Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
WREN
I pull the soft duvet closer to my face as I snuggle deeper into the down pillow. Inhaling deeply, I take in the warm and spicy scent of tobacco, amber, and cedarwood. The smell reminds me of Matteo.
My eyes fly open as I quickly sit up and look around.
Matteo.
Holy shit.
This isn’t my room. This room is the size of my whole entire apartment. Looking around, I take in the floor-to-ceiling windows letting in the perfect amount of light for the shade of the dark walls. It’s moody but feels homey at the same time. The combination makes you feel utterly relaxed. There are two doors off the wall to the left of me and one door off the wall straight in front of me, and there is not much decor.
“Which one do I think the bathroom is?” I mumble to myself as I throw the duvet off of me. My feet hit a fluffy, deep gray area rug that has me curling my toes in it, enjoying the way the fluff feels between them.
After finding the correct door and using the bathroom, I look at my reflection for the first time since the motel. I inhale sharply at the sight. The bruising and swelling is a million times worse than it was last night. I look exactly how I feel. Like I got the shit beat out of me. Like a flaming bag of dog shit.
I need to find some drugs, ice, makeup, and clothes asap.
Walking back into the room, I pause and look at the bed, debating whether to get back in and just sleep this nightmare away.
“You’re awake.”
Jumping slightly from being startled, my eyes shoot to the doorway, meeting Matteo, who is leaning up against it with his arms crossed. He looks tired.
“Is this your room?”
“Yes,” he answers before pushing off the doorframe, walking further into the room, and sitting on the edge of the bed, patting the spot next to him. “Sit down. We need to talk.”
All I want to do is get away from this fucking man, and he’s making it nearly impossible.
“I don’t want to talk,” I say as I don’t move from where I’m standing in the bathroom door. “I told you I just want you to forget about all of this and take me to Delaney’s. She’s probably already leading the FBI manhunt for me since I haven’t talked to her in basically a day!”
“I think she will be okay if you don’t talk to her for a day.” Matteo gives me an exasperated look.
“What would your brother do if he didn’t hear from you all day?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Come looking for me.” I can’t stop looking at him like he’s a dumbass as I raise my eyebrows and throw my hands out. “ Okay, I get it. No need to be a smartass. I’m also not keeping your phone from you, so please, text or call away.”
I narrow my eyes because I hate that he’s right. In all honesty, I hadn’t even stopped to think about how Delaney is probably freaking the fuck out until right now.
“If we talk about what you want to talk about, then can you take me to Delaney’s?” I ask, trying to reason with him.
“No.”
“You can’t keep me here! You know kidnapping is illegal, right? You may be too attractive for your own good, but you’re not on the level of attraction where I would be a willing participant.”
“And what level do I need to be on?” Matteo asks, clearly amused.
“Michele Morrone.”
Matteo lets out a loud laugh. “You know I get confused for him sometimes, right? I get asked for autographs when I let the stubble show.” I purse my lips together to keep myself from walking right into that trap because Matteo is right. He does look like him. Especially if he stopped shaving. “Now I know you would be a willing participant, tesoro ,” Matteo says, voice deepening.
“What did you want to talk about?” I clear my throat, trying not to think about what his voice does to me when he talks like that.
He smirks. I think he’s going to call me out again, but he doesn’t. I’m hoping he missed the way my eyes flared and the light heat I feel on my cheeks. “I want you to tell me exactly what happened. My brothers went by your place, they said there was a lot of blood.”
And there goes my mood.
I’ve been trying not to think about everything that happened. I want it to all just be a nightmare, but my face says otherwise. “Look, I don’t really know. I had that weird feeling like I was being watched on my way home, and when I noticed the usual car wasn’t parked out front, that feeling grew.” Guilt flashes in his eyes. “Don’t do that.” I shake my head. “Don’t feel guilty. I told you I didn’t want your help. I’m sorry for saying what I did when I called. I should have never blamed you. It’s not your fault.”
Matteo holds up his hand. “I’m going to stop you right there because it is my fault, Wren. I told you I would take care of it, and I didn’t. I’ll regret that until the day I die.”
“We can agree to disagree.” I side-eye him. “Anyway, I decided to just shake off the feeling and go to bed. I was exhausted from work anyway. But then, I woke up because I kept hearing a bang. It didn’t take me long to realize that bang was someone trying to break in. He got to my room because I froze like an idiot.”
“That’s a normal reaction. Very rarely do people just spring into action.”
“I bet you do.” And that annoys the shit out of me. He’s just always so… composed. With the exception of when he stabbed that dude’s hand. God, that was fucking hot.
“I do, but that comes with the territory. Now, please continue.”
I let out a huge sigh before continuing. “I ran out of my room, but he caught me by my hair, threw me on the ground, tried to…” I trail off. “He tried too?—”
Matteo rests his hand on my thigh, squeezing reassuringly, making me feel safe in just one move. I study his face, surprised to see that it doesn’t match his body language. Inside, Matteo is raging. He’s barely hanging on by a thread if his eye twitch is anything to go by. “You can skip that part, tesoro . He will pay for every single fucking thing.”
He’s the definition of a giant, walking red flag. I should be so scared that I’m running out of the room, away from this man. But I’m not. I don’t know him that well, but something tells me that he would kill a man just for looking at me the wrong way.
“He didn’t rape me, Matteo,” I say softly as the breath he had been holding in rushes out of him. “I have no doubt that he was about to. But I kneed him as hard as I could in the fucking balls and shoved him off of me.” I smirked, trying to lighten the mood. “Then I grabbed a knife from the block on the counter and stabbed him in the stomach just as he was pulling me back by my hair. Then I ran out of there, and you know the rest.”
Matteo lets out a laugh of relief. “Fuck, I knew you would be ruthless. Knife wounds are no fun, especially in the stomach.” His face grows serious. “Did you kill him?”
I blanch at the thought.
“Oh my god. Oh my f ucking god!” I yell as I jump to my feet and start pacing. “What if I killed him?”
“ Tesoro , calm down. I’m sure he’s fine.” Matteo stands and puts his hands on my shoulders to keep me in place.
“Calm down?” I screech. “I probably just killed someone, Matteo! I can’t go to prison. I’m not cut out to be someone’s bitch. Oh my god! I’m going to prison!”
“Wren.” Matteo’s tone cuts through. “I don’t think he’s dead because there wasn’t anyone in your apartment when my brothers went and checked it out. It’s possible someone could have come and removed his body, but let’s be honest here, that piece of shit deserved to die. But you don’t know that’s what happened.”
I try to calm myself down by nodding my head quickly as if that’s somehow going to bring my anxiety level down. “Yeah. You’re right.”
“Take some deep breaths. What helps you relax usually?” Matteo asks as he rubs my back soothingly. This is nice. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been touched like this that wasn’t by some creepy fuck at the bar. It’s nice to have someone who cares, even if I know it’s just because of this situation.
“I usually take a bath or watch a comfort show in bed. Now that we talked, I’ll call Delaney and get out of your hair.”
Matteo opens his mouth to respond but is cut off by a knock at the door. “That’s Aldo. I asked him to come check you over to make sure everything is okay. It’s open!”
The door opens, and in walks a man who resembles Matteo. Maybe another brother? There’s definitely some sort of relation. The black hair and dark brown eyes are clearly dominating traits in this family.
He stops dead in his tracks as soon as he sees me, the smile wiping off his face. “What the fuck,” he whispers slowly. “Tell me he’s dead,” he demands, looking right at Matteo.
Matteo stiffens. “I’m working on it.”
Aldo nods as if that’s enough of an answer to satisfy him.
“Wren, this is Aldo. Aldo, this is Wren,” Matteo introduces us.
“Hello, Wren.” Aldo smiles.
“Hi.” I smile awkwardly.
“Let’s get you looked over, and then you and Boss can get on with it.”
“Are you a doctor?”
“Of sorts,” is his response. My eyes shoot to Matteo, who is watching Aldo’s every move like a hawk.
“What does that mean?” I ask as he steps closer to me.
“It means that I took enough classes to basically qualify as a doctor.” He winks. “I’m going to push lightly around your bruises. I just want to make sure nothing feels fractured.”
“Okay.” I nod. What does that even mean? Enough to qualify? Is he a med school dropout, or has he watched enough episodes of Grey’s Anatomy to the point he thinks he’s a doctor now?
“He went to school to be an EMT but didn’t actually graduate. I promise it’s fine, tesoro. He’s taken enough bullets out of all of us that he could do it in his sleep. Let him work,” Matteo says, eyes not leaving Aldo.
Aldo’s eyes shoot to Matteo at his name for me. A name I forgot to Google.
“She’s here, isn’t she?” Matteo snaps.
“Does it hurt here?” Aldo asks, turning his attention back to me, a soft smile toying on his lips as he presses down on my cheek, making me hiss. “I’ll take that as a yes. And here?” We go through this same process a few more times until he’s satisfied with my face. “I don’t think anything is broken or fractured. Just really bruised. If you want peace of mind, you can go in and have some scans done. You’re going to be feeling it for a while. I’ll give the Boss some pain pills for you to take to feel more comfortable.”
“I think I’ll be okay without going in. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me.” And I mean it, truly. I don’t want to admit this because it’s so fucking embarrassing to be basically thirty and still not able to afford insurance. A hospital visit is just something I can’t afford right now.
“Is there anywhere else you want me to look over? I can have Matteo step out if that would make you more comfortable.”
I silence Matteo’s growl by cutting him off. “He doesn’t need to leave. I have some bruising on my legs from when he was on top of me, but he didn’t get far. Can you maybe look at the back of my head? He yanked my hair pretty hard, and I’m pretty sure I felt blood.”
“Let’s take a look.” Adlo gently directs my head so it’s tilting downward. “There’s some dried blood where some hair has been ripped out at the root. A little tender?” he asks as he presses his hand lightly around the area.
“Yeah. Basically, it feels like my whole head is going to throb off my body.” I let out a light laugh.
“Yeah,” Aldo winces. “I’m sorry about that. It’s probably going to feel like that for a couple of days. Take the pills that I’m going to leave and just use this time to relax.”
“Thank you.”
“Thanks, Aldo. I’ll be down in a minute,” Matteo dismisses him.
I wait for the door to close behind him before I speak again. “Can I take a shower and borrow some sweats to wear to Delaney’s?”
“You’re not going to Delaney’s. I’ll get you something to wear, but I want you to take a bath and relax,” Matteo says as he walks back towards me.
“I can’t relax. I have to work tonight. What time even is it?” I ask as I look around for some sort of alarm clock.
“It’s just after 3:00pm.”
“3:00?! I need to be at work in an hour!”
“Call off for a few days and relax,” Matteo says before turning to walk out of the room. “I’m not going to say it again, tesoro, ” he calls over his shoulder, leaving me in silence.
“So fucking bossy,” I mumble to myself as I head into the bathroom to call off while I take a bath. Just like Matteo said to do.