Firstly, he was not the boss of me. Secondly, I was a free woman. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted, where I wanted, with whom I wanted. I didn’t need his permission for one goddamn thing. Thirdly, no one asked him to be Mr. Over-Protective. He’d given himself that role. He even put cameras in his house, cameras he didn’t tell me about which was a serious invasion of privacy beyond making me move in with him, sleep beside him and the list could go on (and on). Fourthly, he was not the boss of me.
I’d had enough.
“You’re not the boss of me,” I told him.
“Ava, I’ll give you one last chance to get your sweet ass over here.”
“No!” I snapped. “I’m not going to be freaked out by you. I’m not going to be pushed around by you. And I’m not going to be told what to do by you. I’m alive, I’m breathing. So are Sissy, Daisy and Shirleen. I don’t know what happened and I don’t care. I’m ignoring everything, including you having your buddies watch me when I didn’t know they were doing it. I’m ignoring everything. I’m going to live my life and let all this shit blow over.”
“You haven’t clued in yet but this shit is not gonna blow over. Who was the guy in the SUV?”
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen him before. Maybe he had road rage. Maybe I pulled out in front of him and didn’t notice it. Who cares?”
“I care.”
“Well I don’t!” I snapped.
“Why are you all of a sudden the focus of some seriously scary shit?”
“How should I know?”
“Maybe because it’s happening to you?”
“Well, I don’t know!” I yelled. “I don’t even want to know!”
He glared at me. I glared back.
We were locked in another Luke vs. Ava Glare of the Century Contest when my phone rang. I was kind of glad it did because I was about to back down from the glare and this gave me an excuse.
To save face, I made a “huh” sound and grabbed my phone from the desk, flipped it open and put it to my ear. “Yo.”
“Ava?”
“Yes?”
“It’s Ren.”
Oh f**k.
My eyes snapped to Luke. “Hey,” I said.
“Hey, Uncle Vito told me about Dom. You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You okay after Uncle Vito sent his goons after you?”
I blinked in surprise at his question and turned away from Luke. “What?”
“Santo and Lucky are idiots. They were supposed to be cool, tell you it was Vito who wanted to see you. Not scare you half to death and send you running through traffic on Broadway.”
Wow. That was news.
“Sorry about that,” he went on like he apologized for mistaken kidnappings every day.
I moved away slowly and went to the window at the side of the loft. All the while, I was very conscious of Luke watching me. “Um, that’s okay.”
Did I just tell Ren it was okay that his uncle had me kidnapped? Maybe I was nuts.