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“I think we can make it even better,” I mused, kissing each of her cheeks.
“Yeah? How’s that?”
I smirked, pulling her into my arms. “We can go break in our new room.”
And we did.
9 Months Later,
Lilith’s Lair, Italy.
It’s brutal how time can so effortlessly murder a memory.
The private club bathed in neon blue hues of light surrounded me. The familiar warmth I used to experience in the building didn’t wash over me anymore. I was cold, and uncomfortable as each modern style burlesque waitress floated by, giving me flirtatious smiles.
“Haven’t seen you in awhile, my friend,” Gio said, gently squeezing my shoulder into his hand and taking the seat next to mine.
He’d been in the back, probably finishing up a poker game while I waited. I didn’t mind. I showed up on short-notice after all. Can’t exactly plan the sort of visit I was experiencing.
Throwing back my most recent shot, grimacing at the burn, I attempted to smile at my old friend. He hadn’t changed one bit since I’d seen him last and it had been over a year. He was a tall fucker, wide too. Given his profession, it was fitting. His dark features were similar to mine, maybe a bit sharper. He’d always had an edge to him that I lacked. He was dangerous and I was just… me.
“I take it that this surprise visit isn’t a social call without a cause, given the five shots of whisky and that long face you’re sporting,” he prompted, sipping on a glass of red wine. We both usually preferred lighter alcohol but I wasn’t feeling much like myself as it was.
He might have assumed I needed a favor or hell, to hire him for an official job. But really, he was my only friend, and that’s exactly why I needed him.
“She left me,” I muttered, clenching my hands into fists tightly.
He frowned. “Dix? But…”
Shaking my head, I tossed back more burning liquor fighting the ache. “We were fine. Perfect even. She was thriving and smiling every day. Then I come home to her packing her bags, telling me she never loved me and never wants to see me again.”
The memory is all too thick, being three days old.
He rears his head back in shock. “Dixiesaid that? What the fuck?”
Confusion took him, his brain trying to make sense of this.
Me too buddy, me fucking too.
“She didn’t mean it,” I swore hastily. “Iknowwhen she’s lying. I just don’t understand why or fuck,howshecould leave me like that. She wasn’t using me for money, she didn’t take anything that wasn’t hers when she left. Even gifts she left behind. Her car, her new phone, her jewelry, everything is still with me. She hasn’t said a damn thing and the men I have watching her say she hasn’t stopped crying in her apartment.”
Gio frowned. “Have you tried to talk to her?”
I groaned. “Of fucking course I have. She won’t answer her door, or emails or anything. I send her flowers and she won’t look at them, just brings them inside when the delivery man leaves and sets them on her counter. She’s not even taking care of them, man.Flowers.Dixie.”
“Jesus,” he cursed. “What are you going to do?”
The million dollar question that no one knew the answer to. Let alone me.
“Iwantto kidnap her and force her to tell me what the hell she thinks she’s doing. I want her to be honest and come home. Gio, she could burn down a city-block full of innocent people and I wouldn’t be able to turn her away. She’smine.”
“But you’re not going to,” he mused, taking another sip. “Why not?”
His question was casual for him, easy to ask because Gio was a man who would do exactly what I just said and more.
Running my hands down my stubbly face, I fought back tears. “She’snineteen, Gio. What if she’s confused or hurting and I only make it worse? What if she’s hiding something that I can’t help her with? What if… what if she resents me for not letting her go? I’m thirty-three for fucks sake. Maybe love isn’t enough for her, maybeI’mnotenough for her.”
He considered this and shook his head. “I’ve only met her once, and from what I can tell, she’s far from malicious. I don’t think she could have faked that look she gave you. So, I agree that she lied about never loving you. But what I don’t understand is what would possess her to leaveandlie about it. Could someone be making her do this?”
