Page 28 of Cavaliere

Chapter

Twenty

WREN

Uh, what?

“There is no you and me, Matteo,” I say as slowly as I possibly can, my last ditch effort to get it through his thick fucking skull. I mean, honestly, this man has lost it.

“Then you should have listened to what that piece of shit told you and not have stopped and helped me.” The bastard has the audacity to smirk. “Unfortunately for you, I’m not Doc Brown and have yet to master the art of time travel.”

“How was I supposed to know that you’re in the Mafia?!” I shriek. I’m going to lose it.

“Most people know who I am, Wren.”

“I hate you.” I narrow my eyes at him. I hate that he’s right. I should have known who he was. I’ve heard his name thrown around only a million times. In my defense, though, I’ve never seen his face. So why would I assume some random stranger who crashed a car worth more money than everything I owned combined is the head of the mob?

“You can say you hate me until you’re blue in the face, tesoro, but your body doesn’t lie.”

A long sigh escapes me. There’s no winning with this man.

“Now, let’s circle back to you, not telling me everything about the night of the accident,” Matteo says as he once again pats the spot next to him on the bed. “Tell me what you left out.”

There’s something about his tone that I don’t like. There’s an edge to it. Almost like he thinks I left things out on purpose. “I didn’t lie to you or omit anything.”

“I never said you did.”

“Your tone says otherwise,” I fire back.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Wren. Stop stalling. Tell me what the fuck happened,” Matteo snaps.

“Alright, alright. No need to get snippy,” I say as I sit next to him on the bed.

“You’re seriously the most infuriating woman I have ever met.” Matteo releases a deep sigh as he raggedly runs his hands through his hair. “Please, for the love of God, just fucking spit it out.”

I guess I’ll throw the man a bone.

“I didn’t mean to leave anything out.” I pause as Matteo shoots me a look. I raise my eyebrows right back at him. “I was overwhelmed! Your brother isn’t exactly the most friendly person. He honestly scared the shit out of me. Plus, I was kind of a little more worried about you, you know, not dying.”

“Greatly appreciated.” The corner of Matteo’s lip turns up ever so slightly. “You followed directions then; why can’t you do that now?”

“Okay, smartass. I only followed directions then because I didn’t want karma to do something freaky and fuck me sideways.” Clearly, that’s panning out really well for me.

“Not this again.” Matteo groans and tips his head back. I can’t help but smirk. There’s just something about poking the bear, or in this case, the Mafia boss, that gives me a rush. “I’m glad you find this whole thing so funny.”

“I like seeing you not so composed.” I smile as best I can without it hurting. This busted lip still hurts like a bitch when the skin gets pulled tight.

Matteo sighs, “That seems to be a common occurrence when you’re involved.”

My belly does a little flutter at that. I shouldn’t like that I’m able to throw the Mafia boss off-kilter, but I do. I like that I have that effect on him.

“Okay, but for real, I honestly didn’t remember any of this until that night when he broke into my place.”

Matteo’s head flies back up. “Explain.”

“When he was, uh, attacking me.” I swallow. This is harder to relive than I thought. Matteo’s hand slides onto my upper thigh, giving it a reassuring squeeze. I give him a wobbly smile before continuing. “He just made a comment about how I shouldn’t have stopped and helped. That I was going to pay. I mean, I don’t know for sure if it was about you and what happened, but you’re the only person that I’ve helped out that wasn’t Delaney in, like, the last year, so…”

Matteo’s hand flexes on my thigh. “Do you remember anything else?”