Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
VIOLET
We spent a good portion of the evening on the bike, just riding through the mountains surrounding Vegas, enjoying being together. We stopped back at the penthouse to change clothes and freshen up before going to Mateo’s club.
“Please don’t fight tonight,” I say as I squeeze Mateo’s hand. We’re walking into the building, and he stops short, turns to me, and nudges my chin up so he can see my eyes.
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“Okay.” I swallow hard and try to look down, but he keeps my chin up and then slides his hand around my throat and leans in close.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um, nothing.”
“No way, Savage, you’re never afraid to speak your mind, don’t start now. What’s up?”
I lick my lips and take a deep breath. “I just . . . it’s dangerous, and I know you can handle yourself, but—”
“You’re worried about me.”
He says it like it surprises him.
“Of course I am. You’ve grown on me.”
“No need to worry.” He kisses my lips and then pulls back. “No fights for me tonight. Let’s go see what we see.”
I nod, and with my hand firmly in his, we walk in, and the first person I see is Snake.
“Does he only work here?”
“Yes, he’s my head of security here. If I need him in other places, I can pull him out to help, but this is his full-time gig.”
I nod and nibble my lip as we approach the brawny man.
“Report,” Mateo snaps out, his Mafia voice firmly in place.
“No sign of her,” Snake says. “We have men spread out through the entire arena, in plain clothes. She hasn’t been here.”
Mateo nods, and I sigh in disappointment.
“Thanks for looking,” I say to Snake, who nods at me but won’t look me in the eyes.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Your guys don’t make eye contact,” I say after we’ve walked away.
“It’s out of respect. If they did, I’d have to remove the organs from their bodies.”
I pull up short and scowl up at him. “That’s a bit extreme.”
“You’re mine. Because you’re mine, that makes you a queen, Violet. And they’ll treat you that way, or there will be consequences.”
You’re a queen.
Well, okay then.
We take a circle around the arena, but I don’t see Rose anywhere.
“Let’s go to the control room and see what we can see there,” Mateo says and leads me to a door away from the crowds.
The room is about half the size of his office, and it looks like a NASA control center.
Huge monitors cover the wall, all of them displaying a different camera feed. There’s a long desk in front of them with several computers, and the only person in the room is a woman.
A beautiful, bombshell of a woman.
And my back immediately goes up.
She’s not sitting, she’s standing behind a tall desk, her fingers clicking on the keyboard.
How she’s able to type so fast with nails that long, I have no idea.
She’s in a red skintight bodysuit that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.
Her dark hair is loose around her shoulders, and when she hears the door open, she glances at us and then does a double take when she sees me.
“Pandora is my general manager,” Mateo says as he wraps his arm around my shoulders and kisses the top of my head. “Pandora, this is Violet. She’s mine. Whatever she needs, you make it happen.”
The other woman lifts a perfectly stenciled eyebrow. She doesn’t smile. She doesn’t even say hello.
“Is she mute?” I ask Mateo, not taking my eyes off the other woman.
Her eyes narrow, but Mateo chuckles.
“No, she’s just moody. Come on, let’s look at these screens.”
He leads me over and stands next to me, threading his fingers through mine. He never stops touching me, and I fucking love it.
“These six are the screens you’ll want to pay attention to,” he says, pointing to the ones on top. “These others are on bets and behind the scenes.”
“Why is she here?” Pandora asks, trying to sound bored.
She just sounds jealous.
“Because I want her here,” Mateo says, turning to the other woman. “Watch yourself, Dora.”
She rolls her eyes, and I can’t help but blink at her and then turn to Mateo. If literally anyone else were to do that, I don’t doubt he’d put a bullet in their head.
“Later,” is all he says, and we turn back to the screens.
“Whore,” I hear her whisper behind me, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can hear her because she’s closest to me.
I choose to ignore that one.
I’m busy scanning the screen in the top middle when I hear her whisper something else.
“Fucking gold digger.”
And now, I can’t control myself anymore. Because I’m no doormat.
“Do you have a fucking problem?” I demand as I turn to face Pandora. She doesn’t even look surprised, but now she does smile.
“Who, me?”
“Call me a whore one more time. I fucking dare you.”
“What the—”
“I’ve got this,” I say to Mateo, pressing my hand on his chest, without looking away from the shit stirrer in front of me. “You want to take a go at me in that cage, bitch? Because you don’t fucking scare me. I will kick your ass. You’ve picked on the wrong fucking girl.”
“I think you’re a waste of time,” Pandora says, looking me up and down. “You won’t hold his interest for longer than a week, just like the others. So the fact that he’s asked all of us to do you a fucking favor is absolutely laughable.”
“I don’t want you to do shit for me.”
“Doesn’t matter what you want. Only matters what he wants.” She glances at him, and now her expression changes. Her eyes widen, and she swallows hard as she goes just a little sickly green.
I turn and see that Mateo has his gun pointed at Pandora’s head, his face a mask of pure fucking rage.
“You’ve crossed one too many lines, Dora.”
“I didn’t know she was that important to you,” she insists, her voice full of desperation. “Please, I’m sorry, I—”
“I’d really rather kick her ass than have you shoot her,” I say conversationally, but then lift a shoulder. “Have you fucked her?”
Pandora licks her lips and her cheeks darken, and there it is.
“Oh, you did. That’s why you’re so fucking jealous.
I get it, he’s an amazing fuck.” I nod and then step closer to her.
“But do you want to know what’s even better?
He takes such good care of me, it’s insane.
Anything I want or need, it’s mine. And I don’t need much.
He listens to me, which is rare in men these days, and he plays with my hair, and that’s one of my favorite things, ever.
His penthouse is so freaking comfortable and—”
“You took her home?”
I grin, enjoying myself. “Yeah. He did. I live there now, actually.”
She shakes her head in disbelief.
“And I’m not someone who takes pleasure in seeing another woman hurt. It really pisses me off, if I’m being honest. Because all you had to do was be cordial. Not my friend, just decent. Instead, you called me names, and I don’t like that.”
“Just tell me what you want me to do with her,” Mateo says, his voice hard and devoid of emotion.
“But we go way back!” Pandora rushes to him and grabs his arm, and I lift an eyebrow.
“You’ll want to take your hands off my man before I remove them from your body.”
Christ, I’ve been hanging out with gangsters for too long.
“I want her gone, but not dead,” I reply. “I don’t like you having women around that you used to fuck. Turns out, Pandora’s not the only jealous one in this room.”
“Go,” Mateo says.
“But, I live here, and I—”
“Not anymore. You’re done, Pandora.”
Her jaw drops in shock. “This business will crumble without me, and you’re going to throw away a decade of friendship for this little slut?”
He’s fast.
He rushes her, has her off her feet by the throat and pinned to the wall in a heartbeat.
She’s struggling to breathe, pulling at his arm, but there’s no way she can move him.
“She’s everything. You’re nothing, Pandora. I’m about three seconds from snapping your neck. Would you prefer that?”
She barely shakes her head no, and he drops her, and then she scurries out the door, holding her neck as she goes.
With his eyes on mine, still so angry that I wonder if he’s mad at me, he pushes a button, and seconds later, Snake walks in.
“Get Steven in here.”
“It’s his night off.”
“Not anymore. Pandora won’t be back. Have her and all her shit escorted off my property.”
“Yes, boss.”
Mateo grabs my wrist and pulls me behind him, out the door and down the hall to his office, where he slams the door, locks it, and cages me in against it.
“I won’t apologize.”
“No. You won’t. That was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
He kisses me so hard and violently, I’m pretty sure my lip is bleeding when he lifts me and carries me to his desk, where he sets me on my feet, spins me around, and bends me over.
Mateo manages to get my jeans over my hips and down to my thighs, and the next thing I know, he’s pounding into me, fucking me so hard that the fronts of my thighs slam against the desk, and it’ll leave bruises.
“Fucking. Mine,” he says through gritted teeth. “I love your damn spine, Savage.”
I push back against him, trying to give it back to him, and then his hand is in my hair and he pulls me up against his chest.
“I want you to always stand up for yourself like that,” he growls against my neck before biting it. “Always. But the next time someone disrespects you in front of me, I will blow their fucking head off. I don’t care who it is.”
“And the next time you introduce me to one of your old fuck toys, I’ll rip her fucking eyes out.”
He smiles and kisses me hard before pushing me back down on the desk, smacking my ass so hard that it must glow, and fucking me until we’re both crying out with our release.
Finally, he pulls out and then tugs my jeans and panties back up and gathers me into his arms so he can kiss me, softer this time.
“For the record, I would have paid good money to watch you kick Pandora’s ass in the cage.”
“I would have won.”
“Oh, that wasn’t even a question, Savage.”
I chuckle as I nuzzle his chin with my nose, and he kisses my forehead. The frenzy of the hot desk sex over.
“So, you really weren’t going to fight tonight?” I ask softly and pull back so I can see his face.
His lips press together in a grim line, and he lets out a breath as he smooths my hair away from my face. His brown eyes look almost vulnerable, which is something I haven’t seen much of when it comes to this man.
“You can tell me anything,” I say, echoing words that he once said to me, and his lips tip up in a small smile.
“For a long time, fighting is what grounded me. I’d get so worked up about what was happening with my brothers, with my business.
Frustrated, angry.” He swallows, and his eyes, usually full of so much humor, sober, and I realize that I’m getting a window into the deepest parts of this man.
“I’d pummel the shit out of men, trying to calm that beast inside of me that wanted blood.
Violence. But since the moment I saw you, I didn’t need the fight anymore. You soothe me.”
“Maybe it’s just the good sex. You’ve traded one activity for another.”
He doesn’t crack a smile as he slowly shakes his head and brushes his fingers through my hair.
“It’s you. I’m always on high alert and have to be because of who I am and the targets always placed on my back.
But when I’m with you, whether we’re having a conversation like this or I’m fucking you six ways to Sunday, the noise quiets and I can breathe.
And that’s how I know, without a doubt, that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you by my side until I take my last breath.
Because you might be the one thing in this world that I can’t live without.
Turns out, I can live without the fights, and I know I never have to live without my brothers. But you—”
Well, holy shit.
“I’m right here.” I cup his face and boost onto my toes so I can brush my lips over his. “I’m not going anywhere.”
With a sigh so deep that it’s as though the weight of the world just left his shoulders, Mateo pulls me in for a hug that steals my breath. Not because it’s too tight, but because it’s so . . . tender.
I love this man so much that it almost surprises me. I haven’t known him for long, but he’s quickly become the center of my world.
His phone starts to ring and he sighs.
“That’s Julian’s tone,” he says as he pulls the phone out of his pocket. “Hey.”
His eyes narrow and drop to mine.
“Are you in the city? Good. Yeah, we’ll be there shortly.”
I watch as he shoves his phone back in his pocket.
“Do I get to know what’s going on?”
“Julian asked us to meet with him at his place here in town,” he replies. “So we should head that way.”
His face is almost pensive.
“Are you okay?”
“There will always be things that come up that interrupt these quiet moments with you. It just is what it is. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be times that I resent the fuck out of it.”
“We’ll have lots of quiet moments, Mateo.”
He nods once and kisses my forehead again. “Let’s go.”