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A while later, there’s a knock on the front door. Shoot. I look up at the clock. Seven.
“Nonna, stay here.”
“Okay, sweetheart.” Thank goodness she’s engrossed in her shows on the small kitchen television.
I rush to the door. The driver stands on the stoop, Booker and Carlos behind him. “Ciao, Signorina. Are you ready?”
“I, I’m not going.” Three sets of very serious eyes stare at me. The silence in my front yard is deafening. “I’m sorry, but I’m not taking the job. Please tell Cannon, Mr. Bachman, I mean, please tell him that I thank him for… dinner, but I’ll be declining the position. Have a good day.”
I close the door before they can protest.
I return to the kitchen, sinking down into a chair. My heart is racing. I just couldn’t do it.
I just can’t take the job. I’m a third-generation employee at a pharmacy counter, a virgin, and I’m not going to work at a sex club for a man who puts his fingers inside of strangers. It was a twisted whirlwind of an evening, almost impossible to believe it was real.
It has to end there.
I just can’t.
I slather my scone in butter, letting it melt into the sugar-encrusted crevices.
I can’t go back to the Accardis, not after what I did with their package last night. And I’m not working for Cannon. It won’t be long before the Meralos stop leaving notes and take what they want.
Me.
9
Cannon
I growl into the phone,“What do you mean, she said she’s not coming?”
Booker clears his throat. “Just that, sir. Not coming. She’s in there eating breakfast in her pjs right now and she said she’s not coming.”
“Well, grab her ass and drag her to the car. How hard it is to tame a girl her size? What does she weigh? Half of what you do?”
Booker stands firm. “I can’t. She’s got herOumahere, her grandmother. She seemed pretty set on not taking the job.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she’s set on. Doesn’t she know what kind of family she’s wrapped up with? What they’ll do to her?” I run a hand through my hair, trying to cool the anger I feel at the thought of the Meralos’ hands on her. I won’t let that happen. “What does she think she’s going to do? Go to the Accardis and beg for them to take her in? There’s no way they’ll even let her step foot on the property after what she did last night.”
Booker stays quiet, letting me work the problem out the way I want to.
“So you’re not going to throw her over your shoulder and shove her in the car?” I say.
“No, sir,” Booker says, very respectfully.
“Fine. I’ll do it myself. I’m on my way. Stay put. Keep your guard up.”
“Yes, sir. Happy to do it. I don’t want anything happening to that sweet girl.” He pauses. “She’s gotten under my skin too.”
His words stop me in mid-stride. “Too? What do you mean,too?You think that girl is under my skin?”
Heat flashes through me. Fuck. What am I doing? I knew last night when she walked up to my bar I needed to let her go, to not get involved.
She didn’t give me much of a choice, though, did she?
That’s what I tell myself at least.
“She’s not under my skin,” I reiterate.
