Chapter 13
I didn't venture into the Donato territory of Greenich Bay often, even though I knew it like the back of my hand on a map. But today, I came with something on my chest. Enough to test my loyalty to my boss for the first time in my life.
I was thinking of Lara, not Adelaide.
For reasons unknown to me, she'd formed an attachment to Ray. I didn't know what happened between them, but the memory of her red-rimmed eyes wouldn't leave me. I couldn't stop thinking about her taste.
What I harbored loomed too large inside me for simple attraction.
I'd suspected her at first. Adelaide didn't invite new people into her circle, and even after vetting Lara, I couldn't relax.
She set me on edge, and it took me a long time to recognize it was attraction.
I thought if I left it, I'd get over my desire for her.
But the more I learned about Lara, the more I fell for her.
Now I'd tasted the breath that filled her lungs.
In the morning, when I returned to my apartment to catch a few hours of sleep, I thought of her soft lips and fluttering pulse. I thought about Lara until my hand drifted between my legs, and I thought of her some more.
I don't know what I was searching for. Hope our passion burned away any desire she might feel for the playboy heir, Ray.
I wanted her to choose me, the way her mouth had.
She hadn't. Not really. Now I was doing something I'd never done.
Interfering on Lara's behalf, and she wouldn't thank me for it.
I would weather her anger. Maybe it would make a dent in my emotions.
Lara was driving me insane, and she didn't even know it.
I cursed under my breath and checked my watch. I'd gotten here twenty minutes early, and it was almost one. My stomach growled from the scent of smoky meat as music pumped behind the three-man team cooking in the food truck.
"Order up," the taco truck owner called out, and I walked over to get my food.
I tossed a bunch of cash, which made the owner light up.
"Is it always this quiet?" I looked around the truck and the empty lot.
The owner shrugged. Had Ray picked this place to fuck with me? If it tasted as good as it looked, why was no one here?
"Some new clubs opened on the strip over, and all my regulars feel unsafe coming here now. I've been trying to move my spot downtown but…"
I nodded in understanding. That was Orazio territory. The owner would struggle, even if they had no ulterior motives. The invisible lines of the Orazio and Donato empire filtered down to the businesses within them.
"Mr. Donato keeps us in business." The owner's smile widened as a flashy red Corvette screeched into the neighboring lot.
The number plate read Connie. Ray's long legs folded out of the car, and he called out my name with more joy than I expected.
"Jonah, I see you've already met Martin. Best tacos in Greenich Bay, I'll bet on it." Ray slapped a fat roll of bills on the counter. "The usual, please and thank you. Big G, Maria, how are you?"
The other two employees waved and said hello.
"You got it, Mr. Donato." Martin bustled to the side, tossing ingredients together with more gusto than he had mine.
My eyebrows inched higher, and I followed Ray back to my table.
"Careful, one of these chairs has a cracked leg. It's stable enough. Just don't talk like I do." He waved his hands at me to emphasize his point.
The delicious smell of the taco tempted me, and I took a bite. What I wanted to say could wait until I satisfied my rumbling stomach. Ray leaned forward, waiting for my opinion.
Ray didn't threaten me physically. He was lithe and athletic, where I was pure muscle.
I'd seen guys take down stronger, taller men.
But they were scrappy, raised as if every fight was their last. Ray was pristine.
He seemed out of place in the dusty lot, leaning on the brittle, white plastic chairs.
He wore a bomber jacket and black pants.
Muscles rippled under his buttoned shirt. Still, I could snap him in two.
"You come here a lot?" I finished one taco and let the other rest.
I wiped salsa off my lips and sucked the juices off my fingers. The flavor sank into my tongue, and I knew I'd be back again. Martin hurried over with Ray's order.
"Making my day." Ray sighed. "Yeah, I come twice a week at least."
I watched him eat. The unsteady squiggle in my stomach intensified.
"Adelaide wants to know if you tracked down how that Cupid got on the street."
Ray flicked me a look. "Does she?"
"It reflects badly on her reputation. I know you're not smart enough to orchestrate a takedown, but someone in your family might be."
Ray licked some juice off his finger, and I pushed a napkin toward him, not wanting to waste time.
"Ouch. Tell me how you really feel, big guy. Or even better, tell the truth. Adelaide already asked me for an update, and like a good little boy, I told her everything I know. That there's nothing to worry about."
My stomach swooped into ice.
"You know why I wanted to meet with you." The churning in my gut made me want to run, which hadn't happened in years.
Ray's thick, dark eyebrows disappeared under his floppy fringe. He needed a haircut.
"Do I? Here I was thinking this was a friend date."
Friend date? I spluttered at his assumption. There wasn't a world in which we could be anything, let alone friends. My heart tried to hammer its way through my tight ribs, and I focused on getting my words out.
"What you did to Lara is unacceptable."
Ray resembled a toddler with his bottom lip pushed out.
This was a man unused to being disciplined.
I compared him to Adelaide, who I'd seen grow up under the same intense pressure and how strong she was in comparison.
There was no glimmer of that same control as Ray tossed his scrunched-up wrapper to the side.
The music blasting out of the truck jarred with the rising tension.
The chair underneath me creaked as I shifted.
One wrong move and they would splinter into dust. Like this meeting.
"And what exactly did I do?"
"You used her."
"I'd be careful if I were you. A lesser man might be offended." He cocked his head, and his dark gaze flooded with mirth. "Does Adelaide really know you're here?"
I pushed away the beef taco I was saving. Ray pulled his black sunglasses over his eyes and crossed his legs.
"She doesn't," I admitted. "Neither does Lara. She favors you for some unknown reason, and she deserves an apology."
I needed to have this meeting, and Adelaide would understand when I told her about it later.
It was for her best friend, after all. I hadn't stopped thinking about our kiss, not once.
How Lara's soft mouth opened and the heat between her legs.
Her hoarse voice as she begged me to touch her.
She'd been so wet it made my knees shake.
And she cared for Ray. He'd made her cry, and I was here to make him pay for it.
"Bit presumptuous of you, no?"
"Lara deserves it."
Her name hung between us, and as understanding dawned on his face, I realized this was the first time I confirmed I cared about her. My childhood taught me one thing. How to hide in plain sight.
All emotions were a liability when you lived with someone who had a hair trigger.
It didn't matter what raged in my chest, stomach, and mind.
All anyone would ever see was a blank face.
There was no other option. Working for the Orazios only cemented it.
I couldn't sway Adelaide, not when she had an entire city to think about.
I'd tried to shove down what I felt for Lara. But they wouldn't dissipate. The longing grew sharp like the barbed wire around my childhood home's fence.
"You don't get to ask me about her." Ray straightened in the flimsy chair, and the nonchalant ease he had before cracked.
Tension scored lines into his face and his eyes, dark and warm like a storm in summer. I almost didn't recognize him.
"I'm her friend. You might not value her feelings, but I do." I jutted out my chin.
My pulse hammered in my ears at the sudden, dark transformation of the Donato heir.
"You're not her friend," Ray scoffed, waving a hand at my comment.
"Adelaide is her best friend, and she's not down here scolding me.
Admit it, big guy. You're like a fucking lost puppy, following her around with your beautiful eyes.
Why are you even here? Make a move while I'm out of the picture. What are you waiting for?"
"Beautiful eyes?" I choked, and Ray leaned forward to snag my discarded taco.
"Don't be coy. It's infuriating. They're the only part of you that has any expression. Seriously, you want to win over Lara? You need to loosen up and smile occasionally."
Meat spilled into the cardboard container as Ray took a huge bite. What was going on right now? I came here to tell him to sort his shit out and respect her. The memory of her soft moans in my ear came back to me, and a jolt of lust brushed aside all my high and mighty purpose.
"I know you've got this fake thing going with Adelaide, but—"
"None of your business."
"Fine, but Lara isn't another toy for you to play with and discard."
Ray licked a line of thick juice off his fingers, and his gaze sharpened with bitter mirth. He was five years younger than me, just like Adelaide. I'd watched him reject her at nineteen, high on ego and the indefinable energy of youth. But now he looked wrung out, handsome but worn.
Ray's upper lip curled. "I'm a goddamn Donato, or did you forget? Take it in, Jonah." He stood up from the table and flung his arms out with a breathless chuckle. "This ground will belong to me one day. What I do in the meantime is none of your goddamn business. Got it?"
He strode away, and rage gripped my nerves like touching an exposed wire. The plastic table shuddered as I pushed away and followed him. I grabbed Ray's jacket and slammed him into the wall. He let out a grunt, followed by a choked laugh.
"You're a weak, sorry excuse for a leader." I laced my hand around his neck and squeezed, tasting his harried breath as my hold stole it. "Posturing won't work on me because I work for Adelaide. I know a fucking ego when I see it, and you're being a coward."
Ray's throat worked under my firm grip, but he didn't try to fight. His eyes flashed with wild, taunting energy. My stomach flipped.
"It's not cowardice, shit for brains, although I'm touched you even care. I'm doing this for her own safety. This is Greenich Bay, big guy, and you might sit next to your queen, but I don't. I can't even protect myself, let alone Lara."
He raised his hands to where I had mine locked around his throat. He gulped and glared. I processed what he was saying, the desperation that leaked out of the fiery bluster.
I followed his gaze which bounced around. The owner of the taco truck ducked out of sight, caught being nosy. But there was no one else around. The sound of a car horn came from the street over, where there was a strip of clubs. No one was here, which included—the back of my neck prickled.
"Where are your guards?"
Ray's handsome smile became a garish slash, and I tried to release my choking hold, but Ray jammed me closer. Furious breath puffed against my face, and his pupils turned to pricks.
"That's interesting, isn't it? Would you leave your precious Adelaide unguarded? Enough that anyone could choke the life out of them if they wanted?" Ray slammed his back against the wall when I didn't answer.
A strange balance entangled us. My frustrated rage curdled and crawled under my skin now that it had nowhere else to go. He squeezed, taunting me to take him to the edge.
"Adelaide's too important to risk."
"I agree, and her father cares if she lives or dies. Now, what does it say when I'm not afforded the same? If I'm not safe, imagine how dangerous it would be for Lara?"
Ray's nostrils flared, and he slammed his shoulder into me.
I stumbled back, looking around in a daze, as if Donato guards might come streaming out of the shadows in defense of their heir.
Ray stalked past me, muttering under his breath.
I followed him to his flashy red car. When he'd pulled up in it earlier, I thought it encapsulated his nickname so well.
Taillight Ray. The Donato playboy.
A man without care or heart. But now I couldn't help but see how his back bowed with obvious vulnerability. He paused with the door open, leveling a scathing glare that traveled right through me.
"I'll apologize to Lara. But it's better for her if I stay away." He gulped and gathered himself. "Can you tell her that? Tell her I'm sorry for what I did."
I grunted, mystified by what had happened. There was a curl of shame in my stomach for judging him so thoroughly.
"Oh, and Jonah?" Ray jumped into his car. "Look after our girl, big guy."
Ray slammed the door, as if he needed to flee the crack his voice made. The engine roared, and his wheels squealed as he tore out of the lot.
I needed to get out of here and back to Adelaide. Each step I took weighed me down like an anchor, and my boots dragged on the loose gravel.
This felt like a war of hearts, and I didn't know what I was fighting for anymore, or who I was fighting against.