Wow.“You have a traitor right under your nose, Don.”
“I know. I’m looking right at him.”
Once I understood the accusation, I couldn’t control the laugh that escaped. “Yeah, because that makes a lot of sense. I warn Warren to move so he evades capture, and then I tell him where he can find the woman I love. Don’t you understand what the fuck you’re saying? With all the shit I’ve done for you?—”
“I don’t know what your endgame is, Wolfe. But you snuck around with my daughter for months, even after I initiated you, and I don’t believe you ever intended to tell me a damn thing. So I don’t trust you. I don’t trust a damn word that comes out of your mouth. I think this is all some very long game you’re playing.”
All I could do was stare at him for seconds, in utter shock at the accusation. “I was falling in love with your daughter, and we were trying to figure out the best way to preserve that relationship. That is my only crime. So for you to disqualify everything else I’ve done over something completely unrelated…that’s nonsensical to me.”
“My opinion is the only one that matters.”
I gave a slow nod. “I don’t need work. I’ve got more money than I can spend. I can go to any of the other gangs for employment. I don’t need this, and I’ve never needed it. But I’m telling you—you have a rat right under your nose—and he’s going to stab youin the back. I don’t want that to happen to you. Maybe you don’t give a damn about me, but I give a damn about you.”
The anger he wore was long gone, replaced by the most disrespectful look of boredom I’d ever seen. “Get out.”
I’d never witnessed anyone make a bigger mistake than this. “You won’t live long enough to regret that.”
He ignored what I said. “Return—and we’ll shoot you on sight.”
I gave a slow nod, shocked by the disrespect I didn’t deserve. “Warren is mine?—”
“We’ll handle him.”
I turned toward the door, knowing I couldn’t build with someone who only wanted to destroy. “Then may the best man win.”
15
FRANCESCA
I sat on the couch in his living room and checked his location on and off, seeing his dot on my father’s property. He was there for a while before the dot started to move again. It got onto the main road and headed this way.
I was relieved to see it move because I had been slightly worried what would happen when he spoke with my father. My father hadn’t spoken to me at all about the situation, and that told me how pissed off he was. But I believed my father cared about my feelings enough not to kill Wolfe.
When I saw his dot enter the property, I left the couch and prepared to meet him after he came in through the garage.
The second he walked inside, he had this look on his face…like he was mad as hell. It was the way he carried himself, his palpable rage that felt like flames from an inferno. He was so mad that when he looked at me, I felt like the one who had crossed him.
He didn’t kiss me or hug me. Just walked past me straight to the kitchen and opened a cabinet that held bottles of booze. Hescooped ice into his cup from the freezer then filled the glass with scotch.
He stood there and downed the entire thing in a single go.
I just watched him, unsure what to do.
When he was finished, he suddenly threw it across the room, where it smashed and shattered.
I gave a jolt at the sound.
As if nothing had happened, he leaned against the counter in the kitchen and crossed his arms over his chest. He took a breath and then released a quiet growl as he stared at nothing across the room.
I drew closer, but I didn’t enter his personal space. I leaned against the other counter across from him. I didn’t ask him how it went because it was pretty fucking obvious how it went. Didn’t want to interrogate him with questions when he was too angry to even speak.
At least ten minutes went by before he looked at me. “He dismissed me from his employ.”
“What?”
“Says he doesn’t trust me—and thinks I’m the rat.”
I gave a sigh. “Cristo…”
