Page 83 of Cavaliere

“I’m telling the truth. A few of my head guards told me he started acting shifty, so we cut him loose.”

“Shifty, how?”

“You know how the life is. You and I were born into it. It’s different for us. Christos wasn’t born into it. I think he was way too eager to prove himself and started calling shots that weren’t his to make.” Nicholas shrugs.

“And you just expect me to believe that you just let him walk?”

“Of course not,” Nicholas scoffs. “That would be bad for business. No one wants to deal with someone so desperate.”

He’s not wrong. Desperation causes fuck-ups that can’t be afforded.

“So what did you do?” I feel like I’m pulling teeth trying to get information out of him. Actually… that’s not a bad idea. Maybe I should have Gio come up. It might make this go faster.

“Punished him accordingly and demoted him.”

“Just like that?” I ask. No one I know would take a demotion like that lightly.

“Just like that.”

“But now you don’t know where he is.” It isn’t a question, and he isn’t meeting my gaze. “What happened there?”

Nicholas lets out another sigh. “This is family business, which I know you understand, so all I can say is the man in charge of where I demoted him said he hasn’t checked in. We’re currently working on finding him.”

What a waste of my fucking time.

“If you find him first, he’s mine.” I head toward the door without waiting for a response. “I would say it’s been a pleasure, but we both know that’s a fucking lie.”

Christos is fucking mine.

Chapter

Forty-Seven

WREN

“What do you want?” I slur into the phone.

There’s only one person I know who would call me before nine in the morning. Working bar shifts for so long has made my internal clock despise the morning. No one in their right mind should be up and functioning before noon. Plus, the softness of Matteo’s sheets and fluffy bed doesn’t help. It makes me feel like I could sleep all day.

“Happy Birthday, bitch!” Delaney sings into my ear. Ugh, she should go straight to fucking jail for being this peppy so early. “It’s tattoo day!”

“Ink doesn’t even open the shop until noon. So what the fuck?” I say groggily as I roll onto my back.

“I just needed to be the first person to tell you happy birthday. But now that you’re awake, get your ass out of bed. We have shit to do. Don’t worry about an outfit for tonight. I already got you one. See you in a few hours.”

“What’s tonight?” I ask to a dead line.

“Ugh…” I groan as I toss my phone onto Matteo’s side of the bed, which has been empty for almost a week now.

I can’t say that I’ve done much with my life since he left to go hunting. I’m still not allowed to work. I even tried bribing Cain to let me come back, but all he said was, “Sorry, babe. I’ve seen how crazy your man can fucking get. I prefer to stay on his good side.” That’s what I get for being a loyal employee.

The traitor.

The one thing I did notice was that I’m never alone with Rob. Aldo just popped out of nowhere the first day Matteo was gone, claiming he had work in his office to do and has been here ever since. Enzo has been in and out as well. I think he’s running out of excuses about why he’s coming by because he stopped saying hi and now just smiles and waves.

It’s not a coincidence that this happened after Matteo found out how Rob acted when Delaney came over. It’s like they think I’m a fucking idiot and don’t know what’s going on. I’m grateful though. Being alone with him makes me so uncomfortable now.

Part of me is a little disappointed that Matteo isn’t here to celebrate my birthday. I can’t exactly be mad about it though, considering I never even told him when it is.