If you need two women in your bed every night, then you obviously haven’t met a single woman who can hold her own. That could have been me—but now you’ll never know. She successfully planted a seed of doubt, a hint of regret. I wondered if I had spent the night with just her, would the sex have been as marvelous as she promised.
I guess it didn’t matter anymore. I would never see her again.
Didn’t even know her name.
She was too beautiful to be one of those stupid obsessed women who thought they could change me, who thought they had something special that would make me settle down and marry them.
I would never marry.
I was way too rich to get married.
Women wanted to be in my bed because I was good at fucking. But they agreed to threesomes in the hope they would mean something to me, that I would see them as adventurous and exciting enough to be my wife.
There hadn’t been a single woman who’d turned me down—until now.
My phone vibrated on the nightstand with a call, so I carefully reached over Stephanie to answer it. No one called me at this hour unless it was an emergency.
And it better be an emergency.
I saw the name on the screen. Mother.
I jumped out of bed and walked into the living room to answer it. “Mother, what’s wrong?” Buck naked, I stood in my living room with my hand on my hip. Slowly, I paced, fearing the worst. “Are you alright?”
“I’m so sorry to bother you right now, Cato.” She sighed into the phone, but her tone didn’t hint at any distress. My mother had always been that way, eerily calm even in the most dangerous situations. It made her impossible to read.
“You never bother me. Now tell me.” I stood in front of the window and looked across the city, holding my breath as I waited for an answer.
She sighed before she answered. “He’s here…and I can’t get him to leave.”
I knew exactly who he was. “Why the fuck did you let him in?”
“Said he wanted to talk.”
“He had plenty of time to talk to you twenty-five years ago.” With a clenched jaw and flexed biceps, I started to pace through the living room again. “That was his chance—he blew it.”
Calm like always, she didn’t rise to my anger. “Are you coming, Cato?”
She never had to ask that question. “You know I am.”
Since this was personal, I drove myself. I took my Bugatti west to the countryside, while my team followed behind me. They accompanied me everywhere I went. In this instance, I didn’t need them at all, but if someone wanted me dead, this was a perfect opportunity to catch me alone.
I didn’t take risks.
I called my brother on the drive since this was his business as much as mine. “Bates.”
He sounded wide awake despite the hour. “This should be good…”
“Mother just called me. That piece of shit is at her house right now.”
Bates knew exactly who I was talking about without asking. “What the hell is he doing there at two in the morning?”
“I don’t like it either.” I drove with one hand on the wheel and saw the headlights from the brigade of men behind me. “I’m five minutes away. You can join me if you want, but I’ve got this handled.”
“By the time I make it out there, he’ll already be dead.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” I thought of my pistol sitting in the glove compartment. It was fully loaded and ready to go, but not all men deserved the mercy of a bullet. In this case, a clean bullet was way too good for him.
“Let me know what happens.”
“Alright.”
He hung up.
I pulled up to the house, a two-story Tuscan home surrounded by vineyards. In the darkness, the beauty was difficult to see. She had several acres of land, a fountain in the center of a circular driveway, and a gorgeous home I’d bought for her. She preferred the Italian countryside to the city so she could keep up her garden and enjoy the sound of the birds in the morning. I always worried she was too far away—especially during times like this.
A beat-up black car was in the roundabout, and I parked my Bugatti right behind it.
Pissed off, I stormed the front door and shoved it open. “Where the fuck is he?” Whether I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt or a full suit, I was equally formidable.