35
“I’m so sorry that your lovely lady wasn’t feeling well, I do hope we will get to see her again soon,” Westeroak’s chief of police said politely as I announced my leave to the group of people I’d been speaking with. She leaned in to speak to me quietly, “Shannon has upped his payments, Lorenzo.” She gave me a meaningful look and I rolled my eyes. I understood clearly what she wasn’t saying. The Wolves were about to gain the upper hand.
“Call me on Monday morning and we will arrange something,” I said with a tight smile. Her loyalties would always lie with the highest bidder, up until now that had been me. Both myself and Shay had plenty of her men in our pockets but having her on side was what really mattered.
“Buonanotte amici miei,” I said to the others and turned to leave. Once I’d stepped out of the ballroom doors, I yanked off my tie and tossed it on the floor. Adonis was sitting on one of the sofas in the lobby, his jaw was clenched and as his eyes met mine, they narrowed into a glare that could slice through ice.
“I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that, Son. If you hadn’t opened your damn mouth she’d have never known.”
He rose to his feet, puffing his chest out, and walked towards me. “You hurt her,” he snarled.
I scoffed. “Why would you care about what I did to her? Maybe you don’t hate her as much as you say you do. Does little Donny have a crush?” I said with a bitter laugh.
He stopped when we were toe to toe, his eyes still on mine. If looks could kill. “You murdered her brother, lied to her, and split her lip, is that how you want us to treat each other? Is that how you want us to treat the people we care about?” he asked in a low hiss, avoiding my little dig about his feelings towards my woman.
I didn’t care what had happened this evening, she was still mine. There wasn’t a chance in hell that I’d let her get away from me now. Three years I’d longed for her to be mine, and I finally had her. I’d removed every obstacle that had been in our way, and I’d convinced her that I was the one she needed. I changed, I tried, for her. She didn’t get to throw it all back in my face now because she’d found out about some stupid little lie that I’d told.
“Sometimes we have to hurt people to give them a better life. When you find a woman like that, you’ll do whatever it takes to give her what she deserves,” I said, then pushed past him towards the main doors.
“How can you give her anything when your actions have pushed her away?” he asked, following after me. “How do you expect to come back from this? You’ve lost her, Enzo. We’ve lost her.”
I spun on my heels to face him. He’d pushed too far. “She has always known what I am. She can handle it. Her absence is only temporary, she will come back,” I snapped then gave him a disgusted look. “I haven’t lost her. The Brotherhood hasn’t lost her. And you never had her in the first place, but go ahead, Adonis, keep telling me that you hate her. It’s starting to become my favourite joke.”
I turned away from him again, pushed through the main doors and strode out into the crisp evening air. The valet was waiting at the bottom of the steps, he looked up at me and quickly hurried away. Moments later my car rolled up to the bottom of the steps. I pushed a random note from my pocket into the valet’s hand and climbed into my car, I had no idea what I’d handed him, but from the look on his face I’d guess it was a lot more than he’d expected.
The passenger door flew open, and Adonis slumped down into the seat. Still glaring at me like he was tempted to put me in an early grave. “She took my bike,” he grunted in explanation and slammed the door.
I winced at the sound as it pushed me further over the edge, and I snarled at him. “One more shitty move, one wrong word, and I will rip you apart, Adonis. You’re walking a damn thin line. Remember your place.”
He glanced my way, a challenge in his eyes, but when they locked on mine, he blinked it away. The boy tested my patience and maddened me beyond all reason, but I couldn’t deny that he would be the perfect replacement for me when I stepped down. I just needed to get my woman locked down and then I could pass it all over. And even though he clearly wanted everything that was mine, I’d keep him alive, for the sole purpose of taking my place, heading up my men.
When we finally made it home, I was more than happy to be getting out of my car. Adonis hadn’t said another word, but his anger towards me clung to the air around us like a bad smell. He hung back when I left the garage and entered the main house. I wasn’t shocked to see that his bike wasn’t back, Mal wouldn’t have come here, she needed time to cool off, and I did too. She had crossed a line when she had attacked me in the bathroom, no real damage of course, but I was not happy about it. Her split lip was a result of me defending myself, Adonis may have been mad that it had happened, but I hadn’t done it viciously.
I made my way up the stairs and into my bedroom, I was exhausted. I checked my phone for any messages, but the only ones I had were from Grey asking if there was anything that I needed him to take care of. He must have been bored, or maybe Deb had kicked him out for the night, again. I rolled my eyes and sighed heavily, the shit we put up with for the women we love.
I typed out a simple message to Mal and pressed send.
Lorenzo
I’ll see you tomorrow morning once you’ve calmed down. Sleep well, amore.
Ignorance. That was how I’d play it. She’d found out the truth, and we wouldn’t speak of it again. She would spend the night being angry about what I’d done, and then she would come home to me, and we would move past it. It might take a while for her to fully let it go, but she would let it go.
I always got what I wanted.
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“Mr D’Angelo, Miss Fields is in the foyer,” Clive announced as he entered the dining room.
“She’s not a visitor anymore, Clive, just tell her where I am, and she can come and find me,” I said, peering over the top of my newspaper at him.
“I did, sir, but she is refusing to move. She says that she will meet with you in your office, or not at all,” he said, and a heavy look of concern covered his face.
I sighed and neatly folded my paper. “Why did I have to fall for such a stubbornly demanding woman?” I asked and Clive offered me a small smile in response, but the worried lines didn’t leave his face. “Tell her I’ll be there in a moment.”
Clive disappeared from the room, and I rolled my shoulders. She wasn’t going to make this easy. Demanding I meet in my office meant one thing, she was here as a Brother. She was going to leave me.
Well, she could try.
The deliciously sweet scent of her hit me the second I walked into my office. She was sitting in a chair with her back to me. She looked tense. I walked up behind her, placed my hands on her shoulders, and began to knead her aching muscles.
“Don’t touch me,” she said in a firm voice and shrugged out of my grip.
I ground my teeth and inhaled slowly before stepping away from her and moving to my chair on the opposite side of the desk. “Still mad at me then, amore mio?”
Her lips parted as if I’d said something shocking. “Yes, Lorenzo, I’m still mad. Of course I’m still mad.” She searched my face. “Did you think I’d get over what you’ve done?” She blinked rapidly and opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish before she spoke again. “I’m never going to be over it. We are done, was that not clear?”
“Okay, you need more time. I’ll book you in to a spa for the weekend,” I said and fired up my computer to make a booking.
“What the fuck,” she spluttered. “No. Lorenzo. We. Are. Done. I’m here because we still have to work together, and I thought we should discuss that.” She twisted her fingers together on her lap. “I would like to leave The Brotherhood, but I know I that I made a promise to you all when I joined. If you dismiss me, I promise that I will go quietly and never breathe a word of what any of us have done. I won’t run, or hide, you’ll be able to find me if I break that promise. If you won’t dismiss me, then I’d like to take a short leave to prepare myself to continue to work with you.” She pulled her lower lip between her teeth and kept her eyes fixed on the desk.
“No,” I said calmly. “We aren’t done, and you’re not leaving. I will not dismiss you, and you will not take leave.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she bit down harder until the skin broke, and blood stained her lips. “I can’t be with you,” she whispered then looked up at me. “I can barely stand to be in this room with you.”
“Mal, you are lucky that I love you enough to keep you alive. Stop this and let’s go and get breakfast.”
She flinched, then a thoughtful look crossed her face.
“So you won’t kill me, because you love me.” One side of her mouth lifted in a slight smile, and I frowned. She rose from the chair and turned towards the door. “Goodbye Lorenzo,” she said and walked away from me.
“Don’t you dare walk out of that door, Mallory,” I bellowed and made my way after her. She didn’t turn back around. She kept her pace steady and walked down the corridor to my front door. Rage filled me as I watched her go and I snapped.
“You stupid fucking slut,” I hissed and she turned her head to look at me. A wicked smile widened my lips. “You can go and fuck your worthless trainer, your pretty boy best friend, and my little prodigy. You can pretend you’re getting away with disrespecting me and leaving me, but I promise you, Mallory, you will end up back here, and you will be with me. You’re mine. Whether you want that or not.”
“But you won’t kill me. If you drag me back I’ll just leave, over and over and over again,” she said softly. “I’m sure you’ll give up eventually.”