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He stared for a moment. “Alright.” He sank into the chair, his elbow propped and his curled fingers underneath his chin. “Her name was Nina. Met at a bar. Was supposed to be a one-time thing, but…that didn’t happen. This was long before my time as a drug kingpin, so I was a regular guy, just trying to make it. I’d been using and she didn’t know, so I got clean before she could figure it out.”
It was impossible to picture the life he described, so it made the story even more interesting.
“Things got serious. Asked her to move in. But then I met her parents…” Instead of looking hurt by the memory, he grinned as if it were all a joke. “They didn’t like me one bit. Saw me for what I was—trash. Nina came from a nice family, two loving parents with a protective older brother. Ran a small restaurant that had been in their family for generations. I was somekidwith no parents who grew up in an orphanage, with no real future, nothing I could offer her except my heart—which was worthless, apparently.”
My eyes stayed on his, but it was hard to keep a straight face and not pity him.
“She dumped me shortly after that meeting.”
“I’m sorry.”
His eyes shifted away like he hadn’t heard me, like he was deep in thought. “She got married a few years afterward. An accountant.” He gave a quiet chuckle. “Most boring shit I’ve ever heard.”
Now it all made sense. “That’s why you’re so ambitious…”
His eyes flicked back to me.
“That’s why you’ve turned yourself into this powerful drug lord,” I said. “If only she could see you now…”
Despite the seriousness of the moment, he chose to look amused. “If she could see me now, she would know that her parents were right and she made the right decision. My ambition is driven purely by money and power—not some girl I loved when I was hardly a man.”
“How different your life would have been if she’d stayed.” Instead of running the streets and killing people who revolted against his oppression, he would be fulfilled by the love of a woman, would be a father, would have in-laws who replaced the love he lost from his parents. For the first time, I actually felt bad for him, seeing past his hard shell to the broken man underneath.
“She did us both a favor. She’s where she’s supposed to be—and I’m exactly where I belong.” He stared at me across the table, the amusement leaving his face. Now the seriousness descended like a dark shadow. “Your turn, sweetheart.”
Was his answer worth mine? I was about to find out. “He left me.”
His expression didn’t change at all, like he expected more. “Why?”
“I’d rather not say.”
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “Why?”
My heart started to pound. Adrenaline made my insides tight. There had been a draft in the suite a moment ago, but now I felt suffocated by heat. “I don’t want you to look at me differently. Because if you do…you’ll walk away too.”
“Remember who you’re talking to, sweetheart.” His confident gaze pierced me from across the table. “I’m not the judgmental type. Nothing you say will change my perception of you. And nothing you say will make me want to fuck you less.”
When he commanded the room like that, I wanted to believe every word of it, but I couldn’t.
“Well, let me take that back. If you fucked a kid or killed a kid…that would leave a bad taste in my mouth. But I know that’s not your crime.”
He was so far off. “No…not that.”
He looked at me expectantly, waiting for the revelation.
“I told you my father is an asshole, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.” I couldn’t believe I was about to do this. About to reveal the secret I’d never shared with anyone except my ex-husband. “My father pissed off some people…and instead of going after him, they came after my mother and me.” I swallowed, feeling the nerves get to me. There were no hot tears in the back of my throat. It had happened so long ago that I’d moved on. But it still felt like I was standing trial at the moment. “They killed her. And then they…came after me.” I broke eye contact because I didn’t want to see his reaction. Didn’t want him to pretend it didn’t bother him when it did.
Silence stretched for a long time. All we did was breathe.
Then I finally looked at him again.
His expression was exactly the same. “I already know, sweetheart.”
“You do…?”
“Put two and two together a while ago.”
I looked away again. “He treated me differently afterward. Wouldn’t touch me. Didn’t want me anymore. Then he left.”
