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“Some shit has happened that makes it more than just a threat, and it mostly revolves around the Vigliones.”
Rio closed the gap between us. His dark eyes bore through me, unearthing the guilt I felt for using him in the past. “A woman like you isn't the type to run and hide. What's got you so scared? I don't think I've ever seen you frightened.” His hand reached out and caressed my cheek, but the tender touch nauseated me. Rio was a kind lover. Sweet. A man who would make a wife really happy one day. When I asked him to degrade me, to give me some pain, he looked at me like I had somehow offended him. It had nothing to do withhim.It kept my mind off everything but the weight above or behind me. It's how I'd forget everything and everyone that hurt me. I was in control by giving up mine. Every time he fucked me, it was slow and deep. Sensual. Like he loved me. That wasn’t what love felt like for me. Weighed down with thoughts that kept me from ever getting to the edge, I never came when I was with him.
“Rio...” I met his eyes again. “Don't.”
I knew what he wanted. The tented fabric of his jeans made it clear. I thought about it, believe me, I thought about it, as a way to buy time to let me stay with him a little longer. He ignored me, leaning into me and drawing me in for a kiss. I couldn't do it. I pulled away from him, away from lips I'd kissed so many times before.
“He'll know.” I didn't know how he'd know, but he would, and he'd kill Rio for touching me. Another side of me piped up, reminding me that I wasn’t Enzo's anymore. He made it clear that we were through. But I knew he still cared about me, and that alone made him dangerous.
Rio didn't deserve the trouble it would cause if I let myself slip away from Enzo and into Rio's tempting arms. I wasn't ready to comfort myself with the first dick that presented itself. Rio was a free man, and I refused to force him back into the life by letting him inside me. The moment he fucked me, he'd be part of it, whether he wanted to be or not. I shrugged out of his touch, calming my rising chest.
* * *
Enzo
I pressedmy gun against the maintenance man's head as I dragged him toward the fourth-floor room.
“I have children,” the man pleaded, his lanky body struggling to keep up with my determined steps.
“I ain't gonna hurt ya,” I hissed. My eyes tracked the numbers on every metal door. When we got in front of 402, I put my finger up to my mouth, shushing him. “Unlock the door, and if you tell a soul you saw me, I'll come for you. Do you understand?” I shook him by the collar of his tan button-up shirt. He nodded furiously as his fingers trembled when he tried to find the right key to open the lock. “Give it to me.” I jerked his head down when I pulled the keys from his retractable lanyard. I tried a few before I found the master. When I released them, they jerked back and hit the man in the face, cutting his chin. He ran off, looking back at me with every furious click of the elevator’s call button.
I opened the door and saw Gia’s face close to Rosario's mouth. In a single motion, he drew his pistol on me, as if he’d been waiting for me. I pulled out my revolver and cocked the hammer.
I didn’t particularly like Gia right then, but what I saw still made me see red. She was like a toy I wasn’t allowed to play with, but I also didn’t want anyone else to play with her, either. Was I being selfish? Abso-fucking-lutely.
“Speak of the devil,” Rio said with a curl of his lip.
“Fuck you. What are you doing here, Gia?”
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at me. “I needed a safe place to lay low.”
“This ain't a safe place. People know you're here. Someone I didn't even know knew you were here. How do you think I found out?”
Rosario looked at Gia and then back at me. His face paled.
“No one gives a shit about you. Relax.” I shut the door behind me. “Did you fuck?”
Rio laughed. “Not in quite a few—”
“I'm not asking you, I'm askingher.” My eyes remained on hers. I'd know if she lied to me. Her lower lip trembled when she lied. I stepped toward her, but Rosario put his body between us. “I ain’t gonna hurt her.” I shouldered past him. “Did you fuck him?”
Her eyes narrowed. “No, you piece of shit.” Her lower lip was steady. “Now I’d like you to leave.”
Rosario interrupted. “I’d like you both to leave, actually.”
I smirked as Gia’s gaze jumped from me to him. “Oh, fuck you both,” she groaned.
* * *
“Where else you gonna go?”I asked her as we drove toward my house.
“I don’t fucking care where I go, but I’m not going home with you. Bring me to a hotel or something.”
I rolled my eyes. “There’s eyes all over this city. You ain’t going to a damn hotel.”
“This is feeling eerily similar to when you abducted me.”
It felt that way for me too. Grumpy, petulant Gia in the backseat of my car once more. I looked in the rearview mirror and stared at her the same way I had that night. Everything was different, though. When she first stayed with me, I’d only had her one time before that, a distant memory that gnawed little holes through me every time I heard her family name. Now I’d really had her, and the air in the car had shifted. Resentment and mistrust hung like smog around us. She broke my trust, and I broke hers—even though I didn’t. But I was still willing to protect her. I just had to figure out how to explain it to my goddamn brothers.
