looks at me intently "It seems too easy. Is he a rival of your father's or something?"

"No," I respond plainly.

I let out a breath and run a hand through my hair.

"The current Italian Don is now my father's business partner, which means his son, Roman, is also involved."

Her astonishment grows impossibly, "Oh Woah," she murmurs.

"This is amazing!" she exclaims, laughing and clapping her hands, just as I expected her to.

I sigh and place my head in her lap.

"You need this spice, and a little danger isn't that awful. Consider all the secret meetings and hookups; you'd have to keep everything so quiet and lowkey. It's so fun and thrilling." She lets out a sigh.

"We haven't even had a full conversation yet, Kara," I explain.

"Perhaps not, but if there's tension, there's no need to talk." She gives a wink.

Her intentions make me laugh and shake my head.

Hours went by of us talking nonsense, eventually, Kara had to return home.

Because it was our first day back at college, we agreed to meet with the group on Tuesday on campus.

The evening had arrived, and I was now having dinner with my brother.

My mother worked in the city as a professional dance teacher, so Sundays were always late nights for her.

My father, on the other hand, was up at the warehouse doing who knows what.

So Nicolo and I were the only ones remaining.

Nicolo and I talked about random things, we were sort of weird siblings as many have said. We treat each other more like best friends than twins, and we rarely argue unless it's over petty disagreements like who gets to choose what we eat for dinner. Aside from that, we were a bunch of peas in a pod.

Although, Nicolo's protective nature was always a minor stumbling block for me. Nicolo and I were inseparable, so whenever I went out with boys in high school, he was there to give them death threats, and the funny thing was, he didn't hesitate to make them come true.

The good thing about Nicolo was that he had enough trust in me to judge who was wrong and who was right for me. He was also comforted by the notion that I could kill someone within a heartbeat.

We had washed up and gone our separate ways after eating, but before I could return to my room, my father appeared out of nowhere and called me to his office.

I quickly shifted my weight onto my heels and began heading towards the room. I walked in, locked the door behind me, and raised my gaze to my father, who sat on top of the desk with a folder in his hand.

"What's up?" I ask, eyeing the folder.

"New mission."

I furrow my brows and take a seat across from him in the plush leather chair.

"That was fast," I mumble.

Normally, I only had one major job every two weeks, but that wasn't the case this time.

"Chris Panterlo, he one of our guys that handled our shipments"

"He stole one point four million dollars worth of our weapons and sold them to a small, east side gang."

He handed me the folder as he walked over to me. I took it from him and looked down at the contents.

"You know what to do."

I rise and nod, my gaze still fixed on the written words. His profile was presented, along with a photograph of himself. Featuring his personal life and all pertinent information about him, including recent travel destinations.

"He'll be at Monroe's Night Club tomorrow night," He informs me.

I raise my thumb before turning around to leave, but he had suddenly grabbed my arm.

I looked up, puzzled, before being dragged into a crushing bear hug.

Uh, what had Andre done to him?

Nonetheless, I hug back, a little taken aback by his sudden affection.

"Bella, take care with this one. Shady club." He mumbles before drawing away and kisses the top of my head.

"Will do," I reply brightly before turning around to leave.

As I returned to my room, I realised that this particular club was hosted in the city. Because the city was close to where we lived, we were able to easily travel to college, which was also held there.

I huffed and closed the door behind me, getting ready to start my next task.