Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
“Amen to that,” he says.
I smirk over at him. “Then you’ll find a woman of your own. You’ll stop chasing tail. You’ll settle down. Our children will grow up together.”
“Wait a sec…” He smirks, too, though I can tell it takes tremendous effort. “How soon are you planning on having some little Elios and Ellas?”
“As soon as I can,” I tell him, thinking of my curvy virgin and the texts we sent earlier.
“You’ll have a head start on me, then.”
“It’s not a race,” I tell him. “Anyway, maybe that’ll be good. My sons and daughters can look out for yours.”
He reaches over and claps me on the arm. “Seeing you like this, I’ve got to admit, makes me wonder. If a cold, grumpy, moody prick like you can start smiling because you found the right lady, maybe it’ll work for me, too.”
I laugh. “But you’ve never been cold, moody, or grumpy.”
“True,” he grins, “but I am a prick. You can’t argue there.”
We laugh together, and then one of our men knocks on the glass door to the balcony. We turn. It’s Matteo, one of my father’s oldest and most trusted operators, often working as the doorman to the apartment.
“Russel says he’s ready to make a deal,” Matteo tells us. “It didn’t take long to break him. He’s given us several locations for copies of the video.” When Matteo says video, he looks down respectfully. He’s the only man who knows the nature of it. The other men only know we’re trying to extract information from the dog.
“And the digital copies?” Luca says in disgust.
“He’s given us several passwords to several accounts. I’ve taken the liberty to delete them.”
Luca rubs his hands together. “There’s no way to be sure he’s given us everything.”
“We’ll have to move him, keep him prisoner for a while. Maybe up to a couple of weeks, to be sure.”
“And what, wait for the video to release?” Luca says.
“But if we’ve deleted them, he can’t release it,” I reply.
“I don’t trust the bastard,” Luca growls.
“Neither do I, but he’s taken a beating. He’s taken some cuts, too.”
Darkness flashes across my mind, across my soul. We’ve had to do nasty things to the prick to make him squeal, but I’d do much, much more after what he did to my woman. Nobody gets to threaten her. Nobody gets to torment her. She’s under my protection now.
“He’ll take a bullet, too,” I go on, “and I’ll pull the goddamn trigger.”
“Sir,” Matteo says. “I’m sorry, but is that the wisest move? You’re acting don…”
He’s right. Typically, the don wouldn’t pull the trigger himself. Risking prison time for the man in charge isn’t a good move, but the circumstances are different here.
“He broke into my girlfriend’s house,” I tell Matteo.
Shock registers on Matteo’s face, but he’s too experienced in the life to outright question the don.
I smirk, leaning forward. “You heard me right. He tried to blackmail my woman. He tried to make her life hell. Nobody gets to threaten her. Nobody gets to make her feel weak or small. Nobody.”
Matteo nods, fear flickering in place of the shock as he steps backward, frowning as if he thinks I will leap at him.
“Are you sure you want to advertise this, bro?” Luca asks when he’s gone.
“Why shouldn’t I?” I snap.
“You know what mob guys are like. They hear the don’s found a lady, and it won’t be long until they start talking about wedding bells.”
“Good,” I tell him. “That’s exactly what I want. If it weren’t for this crap with Russel, I’d marry her right now.”
Luca leans forward with a slight smile on his face. “Good for you, man. Good for you. Okay, time to roll out?”
“We’ll hit the physical locations,” I reply, nodding. “Then we’ll transfer Russel to one of our safe houses in the ’burbs. It’ll be simple enough to keep him there until we’re done with him. In the meantime, we’ll need to get ourselves out of that shitty stadium deal. I’m not touching anything that has Russel’s prints on it.”
Luca lets out a breath between clenched teeth. “That’s a lot of work.”
I reach over and clap him on the arm. “Rather be at the bar?”
“No. Hell no. It’s time I took after my big brother and put that hard work in.”
Luca stands, enters the apartment, and prepares for the word ahead. I take out my phone and send a text. After this, I’ll have to put my phone away and make a conscious effort not to contact my woman. She’s so distracting in the best way, constantly making me want to forget about everything but texting her and being with her.
I love you, I type, then bite down so hard my jaw hurts. Is it too fast? Is there such a thing as too fast for us?
Thinking about the future, I wonder what our kids would say if they knew I’d told their mother this so soon after meeting her. If we want—need—each other, nobody else… If even the idea of being with somebody else is bizarre to us… If we’re ready to commit our lives completely, isn’t that love? If not, what is love?