Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77579 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Despite all the fear and uncertainty, I was asleep within moments.
And if it wasn’t for my phone dinging on the nightstand, I probably would have slept straight through.
I reached for it with closed eyes, having to force my heavy lids open to blink at the screen, seeing a text from an unfamiliar number.
Get rest tonight. I’ll be in touch tomorrow. - CC
It didn’t take a genius to know who CC was.
Cosimo Costa.
So I guess I was wrong.
I was at least somewhere at the top of his priority list if he was going to make time for me again so soon.
Hope bloomed as I said a silent prayer that I could get back to my life sooner rather than later.
But it wasn’t hope that had a strange, warm feeling coursing through me as I drifted back off to sleep.
Oh, no.
It was a set of dark eyes.
And that deep, smooth voice.
And the way his simple, casual touch had created sparks.
In my dreams, those sparks became fires.
Ones that threatened to consume me completely.
CHAPTER SIX
Cosimo
“Didn’t expect you to willingly show up here again so soon,” Lorenzo said as I walked into his Brownstone, finding him walking from the kitchen with a coffee in his hand.
“No offense, but I don’t want to be here either,” I said, getting a smirk out of him. “Oh, hey, Milo,” I said when Emilio came from the direction of the kitchen too.
It didn’t escape me that he was suddenly wearing one of his oversized belt buckles again.
“Cos,” he said, brows furrowing.
“Heard you have a girl now,” I said.
“Avery,” he agreed, and there was a ghost of a smile on his lips at just the mention of her name. “And two cats,” he said, shaking his head a bit.
“A Lombardi,” I said.
“A step-daughter of a Lombardi,” he clarified. “It’s a bit of a long story,” he added.
“Which I don’t have time for,” I said.
To that, I got a snort out of Emilio. “Charming as ever, huh, Cos?” he asked as he walked into the dining room.
“Did you expect house arrest to make me more friendly?” I shot back.
“That’s fair,” he agreed.
“So, what’s going on? Can’t imagine you’d be here if you didn’t have to be.”
I was a little resentful at having to be, but I couldn’t exactly tell him that. I was on thin enough ice already.
“Yeah, I got a problem.”
“With your crew?” Lorenzo asked.
“Yes, but that’s being handled. I was at the bar today with Gav and a woman came rushing in. She was kinda desperate.”
“Must have been if she was coming to see your surly ass,” Emilio teased.
I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but something was different about him. He was more like the Emilio I’d grown up with. More lighthearted and easy-going.
He’d gone dark for a few years there.
Seemed like something had turned the light back on.
Or, maybe, someone had.
“I know, right?” I agreed, not offended. I wasn’t the kind of guy most women would come to for help. “No, this was Juror Number Twelve from my trial,” I told them.
Lorenzo, who’d only been paying me half attention, suddenly sat upright, his gaze on me, brows raised.
“What was that?”
“Yeah. The girl from my jury.”
“The fuck did she want?” he asked.
“Help,” I told him.
“From you? Why?”
“Because she claims the brothers of the guy I offed is stalking her and put her grandfather in the hospital.”
“Wait… what?” Emilio asked.
“Why would they do that?” Lorenzo asked at almost the exact same time.
“Because she claims she was the one who deadlocked the jury,” I told them. “And therefore let their brother’s killer go free.”
“They would only go that extreme if…” Lorenzo started.
“If they thought the prosecution wasn’t going to retry the case,” I finished for him.
“She was the only person who thought you might be innocent?” Emilio asked.
“No,” I said.
“But you just—“ he started.
“No, she didn’t think I was innocent,” I told him. “She just didn’t think I should go to jail for it.”
“What? Is she one of those people who don’t believe in prisons on principle?” he asked.
“I didn’t ask, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
“What proof does she have that these brothers are after her?” Lorenzo asked.
“That she saw them. Really, that’s it. But, in her defense, they were in court every day for weeks. She knows what they look like. If she’s so sure she saw them, I don’t know if I have a reason to doubt her.”
“And they beat up her grandfather?” Emilio asked.
“Yeah. She said she went out to dinner with a friend and left him alone in the shop. When she got back, he was beat to shit.”
“Shop?” Emilio asked.
“She works at the family antique shop,” I supplied.
“And she thinks it was the brothers and not a robbery?” Lorenzo asked. “There’s a lot of expensive shit in antique stores.”
“She claims nothing was stolen,” I said, shrugging. I didn’t have a reason to doubt her.