Massimo could fuck off if he thought I was going to introduce him to Leo.
“For insulting my family.”
Was he serious? I’d heard what he’s said to Shade up at the cabin. He’d made it sound like he was going to kill his own brother’s wife, if not his brother too.
Screw this.
Of all the bad shit I’d done in my life, this was charting for number one, and I was done. I made to stand.
“Not so fast, bella.” Massimo’s hand shot out and went around my arm like a vise grip as one of his guards took a step toward me.
André suddenly appeared and sat down next to Massimo. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Vincenzo.”
“What?” he asked innocently. “Have a conversation with a beautiful signorina?”
André gave Massimo an icy glare. “Touch Domani’s woman again.”
Massimo chuckled. “I would think if she were his…” His gaze turned to me and everything in his expression turned sinister. “He would have better control over her.”
My stomach dropped and bile rose. “No man controls me.” Except maybe they did. Maybe I’d been controlled my whole life. First, by my father, and now by a bunch of alpha assholes. I was over it.
Massimo lifted an eyebrow in challenge at me as if to say he knew I was full of shit. Then his face smoothed out and he lowered his voice. “An introduction, bella.” Still holding on to me, he looked at André. “What can I help you with, Mr. Luna?”
André clasped his hands and rested them on the table. “I have thirty-seven former Marines working for me. Most Force Recon. All skilled snipers. But some have a certain skill set that’s above and beyond.” He leveled Massimo with a threatening glare. “An unquantifiable skill set.”
“Then perhaps my brother should not have let Mr. Domani go,” Massimo mused.
“He didn’t.” André paused. Then he added a weight to his next words that was so tangible, they were terrifying. “He couldn’t control him.”
Massimo opened his mouth to reply.
André cut him off. “You sure you want to go down this road?”
Massimo let go of my arm.
For the first time since sitting down, André looked at me. “Leave.”
HER FACE WHITE, HER HANDS shaking, she stood and grabbed her purse.
“Keep it together, Cyborg,” Talerco warned, standing next to me like I needed a fucking babysitter.
“Call me that again and I will gut you in your sleep.” As she walked toward me, Ronan stepped out from the shadows and took up position on her six.
Talerco chuckled. “I’d like to see you try. You’re about as quiet as a mad dog frothin’ at the mouth. I can hear you breathin’ from a foot away.”
“Fuck off.”
“All good, thanks.” The fucking prick stepped forward as Summer got within earshot. “You untangled from Mr. Bad Decision? Patrol get you out with a clean break?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Giving Talerco attitude, but the shake in her hands still prominent, Summer didn’t look at me.
Talerco pushed. “What did Mr. Mafia want?”
Disgust contorting her face, Summer kept walking. “What everyone wants.”
Was Talerco blind? “He wanted a piece of her to get to Amherst,” I answered before stepping in front of her. “Did you give it to him?”
She brought her face up, but she still didn’t look at me like she had back at that cabin. The woman who’d given me a taste of herself was gone. Eyes cold, jaw set, the teenager I’d first picked up at rehab surfaced. “What do you care?”
I gave her the truth. “Amherst can handle himself and you don’t owe him shit. Giving Vincenzo whatever bullshit he asked for gets him off your back. Trust me, I know how he works.”
“Trust you?” Looking incredulous as hell, her hand went to her hip.
“Aaand there she is.” Talerco chuckled as he shouldered Ronan. “Grab us some drinks, Pyro. Shit’s about to get real.”
Summer whipped her head around and glared at Talon. “Pyro? Seriously?”
Talerco had enough sense to wipe the smirk off his face. “Yeah. Pyrotechnics? Explosives? Shit that goes boom?” He frowned. “What’d you think I meant?”
Her glare cut to Ronan. “You put up with this shit?”
Talerco shoved his hands in his pockets and Ronan didn’t say shit. If I wasn’t so fucking pissed off, I might’ve smiled.
But then she spun on me. “And you too, Cyborg?” Not waiting for a response, her glare cut through each of us and she let loose. “All of you can take your alpha bullshit and go to hell. And for the record,