Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
WREN
“ B itch!” Delaney yells at me as soon as I step into DD’s. “Where the fuck has your hoe ass been?”
Every person sitting at the rail is trying to act like they aren’t listening, but I know them all better than that. Nosey fuckers. It still doesn’t stop me from avoiding all eye contact as I make my way to the back to put my bag away before I start my shift.
Matteo lost his mind, thinking I was just going to sit around his house and wait for him to come back like some sorry housewife.
So, instead of resting, I waited for him to leave and snuck out when some guy that I’m pretty sure was supposed to be watching me passed out in the living room with a game on. A very fancy living room, I might add. Honestly, the whole house is fucking huge and fancy. Huge and fancy to the point where I didn’t feel like I could relax even if I wanted to. Even his towels felt like I wasn’t good enough to be using them .
I’m not really sure how long I have until Matteo realizes I’m gone, but I figure I’ll at least have enough time to make a little cash. I know my piece of shit landlord is going to charge me for every little thing that was damaged.
“You better have a good fucking reason for not answering my million calls and texts!” Delaney exclaims as she comes up behind me in the breakroom. “No joke, I was about to start my own FBI search party tonight after work.”
“I’m sorry, bitch,” I say as I slam my locker door shut and turn to face her. “It was just a really crazy twenty-four hours. I should have called you.”
“Oh my god! Your face, bitch! What happened to your face?” Delaney leans in, eyes wide.
Oh fuck.
When I quickly stopped by my place before coming here, I could still see faint bruises through the makeup, but I chalked that up to the ugly fluorescent lighting in my bathroom. No one looks good in those conditions. It’s like when you think you slayed your makeup, and then you get into a car and look in that mirror only to notice you didn’t blend shit.
I’m an idiot for thinking the dim lighting in DD’s would be enough to conceal it from Delaney. That girl would be able to pick my butthole out of a lineup. She’s bleached it enough times to know. I should have checked to make sure my makeup was still in place. Stay in place setting spray, my ass.
Delaney crosses her arms as she raises her eyebrows and cocks a hip out. “Well?”
“Well, what?”
“Start explaining, bitch!”
I don’t even know where to begin, so I start from the break-in. She knew the other stuff—kind of. By the time I finish, we’re just staring at each other—Delaney with her mouth as wide open as it was when I first started explaining and me just staring back, not knowing what else to say.
“How could you keep this from me?! You should have called! I can’t—” Delaney pauses her rant and looks at me like she’s thinking about something. “Did you say the guy you helped that also ended up helping you's name is Matteo?”
“Yeah. Kind of weird, right? I helped him, but now he just keeps popping up and saving me. Like some knight or something. He just shows up and swoops in.” It’s kind of weird how I’ve never seen him before in my life, and now he’s everywhere.
“Bitch,” Delaney says with wide eyes.
“Bitch,” I echo.
“Bitch, Matteo!” Delaney throws her hands up in the air, looking at me like I’m a fucking idiot.
“Am I supposed to know who Matteo is?”
“Yes! Matteo Adduci! The sexy knight that you’re describing sounds just like the men my vibrator and I have fantasies about.”
“Again, am I supposed to know who Matteo Adduci is?” Because right now, all this man is, is getting on my last fucking nerve.
“The Adducis?” Delaney exclaims, looking at me like I’m losing it. “Like the Mafia family? Come on, girl, we work in a bar! I know you hear people talking. Plus, Cain has some sort of thing with him. What that is? I’m not really sure. I just sometimes overhear stuff when I count my drawer down in the back.”
The Mafia?
Oh my god.
“What’s that look for? Are you okay?”
I think I might get sick.
“Am I okay? No, I’m not fucking okay!” I cry as I start pacing the breakroom. “I’m involved with the mob, and I didn’t even know it! What if he decides he’s done with me and tries to take me out? I’ll be on the national news because my body is found with cinder blocks tied to my ankles.”
How did I not notice this? The signs were all there. I just am an idiot that can’t put two and two together.
“Oh my god, stop. You’re not about to be murdered. I would fuck him up, Mafia or not. I’m not scared.” Delaney places both hands on her hips.
Only Delaney could make me laugh during something like this. And the funny thing is, she’s dead fucking serious about taking on the Mafia if something happens to me.
“Why would he not say anything?” I ask out loud, more to myself, but Delaney answers anyway.
“I don’t know. Would you just announce you're the head of the Italian Mafia in Ravenna Heights? No.”
“Damn. You’re right. I’m sure most people also just, you know, already know who the fuck he is,” I say with an eye roll, sarcasm laced in my tone.
“You’re right about that, bitch.” Delaney laughs. “Come on, perk up those titties, and let's go make some money.”
The night passed by in a blur. The place was packed, as usual. And I’m not complaining. I needed the distraction from the shit show my life has turned into. I made a decent amount of money, which I’m so grateful for. I know my bank account is going to take a serious hit once I get billed for the front door that was busted in. I think some of the regulars took pity on me because, once again, I forgot about my busted-up face. By the end of my night, I just didn’t even care anymore.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me tonight?” Delaney asks as I clear off the last table of the night.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. I need to go back and get things back to normal. The longer I stay away, the more I’m just going to stress about it. You know how I am. ”
“I know. I just worry about you. No more keeping shit like this from me. I want you to call me immediately,” Delaney says as she points her rag at me.
“I won’t, I promise,” I call over my shoulder as I head back to grab my stuff and get the fuck out of there.
The walk home was business as usual. Before I left the bar, Delaney gave me her little pocket knife just in case I ran into trouble. She basically said we’re no longer friends if I let someone follow me home like that again.
Thankfully though, I didn’t get a funny feeling that someone was watching me. There were no texts or calls from Matteo. My front door is even fixed. Let’s just hope no one in this building decided to get greedy and steal my stuff.
“What a fucking day,” I mumble to myself as I stick my key into my new front door, hoping that they didn’t change the locks too. The door still looks like the same ugly, rusty red color, and I know my landlord, the cheap-ass probably wouldn’t waste the money on something stupid like that.
The key turns, and I’m in.
I need to get a dog. Coming home to an empty apartment is just getting so old. And honestly, it would have been nice to have a dog the night that maniac broke in.
I don’t bother turning on any lights as I head toward my bedroom. I don’t even want to look at the kitchen. Delaney’s probably right about it being too soon to stay here by myself, but I refuse to let that piece of shit make me feel uncomfortable in my own place.
It isn’t until I’m standing in my bedroom that the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I’m really trying to chalk it up to it being from the first time back in here since I was attacked. I know it’s stupid, but keeping the pocket knife Delaney gave me in my hand makes me feel a little more in control.
“You were a bad girl, tesoro, ” a voice rumbles from behind me, making me jump. “Do you know what happens to bad girls?”
Reacting on instinct from the edge I’ve been on all day, I flip open the knife as I spin around. In one quick motion, I have the guy pressed up against my bedroom wall, knife to his throat.
“They get punished.” Familiar, heated, dark brown eyes are staring back at me. Before I can blink, Matteo’s hand is around my throat, using just enough pressure to warn me but not enough so I can’t breathe.
“What are you doing here?” I hiss, pressing the knife a little more firmly against his throat. Not enough to cut him, but any tiny movement on his end would make a nice slit.
“What am I doing here?” Matteo echoes, chuckling almost as if he’s trying to calm himself down. “What I’m doing here, Wren, is making sure you’re safe. Making sure that sick fuck didn’t think he could come back and put his hands on what’s mine. That’s what I’m fucking doing here.”
My head starts to rear back, but the strong grip he has on my throat stops me. “Yours? I think we missed a huge fucking conversation, Matteo. Someone you barely know can’t be yours.”
“Oh, I think I know you just fine, Wren.” He smirks. “I still taste your skin from where I licked that drop of water off of you right here.” Matteo lightly traces my collarbone, sending a shiver down my spine. “I don’t miss the way your eyes heat when I’m around. You can say you’re not mine until you’re blue in the face, but your body doesn’t lie. It knows who you belong to. Now, as much as it makes my cock throb, be a good girl and remove the knife from my throat. ”
I don’t ease up as I continue to glare at him. I hate that he’s right. My body does want him. Whenever he’s around, it’s like my pussy aches for something it hasn’t even had a taste of yet. And maybe, I might want him a little bit too. He’s the first guy that can hold his own and go tit for tat with me. It’s refreshing.
“Let’s get one thing clear right now. You need to stop breaking into my place. It’s fucking creepy,” I snap as I lower the knife from his throat.
“Yes, let’s get one thing clear, tesoro . I will stop at nothing to find you. Nothing in this world will keep me from you. So, if that means breaking into your place, that’s what I’m going to fucking do,” Matteo growls.
“You could have just texted.”
“I could have just texted…” Matteo is now looking at me like I’ve bumped my head. “I thought I left you in my bed in my clothes under the safety of my men in my home.” He points his finger at himself. “Imagine my surprise when I got a phone call from one of my men saying that he went to check on you, and you were nowhere to be found.”
“Imagine that.” I shrug innocently.
“You’re playing with fire here, tesoro, ” Matteo growls.
“Good thing I love the heat.”
“He could have been waiting here for you to finish the job! You don’t know if he’s dead or alive!” Matteo explodes, losing his last bit of control.
“Well, he wasn’t.”
“You are the most infuriating creature I have ever encountered,” Matteo growls as he raises his hand to my cheek. My heart stops as I wait for his touch, but it never comes. I watch him lower his hand as fast as he raised it, as if he thought twice about it. I hate that I’m disappointed. “Pack a fucking bag.”
“For what?”
“Are you the one high this time? This is the last time I’m telling you that you’re staying at my place until we figure this shit out.”
“You don’t get to just tell me what to do all of the time!” I yell to his back as he walks out of the room.
“Yeah, I do, Wren. You’ll listen to the boss,” Matteo says without looking back, leaving me there speechless.
What just happened?