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“How old?” he snaps.
I rub a hand over my jaw. The last time I went to the ranch before I started dating Lucia, Shannon and I hooked up. “It’s gotta be at least eighteen months.”
“So you were being watched or followed for the past eighteen months then?” he scowls. “How haven’t we known about this?”
“Maybe it was just while I was in Dallas?” I suggest. I’m more relaxed while I’m there. It’s the place where I allow myself to switch off a little. “If someone had been following me, watching me in LA, I would have known. Someone would have seen something. I’m sure of it.”
“I sure fucking hope so.”
“They must have been watching me on my last few trips,” I say, thinking out loud. I look past him at the house. “I have to go figure out what’s going on. I don’t feel like she’d be safe at the barn house on her own.”
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t want to go anywhere with you right now, anyway,” he says, the cold edge in his tone still there.
I suck in a breath. She’s my wife and her place is at my side. But I can’t get the image of her walking away from me out of my mind. She didn’t even give me a chance.
My head is spinning with it all. I feel like I can’t breathe with the weight in my chest. I need answers and I’m not going to find any here.
“She belongs here with her family,” he adds and it feels like the final fucking nail in my coffin.
Chapter22
Lucia
Jax left for Dallas a half hour ago. He tried to say goodbye, but I refused to speak to him. He stood outside my bedroom door and told me he was leaving. Then he asked that I tell Matthias he’ll call him tonight and wish him goodnight. My heart broke when I heard his footsteps walking away, but I can’t even look at him without seeing that image of him screwing Shannon in the barn.
Then there’s the photographs with Toni. He says they’re fake, but how do I know for sure? I thought I trusted him implicitly. How can that be rocked by so easily by some pictures? All I do know is I can’t sit around her feeling sorry for myself.
I take my car keys from the kitchen counter and start to walk down the hallway when my father’s voice stops me in my tracks. “Where the hell do you think you’re going,mija?”
I roll my eyes before I spin around and face him. “To see Toni Moretti.”
“Not on your own,” he says as he walks toward me. “Let’s go.”
“Papi, I can handle this,” I tell him, my hands on my hips.
He narrows his eyes at me. “I know that you can, but you are not leaving this house without a bodyguard, and I want to make sure that this isn’t going to cause problems with her brothers in Chicago.”
“So, you’re being my bodyguard for the afternoon? Is that it?”
He nods. He and Jax are the only members of our family who seem to be allowed to go anywhere without a security detail. I must speak to them about that when things are a little calmer. Surely I’ve proven myself capable of looking after myself now? “And we can take my car,” he says with a wink.
I arch an eyebrow at him, “The Bugatti?”
“Yes.”
“Can I drive?”
“No,” he shakes his head and then walks past me to the front door.
An hour later,my father and I are standing at the entrance to Toni’s private gym. Her trainer, Benji opens the door and his face breaks into a smile when he sees us.
“Hey, Mr. M. Hey, Rocky,” he says, winking at me.
“Is Toni in?” I ask.
“Of course.” He opens the door wider and we step inside and out of the bright LA sunshine.
Toni is at the back punching hell out of a bag. Sweat glistens over her skin and a fresh wave of shame washes over me. I have to tell her about the videos too, and my father is here.
