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“I’ve been looking my whole life for that bracelet,” I continued. “And here you are, showing up out of the blue, wearing it.”
“Yes, I’m afraid the links are a little stretched and a little aged, like the rest of us. But Teodora…she brought us back to this area to look for the girl she never forgot.” Drago lifts his wrist again. “She’d been looking for you too, Izzy, but for some reason, she was unable to reconnect before the cancer took her.”
Too much. It’s too much, and with the liquor in my system, my emotions are heightened to the shredding point.
“It’s serendipitous that I’ve found you here by chance. Almost as though my Teodora is looking down on us.”
The knots in my gut twist a little tighter. I never even got the chance to say goodbye.
I can’t tear my eyes away from the bracelet. Giving in to those red-hot emotions, I wrap Drago up in a hug, my arms around the back of his meaty neck.
“Teodora meant the world to me,” I murmur. “She was a good woman.” No matter what my mother said.
“If you’re indeed the girl who owned this bracelet, then you meant the world to her as well. She’d never forgotten you, Izzy. We simply moved away. Time and distance…”
“I understand.”
“Then, here.” Drago breaks away, and one of his men moves up to help him remove the chain. “This belongs to you. If you’ll accept it. Will you take it from me, Izzy?”
My lower lip trembles, and I bite down hard on it to stop the movement. “Yes.”
Once the chain is undone, he loops it twice around my wrist and pats the top of my hand. “It looks much better on you than it does on me,” he insists. “Stunning, yes.”
Back where it belongs. And yes, age has come for all of us. The silver is a little tarnished, and the roses are not as beautiful as I remember, but Teodora had been looking for me, too. What were the odds? Relief courses through my system.
“I wish I could have gotten the chance to speak to her before she passed.” I lift shining eyes to Drago. “What happened to her?”
“What the hell is going on here?”
Like a shot, Ricardo’s voice breaks through the emotional moment along with a muffled curse as he fights his way through the guards around us.
I turn to him, already growling. “None of your damn business. How many times do I need to tell you? Get away from me.”
Drago steps up behind me and drops a meaty hand down on my shoulder. “Son, I understand you know this young woman, and by the way you look at her, you find her attractive. But this is not your place. We’re having a conversation.” He flashes Ricardo a cold smile. “Why don’t you run along and find someone else to warm your bed?”
Ricardo fails to read the room, and the situation, clearly. He takes a step forward and flexes a hand over his suit jacket right above his gun holster. No one in their right mind would want to mess with Drago and his men. Or make a problem in this neutral spot.
“Wherever she goes is my place,” Ricardo says calmly. “Step aside. She’s coming home with me now.”
My heart thuds at the words. If only he meant it. If only he meant it the way I wanted him to mean it and not because he thought he somehow protected me from myself. I harden my heart and draw my mental walls tighter, higher, stronger.
“I have this handled, okay?” I hold my hand out in front of me in a stop motion. “Please leave. I’m speaking to my friend, and if you have an issue, then you can run home and handle it yourself.”
“Don’t shoo me like a fucking dog, Isabella.”
“Then stop following me like one.”
Drago takes a step in front of me. “There’s no problem unless you choose to make it one. You’re testing my patience, son. Back away before you see what happens.”
A chill takes up residence in my blood, but I’m in this now, and to back down would give Ricardo all the power.
He shrugs, a casual gesture to anyone who doesn’t know him. “Keep calling me son, and you’re going to see just what kind of problem we have. She’s not going anywhere with you.”
“Who said we were leaving?” I snap. “I think you’re upset about getting punched, and now you want to act like a big shot.”
“Sweetheart—” Ricardo starts.
“I’m not your sweetheart.” And it causes me a physical pain in my chest to say it out loud. Because it doesn’t matter how desperately bad I’ve wanted this man to claim me. Right now, he’s here for the wrong reasons. He’s here to babysit.
