Page 51 of Dangerous Games

I can’t imagine what it’s like to never have family there for you. That’s not how I was raised, and it’s not something I’ve ever been inclined to think would happen in my future.

“I was just trying to help. But I shouldn’t have done it in that way, so I’m sorry.”

Bronwyn doesn’t say anything as she works on calming herself down. It isn’t long before she stops shaking in my arms, leaving only silent tears in its wake. I press my lips to the top of her head and ask, “Has he tried to call you or pay you back?”

I don’t bring up that she pinky promised me she would let me know immediately if he did. I don’t need to make the hole I’m in any deeper.

“No.”

Shit.

That’s good and bad.

Good for me because I don’t have that shitbag sniffing around my girl and she doesn’t have to see what I would do to him. She might have taken the other two incidents like a champ, but seeing it happen to your own father will hit different. I don’t want her to look at me differently. And even though all of that is good for me, it’s bad for her because all she wants is her dad to stop being a piece of shit and do something he says he’s going to do for once in his fucking life.

I don’t have kids of my own, but I know for a fact I would live on the street before I ever even thought about taking a dime from them.

“I’m sorry, baby.”

“It’s not your fault.” I contain my shudder as she wipes more snot onto my shirt. “But I don’t like that you paid my rent. I had it worked out with him.”

I sigh. She isn’t going to let this shit go.

“I want you to listen to me, and listen to me carefully. My family owns this business. I’m in the family business. I didn’t pay your rent; we just aren’t charging you it anymore.”

Bronwyn leans her head back to look up at me. “How can my rent just go away? There has to be a mortgage for the building that my rent was going toward, Gio.”

Oh, my sweet baby. She has so much to learn.

I shake my head. “We own it, cara.”

Her eyes widen at the realization. “Oh.”

“Yeah, oh.” My lip tips up. Jesus, she’s fucking cute when she isn’t trying to send me to the pits of hell with her glare. Who am I kidding? That shit is cute too. “Are you okay?” I ask as I bring my thumb up to her face and wipe away the last few tears trailing down her cheek.

She slowly nods. “I’m okay. But we need to get one thing straight. You can’t just go behind my back and take care of things like that.” I open my mouth to cut in, but she presses her finger against my lips, silencing me. “I understand you’re trying to help, but the way you do it pisses me off. It feels like you’re going behind my back because I can’t do it myself.”

“I don’t think you can’t do it yourself.”

She works harder than anyone I know, and that pisses me off. She shouldn’t have to work so hard and still barely get by.

“Right.” She rolls her eyes. “And one more thing, I want you to take the hush money back. If I’m not paying rent, which, by the way, I’m not happy about. But I know this is a battle I’m going to lose, so that’s the only reason I’m agreeing to it.”

“You’re going to have to talk to Matteo about that,” I tell her, watching the glare I love take over her face. Her eyes are still red and puffy, making it lose some of its aggressiveness. “It was his order in the first place, not mine.”

“Fine. Take me to where he works.”

I fight back laughter. “He doesn’t have one place of work. You can talk to him about it over family dinner.”

“Gio.”

“Bronwyn.”

“I’m not going to family dinner!”

“We’ll see about that.” I shrug, knowing it’s going to happen. “Now let me get your pizza in the oven so I can work on making you feel better.”

“How are you going to do that?” Bronwyn asks as I lead her out of the bathroom and make her sit down on the couch.