Chapter 1 Matteo #2
I sigh and take a quick peek. He wears an expensive-looking suit, complete with hand-tailored cuff links with the letters “DS” engraved on them.
The man runs his fingers through his luscious brown hair and tilts his head, but then his eyes suddenly connect with mine.
I hold my breath and squeeze my legs together, trying not to react.
His gaze is so intense, it’s almost as if I can feel it in my entire body, and I don’t want him to notice.
Too late.
A hint of a smirk forms on his face, and I swiftly look away.
“Matteo, I’m glad you could finally join us,” Lucio says, the sarcasm dripping off his words.
I roll my eyes. I can’t believe the only interesting person in this club is here for Lucio.
I should have known. This club is riddled with Mafia men, even if the regulars don’t notice.
This is a favorite hub they frequent to make grimy deals and sell their drugs and weapons. Ugh, I can’t wait to get out of here.
Bartolo, one of Lucio’s guards, stares at me from the door, narrowing his eyes as if he wants to warn me not to say a single word, or I’ll face the punishment.
Again. Which means getting locked up in my room for three days, again, until the next time I mess up and break one of Lucio’s invisible rules.
Matteo sits down opposite Lucio with a gentle but dominant swagger, a don’t-give-a-fuck attitude plastered all over his face as he leans back and stares at him with disdain. “You have a lot of balls showing up late,” Matteo responds, narrowing his eyes. “Maybe I should cut them off.”
Jesus.
Lucio’s men immediately tighten their muscles, ready for the attack, but Matteo doesn’t even flinch, and I’m left scrambling for a breath that feels like it never comes.
“I get that you’re pissed off,” Lucio begins.
“Pissed off?” Matteo interjects. “That doesn’t even begin to describe the amount of violence I wish to inflict on you, but go ahead, explain to me why you kept me waiting, with your filthy little henchmen over here.
” He eyes all of the men at the table. “Couldn’t even be man enough to show up on your own,” Matteo huffs.
Lucio draws in a breath. “A certain someone decided to throw a fit in the car on our way here.”
He turns his head and looks right at me, and a lump immediately forms in my throat.
Is he going to throw me under the bus now?
His eyes quickly flit to my neck and the missing jewelry he tried to bribe me with so I’d behave after he just gave me the worst news a girl could ever hear. He turns his head again and says, “My fiancée likes to get under my skin, but I won’t let her.”
Matteo’s brow rises. “Fiancée?”
I gulp when he glances at me, cold beads of sweat rolling down my back when his gaze flitters across my body and back to my face again, as if he’s searching for the reason a girl like me would ever choose to marry a guy like Lucio. But the answer is simple: I didn’t choose.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here,” Matteo says coldly.
“Is she a distraction to you?” Lucio asks, gripping his gun hidden beneath his jacket. I know it’s there. I saw him hide it after he put on his shirt.
My heart picks up speed, throbbing in my chest.
Matteo smirks. “When your blood splatters the wall, it’ll be a distraction for her.”
My face turns white as snow.
Oh my God.
Lucio’s men immediately get up, guns pulled and pointed right at Matteo’s head.
But Matteo stays seated in a nonchalant manner, as if he’s not impressed at all.
He simply sways his wrist back and forth and says, “Tell me … how fast do you think my men will storm in and litter this place along with your bodies in bullets after they find out my heart monitor is not functioning? I’ll wait.
” When there’s no answer, he adds, “Do you think killing me will save you from hell?”
He smiles as Lucio gestures at his men to back down again. “Relax, relax. No one is getting killed here.”
“Very confident words for a man on death’s door,” Matteo responds.
“I realize how badly you have been affected by this situation.”
Matteo suddenly slams his fist onto the table. “Situation? My mother being killed by the likes of you is not a situation.”
So that’s what this is about.
“And I understand,” Lucio responds, “which is why I’m here, to pay for my debt in full.”
He nods at one of his men, who puts a giant box on the table and opens it up right in front of Matteo. But Matteo seems unimpressed despite the fact that there must be at least two million dollars inside that box.
What I wouldn’t do for that kind of money.
But if I got up now and stole it right underneath their noses, a bullet would hit me before I’d even touch the doorknob.
Lucio would never let me get away, especially not with his money, which is why I’m so surprised he’s willing to part with it. Matteo must be one powerful man.
“You think this will be enough for me?” Matteo asks.
Lucio flicks his fingers. Another box just like it is put on the table, double the size, double the amount.
Jesus Christ.
“How much do you want?”
Matteo gets up and grabs a wad of cash, feeling it in his hand. I wonder if he’s counting it.
Suddenly, he sweeps the box off the table along with all the cash.
“Don’t fucking insult me. My mother’s life was worth more than petty dollars.
She was priceless to this world, and you destroyed her light.
I will never get that back.” He grinds his teeth.
“The only thing I want is your fucking head on a platter.”
BANG! BANG!
Loud gunshots emanate through Club Triton, and I gasp in shock.
BOOM!
I close my eyes as rubble, smoke, and fire fill the room and cover it with dust, and I duck for cover on the floor, screaming.
What the fuck is happening?
More guns are pulled. From the corner of my eye, I can see Matteo’s men rushing into the room to protect him.
“Lucio, if this is your doing, your entire family will pay for it with blood,” Matteo says.
But Lucio is on the floor with me, three feet away, scrambling for his gun while his own men are fighting with intruders that storm into the room.
Some guy walks up to Matteo. “It’s an ambush, sir. We have to get out of here now.”
“I will see you soon,” Matteo says.
His eyes briefly connect with mine in the flurry of the attack, but then he’s carted off by his men while they take over the fight with whoever decided to blow the fuse to this negotiation.
But I still can’t help but wonder if he meant those words for Lucio … or me.
There’s panic everywhere, and I take the opportunity to crawl toward the money and pick up some, hoping I may be able to escape with at least enough to save me.
But the second I get up from the floor and try to run off in the heat of the moment, Lucio grabs my ankle.
“You fucking bitch. You’re trying to steal my money while we’re under attack?
Don’t you dare leave me! You thought you could run away with my money? ”
“Let go of me,” I scream.
Suddenly, three guys jump in through the hole created in the wall.
BANG! BANG!
More gunshots are fired. One of them runs toward me, and I shriek as he raises a gun at me.
Thwack.
The metal hits my head so hard, stars fill my eyes, and I fall to the floor, blacking out.