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“Yes, I lived with him and some of my other cousins for a time before I got a place of my own. Life at home wasn’t the best after my father died. I don’t think my mom could deal with a broken heart and take care of me at the same time.”
My heart aches for the devastation he must have felt. I reach out a hand, and he grasps it, stroking the top of it with a finger.
“Do not worry, Bella. It was a long time ago. I had the misfortune of looking like a mirror image of my father. He broke her heart, cheating, chasing one skirt after another, and when he died, he left her with gambling debts and nothing of our own. Great-Uncle took care of what he owed and made sure she was comfortable and that I had a good start.”
“I heard something like that through gossip in Palermo,” I tell him.
He nods. “My great-aunt helped me through the loss. It was her death that I mourned after she passed,” he tells me in between bites of his lunch.
I push a chunk of tomatoes around in the dressing. “I’m sorry for the loss of your father and for the darkness he caused your mother. My mother passed early in my life too. She loved me to pieces. Maybe that was supposed to be enough.”
He nods. “I’m glad you have such a wonderful memory,” he says. “Anyone who knew your dad knows he loved you too, Bella. If you hadn’t run, you would have been cared for far better than you know.”
I suck in a deep breath because running from that life, leaving all the people I knew, the friends and extended family, was one of the hardest things I ever did. Yet here I sit, eating lunch and drinking wine with the consigliere of the crime family my father protects with his lies while he rots in a jail cell. He may have done it out of honor and loyalty, but where’s the sense of loyalty to me?
I take another drink of wine, its aromatic bouquet and complexity slightly intoxicating at this time of day with such a light lunch. Especially after all the energy we spent in bed and in the shower. I cover my mouth to hide my yawn, but he catches it and smiles.
“Why don’t you rest? I need to go out for a while but should be back later in the day. There’s a guard outside the door. If you need anything at all, call the front desk, and they will patch you into our private concierge. They have instructions to provide you anything that you need.”
I put my glass down. “In other words, I’m not allowed to leave?”
He sighs and places his napkin on the table and slides his chair back. “That’s not what I said, Isabella. It’s simply a good idea for you to remain low key until after the funeral. Perhaps longer than that.”
“How long?”
He shrugs and walks toward the door before turning. “It’s for your own good. Many of their soldiers were killed in our attack on their home. Word on the street is they’ve brought in unknowns. We have good security here, but we also can’t be sure that they aren’t walking around the casino just waiting for a chance to take one or more of us out.”
“Which is why you’re going out into the big dangerous world, and yet I have to sit in my room like an errant child who can’t possibly protect herself?”
He grins, and my eyes go wide. “How dare you laugh at me when I’m upset with you,” I tell him, but the look on my face just causes him to laugh.
“Isabella, you are such a fiery beauty when you get mad. You’ll do as I ask, not because I don’t think you’re capable, but because I protect what’s mine.”
My stomach dances with butterflies when perhaps it should be churning with fear. “Fine, but only because you make such a convincing case. I’d much rather be in your bed than at the bottom of the lake.”
He turns his dark eyes on me and grins. “You need not worry about finding yourself at the bottom of any lake, Bella. Perhaps you should worry about what’s going to happen when I have you tied up, begging me for mercy, and screaming my name,” he says, before leaving and closing the penthouse door.
Chapter13
Lorenzo
I’m still contemplatingIsabella’s words when I get into the elevator. What she believes her father did has caused a deep-seated distrust. It’s obvious in everything she says and does. Even when layered with the guise of humor like her lake comment.
I shouldn’t expect her to completely trust me after only knowing me such a short time, but surely she knows I wouldn’t hurt her or let harm come to her after what we’ve shared. I’ve brought her to my penthouse, into the family’s protection, regardless how it happened.
The casino is buzzing with patrons as I enter the club. I scan the card tables, making a mental note of the players I want to come back and say hello to after discussing the funeral plans with my cousins. Salvatore and Adrianna are at a reserved family table, their heads close together as they discuss something over a glass of wine. No one thought those two could really make it work, but look at them now.
My cousin looks up as I approach and take a seat across from him. “Looks like a full house,” I say, as one of the servers stops by the table. “A glass of the Larussio Red for me.”
“Sure thing,” she says, flitting away as quickly as she arrived. Neither of us say anything because we’re never going to sully the women with what goes on in the streets and alleys of our underworld life.
Adrianna takes a long sip of her drink. Her eyes narrow at me and then at Salvatore. “Fucking men’s club,” she says, laughing. “I have things to do in the urgent care while you talk business. Just make sure your plans don’t include inundating me and my urgent care with lacerations and bullets to remove,” she says, giving Salvatore who has a big ass grin on his face a kiss goodbye.
“We wouldn’t dare,” he says. “I’ll meet you upstairs in about an hour. I just want to go over a few things here and say hello to a few people,” he tells her.
Her eyebrows wiggle at him. She taps her watch. “We shall see,” she says, smiling and then turning. My cousin’s eyes don’t leave her until she’s exited the club. That’s the kind of attraction I never felt with a woman until I met Isabella. That feeling like you want to protect them even when they don’t need it. But Isabella does. Whether she realizes it or not, she needs it far more than she knows.
The De Rosa’s don’t mess around. “So you want to tell me what’s really going on between you and this Izzy chick? Is she going to continue to be a problem? I don’t like the fact that we just used up a lot of police favors to make what happened this morning go away,” he says.
