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He scowls. “They were her bodyguards. Pretty sure it was.”
I shake my head, tears pricking at my eyes. “It was all on me. They did their jobs. But I…” I what? I gained their trust and then used them for my fucked-up plan for revenge. “If you’re going to hold anyone responsible, punish anyone for what happened, then it should be me.”
His dark eyes narrow further. “So, you’re saying you’d take their place? Because as it stands, you’re free to walk out of this house and no one will come after you.”
I should walk out. Go to our tiny island in the Med and never look back. But I can’t.
I take a deep breath, preparing to kiss my future, and quite possibly my life, goodbye. “If that’s what it takes to keep them from harm, yes.”
Lorenzo sits back in his chair and the chuckle that tumbles from his lips twists my stomach into a knot. Is he laughing because he’s imagining all the ways he’s about to make me pay for what I did? He drums his fingertips on his desk. “Would you believe my wife is a pacifist?”
The woman I kidnapped convinced him to let me go, so… “Yeah, I can see that.”
He sighs heavily. “Makes my job very difficult.”
My legs are trembling. Why do I feel like a mouse caught in the paws of a lion? “How’s that?”
“If I were to hurt Ace and Romeo, she’d be so fucking pissed at me.” He runs a hand through his hair. “Joey too. Seems she’s quite attached to that pair of fuckwits.”
“So you’re not going to hurt them?”
He shakes his head. “I’m not sure the satisfaction of seeing them suffer for their incompetence is worth the grief.” His lips curl into an unmistakable grin. Planting his hands on his desk, he leans forward and stares into my eyes. “But it is admirable that you came back here and tried to bargain yourself so I’d spare them.”
His words are like a shard of glass, piercing the carefully constructed armor around my heart. Unexpected and unwelcome tears sting my eyeballs, and I force myself not to cry. “Max told me you knew I’d be back.”
He nods, his gaze not leaving mine. “I did.”
“But you thought I’d come back to make a claim on your money?” I spit, finding it so much easier to hate him than feel anything resembling affection.
“I knew exactly why you’d come back here,” he says cryptically. “But I do have something for you.” He pulls a wad of papers from his desk drawer and slides them across the desk.
I glance at the top page. It looks like the deed to a property. “What is this?”
“It’s a convent.”
“A convent?”
“Well, it used to be. It closed about eighteen months ago, and we acquired the building. Eighty thousand square feet of real estate.”
I frown. Why the hell is he telling me this? “And?”
He sucks air through his teeth. “I told Mia about our conversation, about your dream of a safe place for people who have nowhere else to go. It’s a cause close to my wife’s heart. So when she saw this place, she had a crazy idea about donating it to charity.”
“Which charity?”
He shrugs. “Well, you can call it whatever you want.”
“Huh?” He’s talking in riddles, and I need to get out of here before Romeo and Ace get back.
His chest heaves with a sigh, and he leans forward, his dark eyes searching mine like he’s looking for my deep-rooted truths. If he could see my truths, he would see pain, and I know he’s had plenty of experience with that lately. I’m hit with another wave of bone-crushing guilt over what I put him through when I took his wife and child. I terrorized the man who saved me from a life of pain and terror. “You can have your dream. This building is yours if you want it. Turn it into the place you spoke of.”
Confusion clouds my brain, and I blink at him for a few seconds before I find my voice again. “But I know nothing about running a charity.”
“Then learn.” He shrugs as if it’s that simple. “You were smart enough to get by two of my best men, I’m sure this isn’t beyond your abilities. We donate to plenty of charities in the city and we’ll support this one too if you’d like, but it’s yours. You’ll be responsible for everything.”
“And forever be in your debt?”
He laughs darkly. “Always so suspicious, little girl.”
