She gave me a mock salute. “Yes, sir.”
A growl worked its way through my chest, and damn if my cock didn’t twitch. “Keep up the attitude and see where it gets you.”
“Oh no.” Allie feigned concern. “I sure hope it’s not a one-way ticket to Pound Town.”
Laughter burst past my lips, my head thrown back as it continued to work up my throat. I would have never thought it possible when we first met, or even when we first tied the knot, but I’d sufficiently fucked the innocence right out of her. Over the past few weeks, she’d transformed into a little temptress, and I wasn’t the least bit mad about it. We hada lotof fun in the bedroom—or the shower, or on top of my desk, or the backseat of my car, but who was counting?
Still chuckling, I shook my head in amusement. “I’ll be right back.”
The employees were understandably run ragged—this time of year was rough in retail—so I patiently waited for one to run to the back to grab a trolley for the oversized item Allie had chosen for the girls.
But when we returned to the aisle in the far back of the store, the hairs on the back of my neck raised when my wife’s panicked eyes landed on me, and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her to burrow into my chest. “Thank goodness you’re back.”
“What happened?” When I tried to pull back, Allie only clutched at me tighter.
Her whole body trembled in my arms. “Th-there was a man. H-he was wa-watching me.”
My head snapped up, scanning the area. “Where? What did he look like?”
Weakly, she pointed a finger toward the opposite end of the aisle. “Kept peeking out from behind the endcap. He was older, maybe in his late sixties or early seventies. Gray hair swept away from his face.”
Sounded an awful lot like Dario.
Forget what he’d done to Gemma and her husband; if that bastard so much aslookedat my wife, I was going to kill him with my bare hands.
“Stay here,” I ordered, peeling Allie’s hands from around my waist.
I’d barely made it more than two steps in that direction when there was a sharp tug on the back of my leather jacket. Pausing, I peeked over my shoulder to find big green eyes blinking up at me.
“Wh-what are you going to do?”
“Take care of it,” I grunted.
Her gaze dipped to where she knew I had two handguns strapped to my chest in a holster. Anytime I left the house, I was packing.
Mentally preparing to come face-to-face with my father for the first time in almost a year, I forced myself to shrug her off. “Don’t worry, princess. You won’t end up on the news tonight.”
My words had enough bite that Allie stepped back like she’d been struck. Guilt flooded my system instantly, but the apology I was desperate to issue got caught in my throat.
If Dario had resurfaced, I couldn’t afford to have him thinking I’d gone soft now that I was married. He was like a bloodhound when it came to sniffing out weaknesses and was a master at exploiting them. That was the whole reason I’d kept Gemma at a distance when we were growing up. She believed it was because I bought into the patriarchal propaganda preachedby the leaders of our organization. When, in reality, it was because the first time I called my father out for treating her as less than human because she was a girl, he beat the living shit out of her. It was a violent reminder that he was in charge, and if I ever dared to defy him again, he would take it out on my sister because he knew she was the only person on this planet I cared about, and hurting her would hurt me.
Even though it was killing me to revert to asshole mode, it was for Allie’s own safety. I outright refused to let him use my wife as a pawn in his sick little games.
Red clouded my vision as I stormed around the corner, gripping the jacket of the man whose value to my life ended at conception and lifting him off his feet.
A strangled voice cried out, “Please! I don’t want any trouble!”
That cut through my haze of rage enough for me to realize my mistake. The demographics matched up, but this man was not Dario.
Like I’d grabbed a hot pan with my bare hands, I let go abruptly, and the stranger crumpled at my feet.
“Enzo!” Allie rushed to my side, but I extended an arm to tuck her safely behind me.
While he wasn’t my father, I couldn’t forget that he’d still scared my wife half to death. Standing over him menacingly, I demanded, “What the hell do you think you’re doing, spying on women around endcaps?” His blue eyes bulged, darting to where I kept Allie hidden from view, and I barked, “Don’t look at her. Look at me, and tell me why.”
Gaze snapping to the ground, he stammered, “I-I—” He shook his head. “Miss, I’m sorry if I frightened you, but I was only wondering if you might be in trouble and need help.”
“Help?” I reared back. “Why in the world would she need your help?”
