Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
Matteo
I had called her a baby killer, I hadn’t meant to, but I had said it anyway, and then I’d watched as her chin had wobbled. She hadn’t cried, but she had wanted to because my words had hurt her.
Good.
She deserved to be hurt. If she had killed my baby, she deserved so much worse than a few names being thrown in her direction.
Of course, there was the possibility that the baby hadn’t been mine at all or that she had lost it naturally. And if she had lost it naturally. If she’d had a miscarriage—
I let the thought unfinished as I pulled into the underground car park at the club. But I didn’t get out of the car. I couldn’t until I got myself under control.
I’d called this meeting, but that didn’t mean I was happy to be going there because…
Well, because I didn’t want to walk in there with my thoughts all jumbled.
If she had lost a baby, our baby, because of stress or something I had said, then I was the asshole.
Which seemed on par with my personality around her.
The whole hot and cold thing was getting tiring even for me, but I couldn’t help myself.
Hopefully, tonight would make things clearer to me. I’d go in there, and they would have answers for me.
Taking a deep breath, I exited, but I didn’t bother locking the car door. No one would touch it. They wouldn’t dare. Here I was king. It was just at home that I didn’t demand the same level of respect.
Walking through the club proper, I pushed my way into the much quieter back room, a cloud of cigar smoke enveloping me as all eyes turned toward me.
“Matteo,” someone called out, and I lifted my hand in a silent greeting before taking my seat at the head of the table.
Seven pairs of eyes swiveled to meet mine. And the atmosphere in the room shifted from almost light-hearted to heavy.
I sighed. “Thanks for coming.” They were the only pleasantries they were going to get from me. “What do you have for me?”
“Where do you want us to start?” A chuckle rumbled through the table.
Another sigh. “Best start with the good stuff first.”
At least that way I could concentrate on that and not what was going on back home.
The man opposite me at the long table took a breath and then went off about something about our hold on the docks. There had been more than usual raids on our warehouses, and it was starting to affect profits.
I barely heard them. This definitely wasn’t good news.
“But we have friends in government. Well, you are about to. It’s been expressed that if you bring up your wedding to Francesca, her father would be more than happy to clean this mess up for you.”
My head snapped up. “My wedding—” Shaking the shock out of my voice, I told myself to calm down. I had known this was going to happen. I’d even agreed to the match, and it wasn’t like Franny wasn’t the ideal bride for me.
Contractual marriages had been going on in our world from the beginning. Matches weren’t meant to be about love. They were about power and alliances.
I knew this. So why did my thoughts instantly go back to Sophia and her damn doe eyes and wobbly chin?
“Unless you have changed your mind.”
“I haven’t,” I snapped. “Arrange a meeting and…”
“We just thought because of Sophia coming back into your life that plans might have changed.”
My head swiveled around to glare at the man who had spoken. “What do you mean by that?”
There was more anger in my voice than I meant to show.
“Nothing boss.” He held out his hands like he was about to ward off a blow, and it was only then that I realized that my hands had clenched into fists on the table top. I forced myself to release the tension.
Taking out my anger here wouldn’t do any good.
“Tell me.”
“It’s just,” another said, “look.” He sucked in a breath, almost like he was gathering his courage around him. “Most of us have been with you for a long time. Since the beginning. We know how distraught you were when Sophia disappeared.”
“Is that so?” Steepling my hands under my chin, I speared him with my eyes. Only he didn’t look away.
“It’s so. And for those of us who knew you before,” he shrugged, “we all knew there was something between you two. Everyone knew.”
Everyone knew? I’d heard that already. Gio’s men had said the same. Again, the cold, uneasy feeling twisted my gut.
“Did Gio know?”
Seven sets of eyes looked away, and the twisting in my stomach intensified.
“There was a call…”
“A call?”
“To your hotel room the night her parents were murdered. It took us a while to trace those calls and messages because it was so long ago, but,” straightening his shoulders, he met my eyes, “Gio made several calls to his sister that night. Only one was picked up.”
“That doesn’t mean anything. Their parents had just been murdered. Of course, he would have called her repeatedly.” I shook my head. This wasn’t helpful. Nothing he was saying was out of the ordinary.
“He also made a call to your room.”
“Wait, what? No call came through…” But of course it hadn’t. I’d been pretty clear about not being disturbed. Plus, we both had our cell phones for emergencies.
“Shit.” I blew out a breath. He knew. Six years ago, Gio had known exactly where Sophia was and who she was with.
And if he knew about that then…
“There was also a car waiting for her when she left.”
Yeah, he knew. He had probably known for a while, and that changed things, but it didn’t mean Sophia was innocent. She might have been in on the plan.
What plan? a small sarcastic voice whispered in my brain. Sophia had absolutely nothing to gain back then. The only person who did was Gio.
Pinching the skin between my eyebrows, I tried to fight back the headache that was already forming.
“Do we know anything more about their parents’ death?” I didn’t know what made me ask it. But deep in my gut, I just knew that was the key to it all.
“We know everything there is to know there.”
There was the sound of shuffling papers and the click of a phone being used. I grimaced back. I hated it when they didn’t put their keyboard on silent. The click clack grated on my already frayed nerves.
“The only thing we didn’t know before was this.” The phone was slid across the table to me. For a long time, I stared at it without understanding it.
“What am I looking at?” I finally asked.
“Ticket confirmation. For a flight to London Heathrow.” There was a long pause. “In Sophia’s name.”
“Well, she had to get there somehow. Why wasn’t this found before?”
“Because the flight was booked a month before their parents’ death. On Gio’s credit card.”
My head snapped up with such force that my neck cracked painfully and loudly. “A month before?” I hissed.
Now that could be because she was in on some plan I didn’t understand, or it could be because—
“Did she get on that flight voluntarily?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“I’ve spoken to an old cook from their home. He said there were a lot of arguments between Sophia and Gio. She cried a lot. Which is understandable, considering, but,” he paused, “in his words, Sophia was forced to leave. Her brother was heard threatening her.”
I jumped up off the chair.
It all went back to Gio. Sophia hadn’t left of her own volition. Her brother had forced her away. He had filled her head with lies about my involvement in her family’s death.
What else had he forced her to do? If he had known we were together, would he have forced her into aborting our child?
My hands screwed into fists and smashed down into the table. No one flinched.
Had Gio, my former best friend, whom I had loved as a brother, been plotting against me for years?
Was he still using his sister as a pawn in a game neither one of us knew the rules to?
“I need to speak to Sophia.”
Silence greeted me.
“What do you want to do about the Franny situation?” someone called out to me as I headed toward the door,
I paused.
What did I want to do about Franny? I had promised to marry her. It was a good match, and would make my position in the city even stronger.
“Nothing yet.” I sighed. “The deal still stands.” I walked away without looking back, my whole body vibrating with tension.
That tension was still making me shake when I stepped back into the apartment and found her sitting on the edge of the sofa and staring out at the city lights.
“You’re still awake.”
She didn’t answer me.
“Why are you still awake, Sophia? It’s late.”
Finally, she turned around. Her eyes were red and puffy. Maybe from lack of sleep, probably from crying. Again, my heart gave a painful pang.
“I couldn’t sleep.” Standing, she headed toward the kitchen. “I didn’t expect you back tonight. None of your…”
Wrapping an arm around her waist, I drew her to a stop. “Can we not argue, Sophia?”
“Isn’t that what we do these days?”
I couldn’t help it. I pressed against her, lifting her hair so I could nuzzle into her neck. As always, she smelled like happiness.
But tonight it was short-lived. Had Gio taken away my happiness from me six years ago, had he taken away my chance at a family with the only woman I had ever loved?
“It doesn’t have to be the only thing we could do, Sophia.” My lips brushed against her skin, and a familiar throb began to build.
She stiffened. “Of course I forgot that’s all I’m good for now, isn’t it?”
“Fuck Sophia.” I stepped away, a frustrated growl rumbling from my chest. “I don’t even know where to begin with you.”
Pretty brown eyes flashed. “What is that meant to mean?”
“It means you are hiding something from me, Sophia. I think…” My eyes scanned over her. The T-shirt brushed her knees, and I realized with a start, that it was mine.
She had sat here and cried wearing my shirt, because my words had hurt her, but she wanted to be close to me.
“I think,” I repeated quietly. “You are still hiding something from me. And I want to know what it is.”
“I am not hiding anything,” she snapped too quickly and with too much passion in her voice.
She sounded guilty, I realized. Guilty and panicked. I knew it, all of my instincts were right. She was hiding something, and it was getting harder and harder for her to lie to me.
“If Gio is making you do something, then tell me, and I can put an end to it.” I took a step toward her, and she took a step away. Like she was afraid of me.
Or maybe she was afraid of what would happen if she let me hold her.
“He’s not making me do anything.” Again, she said it too quickly. “I’m going to bed.”
I followed after her.
“Alone, Matteo,” she snapped.
“Like hell you are, Sophia. We need to talk.” I caught her around the waist again.
“I have nothing to say to you.” She struggled against me.
“Then don’t talk.” Stepping into the room, I kicked the door shut behind us. Another step, and I threw her down on the soft mattress. She bounced once and then angrily turned over.
I launched myself onto her, trapping her with my body and making a cage with my arms on either side of her shoulders.
“Just fucking listen instead.”