Chapter Thirty-Six Lorenzo
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Lorenzo
T he universe is playing a cosmic joke on me because as soon as we make it to my car after Mass, Richard Ludlow is exiting his only a few spaces away.
I’m not sure why he is attending church when he’s going to end up in hell, but I suppose the same can be said for me. Appearances are everything in this town, so we both play our parts, although I do wish his exterior matched his ugly personality.
He doesn’t have to pass by my car on his way to the church, but he chooses to do so anyway so he can stop and say, “I hear congratulations are in order.”
Lily and I stare at him.
He quickly dismisses me and focuses on Lily. “I’m surprised how quickly your relationship has progressed since you were sleeping with me not too long ago.” He pauses, his gaze flickering over to my face.
Lily’s eyes widen and her mouth opens, but I rope an arm around her and speak before she can.
“Were you expecting me to have some sort of reaction?” I ask, amused by the vein pulsing in Richard’s cheek.
His brows pull together, forming a confused crease between them. “You know?”
“Did I ruin your surprise just now? Do you want a redo so you can have your big moment?”
He gapes like a dying fish. “You really don’t care?”
“It’s my ring on her finger, so why should I?”
“Fuck, man. I wouldn’t be caught dead with a woman who fucked someone else to get back at me. I don’t care how great she is in bed.”
Lily sucks in a sharp breath, and I see red. She teeters on her heels from how quickly I release her and storm over to Richard.
He shrinks into himself as I get closer, only to flinch when I yank on his lapels and force him to stand as tall as his five-foot-nine frame allows.
My hand curls into a tight fist by my side, but I resist the call for bloodlust, choosing to fight with my words.
“Listen here, Dick,” I whisper, so low Lily can’t hear me. “Talk about Lily like that again— Scratch that. If you so much as look or speak to her—even to say please or thank you —I’ll reach out to those connections your family loves to gossip about.”
“W-what?” The word is broken up by his stammer.
I grin. “You know how the saying goes: Every lie has a little bit of truth to it.”
“Are you…threatening to send the mafia after me?”
I pick a piece of invisible lint off his shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
He exhales slowly, right before I rip his false sense of security away.
“I’m promising to, should you so much as take a breath within a hundred feet of my future wife again.”
All the color drains from his face.
I exert an admirable amount of self-control as I step away from him and head back to Lily, who is staring at us with brows that reach toward her hairline.
Richard storms off toward the church. Once he is no longer in our direct line of sight, Lily slumps against the passenger door.
“If he bothers you again, tell me.”
She tilts her head back farther, her brown eyes looking more golden underneath the morning sun. “You can’t protect me from him forever.”
“Watch me.”