21. Cole
TWENTY-ONE
COLE
I glared at the prick who sat at our table, eating the breakfast my Rosebud had just made. At least he looked like he’d been hit by a bus. That brought me some comfort. The asshole couldn’t even keep his eyes open fully.
Fox looked similar.
The two must have had a good night. While I loved my guys to have a good time, I didn’t like Fox doing it with Ass Hat. They were too close. It wasn’t sitting well with me.
I pulled Rosalie down onto my lap and buried my face in her neck as a way to both distract myself and irritate the fucker at my table.
She melted against my body, bringing me some relief. If she’d tried to escape as a way to preserve Ass Hat’s feelings, I’d have been pissed and probably would have drowned the fucker in his glass of orange juice.
“Mm, you smell good,” I murmured into her ear. “I could just eat you up.”
In answer, she put some pancake onto my fork and fed it to me before planting a kiss on my cheek.
I glanced at Ass Hat, feeling pretty goddamn smug. He shot me a sour look before going back to his breakfast.
That’s right, fucker. She’s mine.
“What time do we need to go?” E called out.
He’d spent the evening with our girl, and by the looks of it, it had brightened his mood significantly.
I’d watched him fuck her on Enzo’s camera.
He’d taken her several times last night, which I approved.
I was going to high-five him the moment Ass Hat was gone.
In case I didn’t get a chance to, I’d left a celebratory cucumber in his underwear drawer. I’d even drawn a smiley face on it.
“Where are you going?” Rosalie asked, frowning.
Enzo shot an agitated look at E.
“Don’t worry about it, baby.” I kissed her throat, hoping to distract her. It was bad enough that E had protested this morning about the meeting. I knew if he hadn’t been in such a good mood, the entire endeavor would have gone south quickly.
He hated Celeste, but he wasn’t the only one. Unfortunately, her father was a big deal, and we needed shit from him, so if you needed shit, sometimes you had to eat shit.
“We’ll leave this evening. You have time to rest more if you need to,” Enzo said.
“If I have to do this, I want to get it over with now.” E rubbed his eyes.
“E, stop.” I shifted Rosalie on my lap. “We don’t talk about this shit in mixed company.”
Ass Hat scoffed. “What? You mean the fact that you’ve got to go meet with some asshole for shit that’s only going to drive you deeper into this world? A world that is going to take everything you love away from you? That secret?” He tossed his fork down and glared at Enzo. “Did you even tell her?”
Rosalie looked from Ass Hat to Enzo and made to get up.
He was making everything so much fucking worse.
I tightened my hold on her to keep her in place.
She didn’t need to say a word because I felt her small body tremble with her anger.
Ass Hat was putting shit out into the open, which would only make her think we were keeping more secrets from her.
We planned on telling her we had a meeting with Vander Veer today after Ass Hat left.
“Enzo, what’s he talking?—”
I put my hand over her mouth to silence her. She fought against me, sending Ass Hat to his feet, his chest heaving as I restrained her against my body.
“Don’t fucking handle her like that,” Ass Hat barked at me, his face reddening with rage.
I tightened my hold on Rosalie, desperate for Ass Hat to make a move at me because once he did, all rules were off.
Rosalie whimpered against me from how hard I was holding her.
“Cole,” Fox shouted, getting to his feet. “You’re hurting her.”
“Then come take her from me, Foxy,” I snarled, knowing he knew if she weren’t between me and Ass Hat, we’d create a war right on the kitchen table.
“Anson, a word,” Enzo said in a calm voice I recognized as his or else voice. Good. Maybe Enzo would finally shoot his ass.
“Did you tell her?” Ass Hat snarled again, his hands balled into tight fists. “If you tell her, I’ll have several words with you.”
Rosalie tried to elbow me, which only made me tighten my hold on her.
“Rosebud, baby, I love you to pieces, but if you don’t relax, something bad might happen to your friend,” I whispered into her ear.
She stopped her struggle and sagged against me, her chest heaving.
“That’s my good girl,” I cooed into her ear. “I’d like it more if you continued to struggle, though, because I really want to tear his head off.”
She brought her elbow back again at my words, making me huff out a gasp of air at the sharp pain.
I loved it when she was rough.
“Anson, my office,” Enzo snapped.
“Fuck your office.” Anson turned to Rosalie. “I made a deal with Enzo to bring him information on Bianca. If I found out her whereabouts, Enzo agreed to let me join you guys.”
Motherfucker…
“Anson,” Enzo warned.
“Don’t say another word, prick,” I said, trying to control Rosalie again.
She somehow brought her elbow down in her squirming and caught me in the balls, making me loosen my hold.
It was all it took for her to dart away from me and closer to E, who didn’t waste a moment getting to his feet to take her hand.
“Ani? What are you talking about?” Rosalie asked, her voice trembling.
“I got the information. I hesitated with it because I knew what this life was like and knew that if Bianca had found a way out, it should be her choice to return. In my hesitation, Drake brought her back.”
Rosalie looked from Anson to Enzo. “Is that true?”
Enzo stared at her as I adjusted my sore boys. Fucking hell, what a mess. Fox was going to get it once this shit was over. He never should have let Ass Hat in the house. He could have left him on the curb with the rest of the trash for raccoons to piss on for all I cared.
“You were going to let him join?” Rosalie pressed.
“Sunshine,” Enzo started.
“No,” she snapped. “You don’t get to decide, Lorenzo De Luca! I fucking decide! You don’t go behind my back and make life-altering decisions for me. For any of us! You have no right deciding who I can love!” She took a dangerous step forward as silence descended.
I cast a quick look from Enzo to Fox, who didn’t seem at all upset at this sudden turn of events. In fact, he stared at her in awe. E, however, looked like he was going to throw up.
And Enzo.
I figured he might fly into the same violent rage I was treading near. The moment my balls stopped aching and the vomiting feeling I had washed away, it was game on.
“I have given you more power than you deserve,” she said to Enzo. “Because I trusted you with it. All you’ve been proving to me lately is that I was wrong.”
“Rosalie,” Enzo started gruffly. “It’s business?—”
“My life, my feelings, aren’t a fucking business deal you can barter with!” She stalked forward and stopped in front of him.
“I understand that. I needed the information?—”
I didn’t think she had it in her. Apparently, neither did anyone else because the crack of her slap across Enzo’s face reverberated around the room, making us all stare dumbfounded as Enzo’s head snapped sideways from her hit.
She wasted no time moving forward to speak in Enzo’s ear, her words not for us.
It didn’t matter, though.
I knew my Rosebud well enough to know when she was playing hardball.
My balls knew it, too.