had Maurice double check. No one gets an apartment in La Stella without passing all the checks.”
“Doesn’t mean he’s a decent guy though.”
“He spent half the night staring at her with that look.”
“What look?” My teeth ground together.
“You know, the starry-eyed look Nicco has whenever he’s around Arianne.”
“Fuck.” It spilled out in a ragged breath before I could stop it.
“Exactly why I called,” Matteo said.
“What do you want me to say? You know why I’m here. I need to get my head straight, I need to—”
“You need to learn to let people in, E. I know what happened with your old man messed you up, I get it, I do. But pushing us away, pushing her away, isn’t the answer.”
A loud bang drew my attention, and I dipped my hand into my jacket, feeling my fingers graze the butt of my pistol. I never went anywhere unarmed, an array of weapons strapped to my person. A Wharncliffe knife tucked into my boot, my brass knuckles, my pistol. I loved weapons almost as much as I loved my GTO. There was something comforting about knowing I could protect myself and the people I cared about. Besides, you never knew what enemies were lurking in the shadows.
Fuck.
I was starting to sound like him.
‘Our enemies hide in plain sight, Enzo.’ My father had once said to me. “They want to destroy what we have built and take it for their own. They want to see the Marchetti fall, to see the Family go up in smoke. Never forget that, figlio mio.”
I’d always known my father would die for the Family. I just hadn’t anticipated he would die a traitor.
Anger snaked through me, coiling around my chest with its sharp barbs as my fist clenched so tight my knuckles turned white.
He was still in my head… and I didn’t know how the fuck to get him out.
“Cous?” Matteo’s voice rattled through my skull.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“Just think about it…”
“Yeah.”
But as I hung up, we both knew I wouldn’t. Because sometimes to exorcise your demons, you had to become them.
“What the—”
An incessant whirring sound pierced my skull, making me groan.
“Hmm, what is that?” A voice said, and I glanced over my shoulder to find a blonde sleeping naked beside me.
Fucking great.
After Matteo’s call last night everything was a little hazy. There were drinks, a lot of them. As it neared closing time, Gino and the guys insisted on some of the girls joining us and we’d stayed at the bar getting drunker and hornier.
I had vague memories of the blonde being all over me. Loose lips and wandering hands. Despite the ringing in my ears and bass drum in my head, I felt pretty relaxed, so it wasn’t hard to imagine what had happened when we’d eventually got back to my room.
“Are you going to answer that?” she groaned, pulling the sheet over her body.
I swung my legs over the edge and sat up, snatching up my cell. “Yeah?” I barked, not even checking the name.
“It’s me,” Gino sounded as rough as I felt, “we’ve got a problem.”
“I’m listening.”
“It’s DiMarco’s. There’s been a break-in.”
“A break-in?” Disbelief coated my words. “But we were only there like… five hours ago.” It was barely six thirty.
“I know. Zander got a call from the local PD; they tripped the alarm. They’re giving us time to get down there first and take a look.”
“Yeah, I’m coming.”
“Meet you downstairs in ten.”
“Make it five,” I said.
“What’s wrong?” Blondie stared up at me with tired eyes.
“I’ve gotta go.”
“Go? But it’s early—”
“Duty calls.” I started pulling on my pants and securing my weapons to my body.
“So it’s true what they say about you.” She pushed up on one elbow, flicking her hair off one shoulder.
“What do they say?”
“That you’re dangerous.”
A derisive snort crawled up my throat.
“So it’s not… true?”
“What do you think?” I narrowed my eyes, shucking on my jacket. I remembered kissing her, running my hands over her tight little body. But I couldn’t remember much after that.
Fuck. I’d been totally wasted.
“I’m thinking you should stay here and finish what you started last night,” she damn near purred.
So we hadn’t fucked then.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
She must have had her mouth on my dick though because most of the tension I’d felt talking to Matteo last night had dissipated. Even if the jealousy sat heavy in my chest, coiled around my heart like barbed wire.
“No can do, dolcezza, I gotta go. Stay though. Order room service. Take a shower.” But