AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Everything okay here?” I asked, my attention on the woman who looked like she was doing her best to get away from this creep.
“Mind your damn business,” he growled.
My gaze snapped to his as I took a threatening step forward. Today wasnotthe day to do that to me. “Not gonna mind my business when you’re standing in my line.” I hooked two fingers at him to silently tell him to come forward, then stepped back. He came willingly, laughing it up with his friends, trying to act like he was the big man. “You can go.” I handed him back his ID, already turning to take my position at the doors, but then a hand landed in the square of my back, pushing me forward.
Rage thrashed through me, the need to swing around with my fist ready so high, but I contained myself, instead holding on to my anger—just barely—as I slowly turned. “Did you just put your hands on me?” I asked like I was talking to a toddler.
“Fuck you,” the guy spat, squaring up to me.
I grinned as wide as I could, so damn grateful that this motherfucker came into my life right now because I needed something to let my anger out on, and his face was the perfect damn target.
“You know who I am?” I asked, dropping my arms to my sides and forming a fist.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are.” He pushed against my chest, causing me to stumble back half a step. Mistake. Big fuckin’ mistake. “I’m gonna knock you the fuck out.”
I tutted like he was a naughty schoolboy who had just been caught bullying the helpless kid in the playground. “Wrong move, motherfucker.” I swung, instantly connecting with his temple and causing him to go down. He was dazed, his friends around him backing down immediately. “Let me introduce myself.” I put my feet either side of his chest, standing over him and grabbing his collar to bring him up a little. “I’m Rafael Pagani.” I slammed my fist into his nose, relishing in the fact that blood came squirting out.
“Holy shit,” I heard someone murmur. “He’s a Pagani.”
The whispers turned louder, the line backing away as I hit the unsuspecting douchebag again, and again. Each time my knuckles hit off his face, I felt a little better—but also worse. It wasn’t working. It wasn’t taking the pain away. So I tried harder. I crouched over him, uppercutting his chin, and finally knocking him out.
“Get out of the way,” a deep voice shouted. My eyes were blurry as I looked up, the rage having taken me over completely, but when I put a voice to the name, I knew I was fucked. “Jesus Christ, Raf!” I slowly lifted up off the guy, ignoring Mateo as he grabbed my bicep and yanked me inside. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking,” I panted, feeling the blood from the guy starting to dry on my knuckles. “I was thinking that dick pushed me, so I showed him that he messed with the wrong goddamn guy.”
“Fuck me,” Mateo groaned, shaking his head. “Lorenzo ain’t gonna be happy. Especially with doing that shit here.”
“Doing what?” I asked, following him down a back hallway and to the office. Now that I was inside, my ears were thrumming, everything coming back tenfold. “Defending myself? Defending the bar?” I stepped into the office, already reaching for my cell now that it was charged.
“You should have kept your cool, Raf,” Mateo said, sitting in the leather office chair. “I know you have a lot going on—”
I cut him off, slicing my hand through the air. “No. Nothing is going on.” I widened my stance at his raised brow. He didn’t believe me, but I didn’t give a fuck. “There isn’t. Peyton is gone. She played us—me—there’s nothing more to it.”
Mateo reclined back in his chair, staring me down. He was good at reading people too, just like I was. “Is that right?”
Leaning against the wall, I clutched my cell in my hand. “Yeah. They think she moved next to Romeo because of who she was. Trying to cause shit between us and Ace’s crew.” I paused, hating the way my hands started to go numb. “She was trying to fuck with us.”
“And you believe that?” Mateo asked, sitting up and leaning his forearms on his thighs. I shrugged, because if I was honest, I didn’t have the brain capacity right then to knowwhatI believed. “Let me tell you a little something.” He paused, making sure I was listening. “If I would have believed everyone around me when it came to Luna when I first met her, we’d never have gotten to where we are now.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does that even mean?”
“It means…no one thought she was good for me. She stole from Lorenzo and they judged her solely on that, but only I saw the background to it, only I saw the hurt in her eyes and the secrets she kept. All it took to get to the bottom of what she was holding back was to be there—to fight for her.” He stood, maneuvering past me. “So I’ll ask you this: what does your gut tell you?”
“I…I don’t know.”
He nodded. “You do, you just haven’t listened to it yet.” He pulled the door open, parting with, “Go home, meet me at the mansion in the morning.” His lips landed in a straight line. “Lorenzo will want to talk to you about what happened out there.”
Part of me wanted to ask him to not say anything—to keep it a secret just between us—but I knew he couldn’t, not just because he answered to Lorenzo, but because of the other soldiers who had witnessed it. So I nodded as he exited the room, leaving me behind in the silent space.
Fuck. Now I wasn’t surewhatto think. Mateo was the last person who I thought would say something to me about Peyton. But…he was also the only person who hadn’t taken what was being said and ran with it.
Blinking, I blew out a deep breath, then lifted my cell, my heart skipping a beat as I saw Peyton’s name next to a time stamp that read yesterday’s date.
She’d tried to contact me?
Did she need my help?
My thumb clicked on the message, opening it up, and my entire body froze, my brain trying to soak in the words—trying to read between the lines.
