“Hard to bounce back, I guess.”
He stared at his hands as he continued to rub his palms together. “It sucks it happened, but what are you going to do? Feel guilty forever? There’s not a single person in your life who wants you to feel that way, Con.”
“A lot of bad shit happened under my watch.”
“And you think bad shit won’t happen under mine?” he asked. “I absolutely guarantee you it will. It’s a tough job, Con. You’re running all the criminal enterprises of the country yourself. You police the guys the police can’t even police. And Darius was a well-connected, rich, corrupt motherfucker. Look, I thought he was dead too. Everyone thought he was. And even if he wasn’t, no one thought he’d pull that trick out of his hat.”
“Rocco, I appreciate you trying to make me feel better—”
“It’s all done now, Con.” He cut me off with his tone. “You can keep living in the past, but where’s that going to get you? You’ve got a beautiful wife who wants to fuck your brains out, and you’re sitting here staring off into space. You’ve got a baby on the way—”
“Whoa, what did you just say?”
He shut his mouth and stared at his hands again.
“She told you about that?” We hadn’t actually consummated our marriage yet. After everything that had happened, I just wasn’t in the mood, and when she’d tried to get something going a couple days ago, I told her I wasn’t ready.
“She may have mentioned it.”
I shook my head as I chuckled. “Wow, woman’s got it bad, huh?”
“She said she just got hit with a new batch of hormones, and she’s ... a bit frisky.”
“She toldyouthis?”
“Yes.”
“You?”
“We talk,” he said with a shrug. “And friends always help friends get laid.”
I chuckled again, unable to picture my wife texting my best friend, saying how much she missed riding my dick.
“So, give your wife that D, all right?”
I’d been miserable a few moments ago, but now the grin on my face felt permanent. “I’m glad you guys are close. That makes me happy.”
“I’m glad it makes you happy and not want to punch me in the throat.”
“Pigs would fly before either of you betrayed me.” I trusted both of them implicitly. My wife was a good woman with eyes only for me, and Rocco was like a brother to me. He’d rather take a bullet in the arm than lie to me.
“I’m gonna check in to my hotel. Let’s meet at Daiquiri in a couple hours.”
“Why don’t we just go now?” I asked.
He glanced behind me at the glass wall of the house. “Because your wife is giving me the death stare, so she’s not gonna let you leave the house until you service her.” He winked before he stood up. “Hit me up.”
When I returned to the house, Aurelia wasn’t on the couch where I’d last seen her. The TV was off, the kitchen was quiet, and Medusa jumped on the couch and curled up like she expected me to sit next to her.
“Sweetheart?” I called through the house.
“Upstairs,” she called down.
She was usually on the main floor during the day, only going upstairs to shower or sleep or use the gym. I made my way up the stairs and reached the next landing before I headed down the hallway to our bedroom that had a set of double doors.
They were wide open, so I walked on the hardwood floor into the room, then stopped when I saw her propped up in bed.
Wearing a two-piece white lingerie set and white sheer stockings up her legs, she had her four-month pregnant belly on display because she knew it did some serious shit to me. She had darkened her makeup and thickened her lashes, and her hair was fluffed up like she’d done something to make it enormous.
