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Would he want to do more than seal it was a kiss? My breathing picked up as I saw him leaning against the bedroom door. His eyes were narrowed on me, his lips twisted up on one side. I stood frozen to the spot as he observed me. “I’m sleeping on the sofa,” he announced, pushing up off the door frame. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Wh—”
He spun around, not giving me the chance to say or do anything.
He walked away like I didn’t matter.
He turned his back on me.
He left me alone.
Alone.
It was how I’d always been. Something that I’d gotten used it.
So why did it feel so gut wrenching when he did it?
CHAPTER 13
MATEO
Romeo was sitting across from me, clicking the top of a pen off and on. Off and on. Off and on. It was driving me fuckin’ crazy, and I had a feeling he knew it was.
“So, what happens if someone asks point blank if we’re in the Mafia?” Rafael asked, his pen ready to write down notes.
I closed my eyes, rubbing at my temples, feeling a damn headache coming on. I felt like a third-grade teacher trying to make the kids understand basic math. “It depends who’s asking.”
“Of course you tell them,” Romeo grunted, completely disregarding what I’d said.
I snapped my eyes open, gritting my teeth. He smirked at me. Bastard. “No,” I told him, trying to keep my cool. I’d been locked in this room with Romeo, Rafael, and Mario for what felt like days, but in reality, was only a few hours. Lorenzo had wanted me to show them the ropes, and that was what I was trying to do. It was when I took them on a run to check on one of our warehouses that I realized they didn’t know the basic things about being in a criminal organization.
How? I had no fuckin’ idea. So, I’d decided to start from the beginning. I couldn’t expect them to have my back when they didn’t even know how to.
“Yes,” Romeo answered, dropping his pen on the table and leaning forward. “You instill the fear in them and they won’t fuck with you.”
One side of my lips lifted. I was mocking him, and if his narrowed eyes were anything to go by, he knew it. “So you want to use the threat of what could happen because you’re a member of the Mafia, rather than build a relationship with a potential ally?” He pursed his lips, but his silence told me he was listening. “It doesn’t matter who it is, you’ll never know what they can offer you until you do your intel. Don’t go into any situation thinking you know what the outcome will be.” I tilted my head to the side. “Things change. Which is why you should always be on alert. Sometimes the best time to get information is when someone doesn’t know who you are.”
Romeo leaned back in his seat, his attention not moving off of me. He’d been under his father for a year before Lorenzo had switched him under me. Not only that, but both he and Rafael had an idea of what we were because they’d grown up with a captain in their house. But that didn’t mean they’d make good soldiers themselves. They may have been blood, but Lorenzo made it clear that it wouldn’t define what their positions would be here.
“You have a point,” Mario said, steepling his hands in front of him. His ink black hair was too long for my taste, curling around his ears, but he was dedicated to the job. And unlike Romeo and Rafael, he wasn’t blood related. No, he was like me. Willing to do the hard work so that he could get ahead in life.
My satellite phone beeped with a message, and one word flashed up on the screen. Here.
I glanced over at the screen, seeing yet another different car at the gates. He never drove the same one twice, just one of his many quirks.
Wheeling my chair over to the wall of screens showing each camera in the house, I hit the button to open the gates. The button the soldiers used to let us know someone was there flashed, telling them without words that he’d been let in by the command center.
“That’s it for today,” I said, turning back to face the three men. “You can go.”
Rafael and Mario stood, not second guessing what I’d said, but Romeo stayed put.
“Romeo,” Rafael said, pausing halfway between the table and the door. “Come on.”
“He’s staying,” I told Rafael as I punched in the code to let them out of the room. They hadn’t earned the right to know the code yet, but Romeo had. Which was why I figured he could stay. He needed to know that he could trust me, and vice versa. The fact of the matter was, he wasn’t like Rafael and Mario. He had experience under his belt, and before I’d become his captain, we’d gotten along.
The door clicked shut behind the two new soldiers. I turned to face Romeo, filling him in. “Mr. Blue is here to update us.”
“Mr. Blue?” Romeo sat up straighter. Maybe he’d thought I would throw him out of the room. I wouldn’t though. We needed to get rid of the tension between us. We needed to be on the same wavelength, otherwise this wouldn’t work.
