Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Caitlyn refused to be driven to work, telling me it was only two blocks away and she’d rather walk.
So I walked right alongside her, something she wasn’t impressed with either.
The woman is hot and cold. She is fighting with herself to let me in.
But I know I’ll win her over. There isn’t any other option.
“What are you doing?” Caitlyn asks when I follow her inside.
“I’m grabbing a coffee. This is a diner, right? You serve coffee here?” I ask her.
“Well, yeah, but probably not the kind you’d like,” she whispers.
“I’ll take my chances.” I move past her and sit at the bar top.
A waitress looks me up and down, something I’m used to. “What can I get you, handsome?” she asks.
“I’ve already given my order to Caitlyn,” I reply, watching as my little sun walks around the counter. She looks at the other waitress with disdain. There she is, the woman I knew was in there somewhere. There’s a jealousy in her eyes that she can’t hide.
“Just coffee?” Caitlyn says.
“Yes, thank you,” I tell her.
Caitlyn places a mug in front of me and then fills it with black liquid I’m sure is meant to be coffee. She’s right. I won’t like this shit, but I’ll swallow it down. I figured I had to order something while I wait.
I sent a message to my cousin, who should be here any minute. I’m going to have someone stationed inside this diner for Caitlyn’s entire shift. We’re in one of the worst parts of the city, and I’m not about to leave her without security.
About fifteen minutes later, Dante walks in with his wife. He leads her over to a booth. I’m still trying to figure out how that smart-ass managed to snag her. Josie’s way out of my cousin’s league.
I approach his side of the table and greet him in Italian. “Hey, Thanks for coming.” I don’t care if Caitlyn realizes I’m having her watched, but I don’t need her to know that the people doing the watching are family. Not yet.
“So, you went and found yourself a wife. Alessandro owes me five grand. We took bets on how much longer it would be until you fell. I won.” Dante smirks. “Then again, I always do.”
“Whatever. Not a single hair on her head is to be touched,” I tell him.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” he says, switching from Italian back to English. “Have you met Josie? She’s a student at NYU, studying to get her PhD. It’s our first date.” Dante smiles at his wife.
These two have some weird game they like to play where they pretend to be other people. They’ve always done it.
“Keep me out of your fucking foreplay, Dante. And don’t leave until Orlando gets here,” I tell him.
“Done.” He nods his head.
I return to the counter and drop a hundred-dollar bill in front of Caitlyn. I lean over the top till I’m a breath away from her. “I’ll be back at seven. Have a great day.”
“Wait! Let me get you change,” she says, grabbing the cash and stepping towards the register.
“Keep it. You do take tips here, right?” I smirk and walk out.
Once I’m back at my car, I head towards the Petrov building in the city.
I have an office there, and the computer systems I need to find out everything there is to know about Caitlyn.
I have the photograph I took of her driver’s license and the address listed on it.
It won’t take me long before I find out who she’s running from.
Who is going to find themselves in my fucking basement.
It’s like taking candy from a baby. I have her entire life in front of my eyes within twenty minutes. Most of it, I’m not interested in. What I am interested in is the man she’s been living with for the past three years. And why the fuck she didn’t leave him sooner.
Henry Sawyer, twenty-five years old. A lawyer, working at a firm in California. She came all the way across the country to get away from this asshole.
My office door opens, and my father walks in before taking one of the chairs opposite me. He doesn’t say a word. Just stares, waiting for me to fill the silence.
After a good two minutes of neither of us speaking, I get annoyed and grunt. “Mom told you, didn’t she?”
“You should have told me,” he says.
“It’s new.” I lift a shoulder. “I just fucking met the girl yesterday, and Mom has me married off already.”
“You had a woman in your home. What are we supposed to think, Neo?” My father knows I don’t take anyone to my home.
“She had nowhere else to go.”
“You and I both know there are at least three empty Petrov apartments in this city you could have put her up in.” He smirks. “So, what do we know about her? I suspect that’s what you’re doing here?”
“She was mugged yesterday, smacked around a bit. She just moved to the city from California. A fact she hasn’t shared yet. And she’s running from what I suspect is an abusive ex.”
“Baggage,” my father says.
“Could be worse. She didn’t stab me and leave me for dead.” Which is something my mother did in fact do to him when they first met.
“Good times.” My dad smiles like it’s a fond memory.
“Don’t you have two other children who could actually benefit from your interference?” I question him.
“The drop has moved forward. Two days. I need you to make sure it all goes smoothly. Is it going to be a problem?” he asks, instead of answering.
“When have I ever not made sure everything goes smoothly?”
“You’ve never had the distraction of a woman you actually care about before.”
“Again, I met her yesterday. Don’t go buying wedding gifts just yet.” I shake my head.
“Well, I’m not getting any younger, and you do need an heir.” My dad shrugs. “Bring Caitlyn to the house. I want to meet her.”
I laugh. I love my family. I really do. But what is it about the fact that I just met the woman yesterday that they don’t understand? Sure, I’ll bring her to my insane Russian mafia family’s compound, because nothing is going to scare her away quicker than seeing a house surrounded by armed men.