I was something instead of nothing.
Two months—two fucking months have passed, and the girl is still fucking haunting me. Consuming every thought.
It’s wrong to think of her when I’m going to bed or when I’m with another woman, but it’s a catastrophic mistake to have her on my mind while discussing business with my uncle. It’s fucking criminal to have her be at the forefront of the lies I’m spewing to him too. But worst of all, it’s a sign of a weakness.
“I need to be able to trust you,” Uncle Vic sneers, his gray eyes narrowing into tiny slits as he curls his fists on top of the desk.
Though they are deserved, those words pack a punch and aren’t easily ignored. It’s not like he’s criticizing my clothes, he’s doubting my character. My loyalty. I may have had a temporary moment of weakness, but I’ve given this man my fucking life and all he’s done in return is put me down and tell me I’m not good enough. Another man might be able to shrug it off, but I don’t look at Victor Pastore and see a boss. I look at him and see the man who stepped up when my own piece of shit father failed me and my sister.
“If you don’t trust me by now then what the fuck am I doing here?” I ask hoarsely.
Considering my question, he looks down at his hands for a moment and I watch as he mindlessly runs his thumb over the plain gold band he wears on his left ring finger.
“This is a man’s world, Rocco. It’s ruthless and full of sin. Dark and deceitful. All those sins, every lie, it catches up to you in the end. Sometimes it’s you they catch, but other times it’s the people you love that get caught in the crossfire. The innocent bystanders you tried to protect. The ones you tried to love.”
His words are wise, but they don’t pertain to me. I don’t love anyone or anything. I don’t know what he thinks went down that night or what crazy story he’s concocted in his head, but what I did for Violet wasn’t an act of love. I did it as a favor to Joaquin. I’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for him bailing me out of all the bad situations I’ve found myself in. Helping his sister and mother just put me on the board. A single tally under my name. That’s all. So what if my phone feels like it’s burning a hole in my pocket—it means nothing.
She means nothing.
“We all got secrets, nephew. Precious little things we want to keep hidden so that they are ours and only ours, but don’t for one second think any secret is safe. There is no such thing in our world. Our enemies live to uncover them. They prey on them and then they serve them to us when our number is up.”
I want to argue with him. I want to tell him I don’t have any secrets. That I don’t have a single weakness, but I can’t. Everyone has secrets, we all have things we like to keep to ourselves. Things we don’t want to share with the rest of the world because once we do, we lose them.
As soon as I saw Violet on that stage, I had one primal thought…I didn’t want to share her. I wanted her to dance for me and only me.
Until now, I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to think it. I pushed her out of my head whenever I could, told myself it was just one night, and that I had only been affected by her because I was at my lowest. I was grieving. Feeling sorry for myself. Lonely—so fucking lonely.
“Whoever she is, cut her loose,” he says, and I lift my gaze to his.
“It’s not like that,” I reply hoarsely.
“You sure about that? Because you’re fifty thousand dollars is a pretty big dent for someone you don’t have a claim on.”
I don’t respond, mainly because anything I say will be an admission of guilt. He stares at me for another beat before folding his hands under his chin. “You’re a mess, Rocco, a real fucking disaster, but by some miracle of God, you passed my test.”
Still reeling from the fact Violet was deep under my skin, my brows pinch together, and I lift my chin. What the fuck is this guy talking about now?
“What test?”
Just when you think you