Chapter 33
CIRO
“Jesus Christ. You should’ve called me the second she said she was leaving the hotel. Her fucking apartment complex isn’t safe!” I could kill my cousin for being so goddamn stupid. But then, knowing Isla as I did, she could be very persuasive.
Still, Paolo knew how I felt about Isla’s place.
“There wasn’t time.”
“You could’ve handcuffed her to a chair!” I yelled at him.
“And what about the baby? Should I’ve handcuffed her too?”
I stopped pacing and nearly threw my phone at the wall. “You hurt a hair on my daughter’s head and you’re a dead man.”
“Precisely why I did as Isla wished. I value my life, cugino.” He only spoke Italian during tense moments but calling me cousin wouldn’t defuse the fury I felt.
I did trust Paolo to take care of my most precious possessions, but it felt like he failed me.
Nevertheless, I knew exactly what Isla was doing. She was hurt and trying to cut me out of hers and my daughter’s life like I was a deadly cancer. She wouldn’t be wrong about the deadly part.
If what she saw and heard had been me cheating, she’d have every right to do what she felt was needed to protect herself and Pippa. But she wouldn’t hear my side and that wasn’t okay with me. She should demand the truth and collect evidence before convicting me of a crime I didn’t commit.
“What do you want me to do?” Paolo’s voice pulled me back to the call.
“My investors arrive tomorrow afternoon, and I’m dealing with Courtney.”
“Dealing with her how?”
I sighed when I heard the irritation in his voice. “I’m taking her to Los Angeles for rehab.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes, that’s it. I’ll be back in San Francisco Friday afternoon.” The next few days would give Isla time to cool down and hopefully come to her senses. See? I could be reasonable when something meant everything to me. I waited for a reply, but Paolo said nothing. “Did you hear me, cugino?”
“Yes, I heard you,” he grumbled.
“And you have nothing to say? No questions?”
“I’m just surprised you’re not flying back tonight. Why wait days before fixing the mess you created?” He was crossing the line.
“I didn’t create this mess!”
“Isla and the baby should be your priorities. Not Courtney.”
“They are my priorities.” What in the hell was he doing? Trying to get a rise out of me? “Roman and I bumped into Courtney at my steakhouse. She was drunk off her ass and high as a kite. We helped her. What else was I supposed to do? She’s my friend.”
He snorted. “And former fuck buddy.”
“That was years ago and before Isla,” I said through gritted teeth. Why in the hell was I defending myself?
“You could’ve let Roman deal with everything, then Isla wouldn’t have heard Courtney and fled the hotel.”
Fuck, he wasn’t wrong. Isla never entered my mind at the restaurant. All I thought about was getting Courtney out of the building. She’d caused a scene for Christ’s sake. Every pair of eyes had been on her. I was embarrassed for her.
“You need to come and secure your family before you lose them.”
“I won’t lose them,” I barked at him.
“Cugino, you already have.”
“I will only say this once.” I rolled my free hand into a fist. “Do not speak to me this way again. Isla is my business.”
“Just trying to protect you from fucking up the best thing that has ever happened to you,” he replied, sounding more confident than I could recall ever hearing before.
“I didn’t ask for your advice.” This outspoken side of Paolo rubbed me wrong.
“No, I suppose you didn’t.”
“Don’t forget who you work for,” I told him, because it sounded like he needed to be reminded.
“How can I when you won’t let me. If there’s nothing else, I need to do a sweep of the building.”
“Do you want me to send back up?”
“That’s your call, boss.”
“Don’t be an emotional pussy. If you need help guarding my girls, just fucking tell me.
” I was so over this damn phone call. Paolo may be right about having Roman deal with Courtney, but he didn’t know Isla as I did.
She needed time to process. If I swooped in while she was furious with me, it would only make matters worse.
“We’ll be fine but if you’re unsure, ask Fabio to send a couple of men.”
“Okay, I trust you.” A weird twinge made me rub the spot over my heart as the words left my lips. “I want hourly updates.”
“Will do.” He ended the call.
Finding out I had a daughter, and the recent drama with Courtney was taking a toll on me. It wasn’t often that I felt out of control, but right now, genuine fear pulsed through my veins. The fear of losing Isla and my baby would be my undoing.
My woman had better come to her senses in the next couple of days or I’d take matters into my own hands, and I was confident she wouldn’t like the demands I made.
The meeting with my investors had been uneventful. I could’ve left it to Roman to handle, but I just couldn’t give up control. Or that was the lie I told myself, when really, I stayed in Canada out of fear of rejection.
After the drama and incriminating photos, and the fact that Isla had heard Courtney, I was confident she would never speak to me again.
I was in my office, rocking in my leather executive chair, on the brink of losing my mind. If Isla refused to hear me out, how would she know the truth? There I was finally ready to let her in, really in, and now this happened.
Or maybe I was lying to myself about being ready.
Part of me, the five-year-old part who’d witnessed my mother’s murder, would never be ready.
It’s always the ones we love that are taken from us. I heard Padre’s voice as he squeezed me tightly.
A decade of therapy hadn’t helped me forget his words or Mamma’s scream right before the man shot her. I remember being so confused as to why she would get out of the car. But now I knew it was because she knew the woman, Cara Clemente.
For most of my life I’d believed my mother was dead because of me. Giovanna Remotti would be alive today if it weren’t for me begging her to take me out for lunch.
My beloved mother’s life had ended in a brief ordeal. It happened so fast. We never made it to town and I never forgot why we were out without Papà.
Wrong place at the wrong time, one therapist had told me. He was wrong. Crime families like mine were walking targets. Only, my father had been out of the country and unaware his former lover wanted Mamma dead. Alessio Remotti had failed his first wife and me.
It was fate, another therapist believed. She’d tried to explain it as events beyond anyone’s control. But at the time, I really didn’t give a fuck what she said. I was sixteen and my father had wanted me to get help before I combusted and went on a killing spree.
My best friend, Julietta, was in a hospice. Julietta was the first girl I’d ever loved, though she had never returned my romantic feelings. All these years later, I believed she’d hidden her true feelings from me because she knew she was going to die and wanted to protect me.
But honestly, to hear her say I love you would have given me comfort. Hell, she might have saved me from two decades of drinking and whoring around.
I buried my face in my hands as my thoughts returned to Isla. Why was she so damn stubborn?
Of course, none of this was Isla’s fault. I’d done this to her, to us.
Back when we were together, I had it all with Isla: love, happiness, peace. Then I pushed her away because my fear of her dying had been stronger than my love for her.
Another therapist had said, Love is the most powerful emotion. He was a quack and full of shit. Fear was the most powerful emotion. Fear was my kryptonite.
My head lifted from my hands when I heard a soft tapping on the door. I looked over my shoulder as it slowly opened.
Millie’s head popped in. “Mr. Remotti, do you have a moment?” The concerned look on her face made my stomach twist into a knot.
“Yes.” I turned away from the window as every muscle in my shoulders coiled. “Please come in. Is everything okay?”
She handed me two sheets of paper. “These are the statements from the St. Francis.” Millie chewed on her nail, nervously. What was the big deal about billing statements?
“I don’t understand.” I glanced over the documents. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Just a few charges for spa treatments, room service, and valet parking.
“Um… Well… Isla checked out two nights ago.”
“Yeah, I’m well aware she checked out early.”
“Oh.” Millie lowered her hand. “And the second room’s occupant—”
“Is Isla’s best friend.”
“I see… The final bill was sent for both rooms after Isla’s friend checked out earlier today.”
“Good. I apologize for the confusion. I’d forgotten to mention Isla’s early departure.” Worry coursed through my veins as I recalled the night the drunk douchebag had beaten Elsie. Isla would have gone to help her sister had I not been there to stop her.
“No worries. I’m glad everything is accurate.”
“Thank you, Millie,” I mumbled. Closing my eyes, I pinched the bridge of my nose.
Millie cleared her throat to let me know she hadn’t left my office. “The jet is ready when you are, sir.”
I slowly opened my eyes, catching Millie rushing out of my office before I could utter a word. She probably knew more than my family about Isla and me and our relationship.
Millie was a phenomenal secretary and trustworthy. Even so, she’d made it very clear she was on Team Isla. She’d told me once Isla was my person. I didn’t know what she meant, nor had I tried to understand. Then Isla left me, and my life went dark.
During a particularly rough day when nothing had gone right, and I’d raged about everything when Millie had come into my office. She squared her shoulders and said, “Stop being an ass to everyone. You made your life shit. You lost your person. That’s why your life is empty.”
It was then that I’d understood her meaning about Isla being my person.
Millie was priceless and I hated the look of disappointment on her face a moment ago.
I slumped in my chair, pinching the bridge of my nose again. I can’t lose my person.
My phone vibrated on my desk. A notification, I assumed. I forced myself to look. It could be a text from one of my brothers or my sister. No, it was from Isla…
I sucked in a painful breath.
No message, just a picture of Pippa smiling brightly with her fist in her mouth. Those rich, brown eyes pierced my heart, and the fucking dam almost broke open.
I wouldn’t lose my girls and would do whatever it took to bring them home with me and make them mine, permanently.
It was agony to be away from them. In two weeks, my life had dramatically changed and I’d begun to feel whole. Happy and peaceful.
Isla and the baby completed me. I had a family.
I buzzed Millie to have her hunt down my brothers for an emergency meeting in my office tonight, along with my sister. I needed my family’s help and couldn’t be proud or arrogant, believing I could do this on my own.
It was time I humbled myself and sought wisdom and advice from those I trusted most.
This was a massive step for me, one I would to take for Isla and Pippa.