Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,4
her, to need the reassurance of her smile, the warmth that her smile gave him, and the happiness that the sound of her voice brought him. He needed the friendship she gave him and the care that he’d never had from anyone before.
His phone buzzed beside his laptop and he picked it up. “What do you want, Trina?”
“Are you going to keep her locked up forever?” His cousin’s impatient voice bombarded his ear and he pulled the phone away from his head and turned on the speaker. He was alone in the office, so it wasn’t a problem.
“Why do you have to be so fucking loud, Trina?”
“Because I’m a New Yorker, dumbfuck. Why the hell you think I’m so loud? Now, are you going to keep your wife a prisoner forever or not? Because I’d like to go out to lunch with her today if you don’t mind.”
“Not gonna happen, Trina. Sorry, but she stays put.”
“I hate you right now, do you know that?” She huffed for a long moment and swore under her breath. “Look, I know you’re caught up in the throes of your first time of being in love, but you can’t smother her like this, you’ll just drive her away. You have to let her out of that apartment soon or she’ll lose her mind, Matteo!”
“She’ll be fine, and you can visit her whenever you like, you know that.” He looked at one of the purchase orders on the pile he’d made and narrowed his eyes. That was far too much lumber, what the fuck were his builders doing on that project?
“You aren’t even listening to me now, are you?” She didn’t sound happy, and he knew she’d make him pay for it somehow, but right now, he didn’t care.
“Gotta go, Trin, talk to you later.” He ended the call and went about looking through the recent purchase orders.
That bastard running his work crew was trying to make a little money on the side it looked like. As soon as Penelope, the receptionist/accountant came in, he’d have a talk with her about the foreman. Then he might have to call Anton back in for a new job.
Greedy bastard, he thought as he waited for his laptop to load.
He turned on his VPN, the best money could buy, and looked at the file on a site on the dark web that Anton left for him. The takedown of the de Silvas had been brutal, from what he could see in the pictures, but it had to be. The world had to know you didn’t fuck with Matteo or his family. Even if Matteo couldn’t be traced back to that takedown.
Trina started to text him then. One every five minutes. Finally, he called her back.
“Stop, will you?” He scrubbed at his smooth jaw with a frustrated hand and sighed. “If she’s at home, I control the situation, I control who goes in and who comes out. My men keep her safe. If she’s out with you, anyone can attack her. I can’t have that.”
“Fuck me. Why can’t you just say you love her then, Matteo? Why keep her in the dark on that?”
“Because I don’t.” He said it gruffly, without conviction, because he knew it was a lie.
“Fucking liar. You do and you can’t handle it. That’s why you’ve suddenly become Bluebeard with his wife locked away from the world. Just try not to kill her or cause her to kill herself by keeping her locked away for fuck’s sake.”
“That’s just a little bit rude, Trina.” Matteo frowned and glared at the wall. “Am I going to have to cut off your allowance for a month?”
“Do it, see if I care.” Trina accepted his dare and spit it back at him. Damn.
“Seriously?” Matteo could think of a dozen other ways to get Trina off his back but knew she was right. Deep down, he knew she was.
“Seriously, Matteo. You need to tell your wife you love her and get her away from here. If she can’t walk freely around New York, maybe you should take her somewhere else, where she’s fucking safe.”
“Now that would be a perfect idea if I didn’t have to be here. But, you know I have to be in New York, I can’t leave the family business to anybody else. Not when she’s only just given me the reins.”
They both knew he was talking about Celeste.
“It’s not even really our family business, Matteo. Technically, it’s Marie’s isn’t it?”