Page 76 of The Doctor

Once again, I swung Mic around, shoving him around the corner of the building. But this time, I followed after.

“What now?”

I held my finger to my lips. “Shhh.”

We both glanced carefully around the side of the building. Paulo was there, standing in the middle of the sidewalk with his hands shoved in his pockets.

And in front of him was Cosimo Provenza.

“Merda.” Mic pulled his head back around the corner, but I kept watching as the two men spoke. Paulo was his usual calm and collected self, but there was a fury radiating from Cosimo I wouldn’t have wanted to be subjected to.

Luckily, I didn’t have to. Within minutes, Cosimo was seated in the back of the car at the curb, then the man was driven away. Paulo looked right, then left, and his eyes caught on me.

“Clara?” He started my way.

I grabbed Mic by the hand and dragged him toward Paulo, wanting to run to the safety of his arms.

26

Zeno

The front door to Paulo’s apartment opened, and I tried to brace myself for the hell I could feel coming our way. I’d been on the phone with Paulo when his driver dropped him off at the front door to his penthouse, and when he’d told me he had to go because Cosimo was waiting for him downstairs.

I’d rushed Mario and Nadia into the safe room tucked inside Paulo’s closet so fast, I was sure they had whiplash. The entire time it took him to come upstairs, I was on edge, my handgun burning a hole in the waistband of my pants as I tried to sit casually in the living room.

As if I wasn’t willing to murder someone for even thinking about hurting Nadia again.

When the door swung in, it wasn’t Cosimo I saw.

But damn, if I didn’t feel like drawing my gun anyway.

Paulo ushered Clara and Mic through the door, and the sight of them together had blood boiling in my veins. I rose, intending to… I didn’t even know what. Whatever it was, the idea hadn’t fully formed before Clara was racing my way and jumping into my arms.

When our mouths collided, that was the only thing on my mind. The weight of her against me, the feel of her warmth, the taste of her mouth as she swirled her tongue against mine. For one brief, uncontrollable moment, I wanted nothing more than to strip her bare and fuck into her so hard, she’d never again think of hanging out with that kid.

But that moment ended with the quiet clearing of a throat, and though Clara clung to me like she’d never let me go, some string of logic floated up through my foggy brain and told me to stop.

I wanted to disappear. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me whole. Because, while I wouldn’t trade Clara for the world, I hadn’t thought about breaking the news of our relationship to Paulo or anyone else.

Lifting my gaze from the bright eyes of my little hurricane, I found a look of shock on the face of my oldest and dearest friend. Paulo wasn’t easily perturbed. Seeing him with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open had me feeling like the lowest sort of scumbag.

You’re a forty-one-year-old man fucking a girl twenty years your junior.

As if I could have forgotten. As if, for one fraction of a second, I could have forgotten how it felt to be wrapped around her, filling her, kissing her until there was no me without her and no her without me.

“Are you alright, Paulo?” Mic had a sneaky-ass grin on his face that told me this was no surprise to him. That revelation calmed the boiling in my veins.

Paulo closed his mouth, cleared his throat, and smoothed a hand down the front of his shirt. He glanced at Mic before turning his gaze back to me.

“Michele, could I bother you to retrieve your mother and uncle from my saferoom please?”

“Will do, sir.”

As the kid walked away, Clara twisted in my arms. “You might want to take your time.”

I would have watched the smirk on his face all day if it meant I didn’t have to turn around and face D’Angelo. Unfortunately, that was one luxury I didn’t have.

“Zeno—”