This hadn’t been what he expected. “What? No. It had nothing to do with us sleeping together. That is separate and had no bearing on what happened at il Signore. What brought that on?”
“She asked me when she came to pick me up for dinner. She said a bunch of things that kind of hurt me and made me feel like a bad person.”
“Like what?” He rubbed her back.
“Just stuff like she feels like she is second best to me and that I think I’m perfect and too good. As if I think she is beneath me. Henry had told me she was jealous of me earlier, but I hadn’t believed him.” She leaned into his chest.
“When she confronted me, it let me know how much it was true. To me, we were good friends, but I feel like all this time she has been hating me in secret. She didn’t even say sorry for the rumors she spread.”
“How long have you been friends for? Sometimes work-friend relationships don’t last long.”
Madison sat up. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. At least I believed we were.”
“Aww, baby, it’s ok. She might be having a hard time right now and doesn’t mean it.” He gave her a hug.
“I think that might be true. I think she wants me to give up this headliner position for her, but I can’t. My mom went through my savings that I had built up for use during my unpaid internship, so I need the money. I can’t give it up.”
“I know and I don’t expect you to, and I don’t think she means or wants that from you. I think she is just hurt now.”
“Maybe, it’s just some things that upset her, I have no control over.” She snuggled closer.
“Like what?”
“The fact that there are special rules for me.”
“Yeah, how did those come to be?”
“It was part of the original deal I had with Enzo when he asked me to work here.”
“He knew you danced?”
Fear flickered across her face and then disappeared. Alarm bells rang in the back of his head. It confirmed for him that Enzo didn’t run into another woman, but that it was Madison who had hit Enzo.
“He came to some of the clubs I had been at and asked why I didn’t work at il Signore. I told him it was the rules, and he said he could make a no touch rule with me if I would come and work there.”
“And he did.”
“Yep, so I came to work here twice a month.”
“Did anything else happen?”
“No.” It came out quick, like a lie. But he didn’t press her. He wanted her to trust him enough to tell him. He also hadn’t told her he was having her followed so he couldn’t tell her how he knew for a fact Enzo had been there without giving everything away.
He didn’t know why he kept the tail in place. She wasn’t cheating on him and the only people she visited were her parents, her brother, and Zoe.
Dante cupped her face. She had still brought her overnight bag so that meant she would spend the weekend with him.
He still wanted to use the time they had together to convince her that they could be good together in permanent relationship. In five weeks’ time, he planned to take her to Lucca’s engagement party and let everyone know he had found the special someone.
This way they could date without having to sneak around. For as long as they would be together, he wanted to be out in the open. Deep down he wanted a forever life with Madison, but he doubted it was possible.
She didn’t seem like the type to be a mafia wife and even though he was cleaning his businesses up, and wanted to leave the family, that would still always be a part of him. And there was the fact that he could go to jail. He didn’t doubt that Tony would get him out. But he didn’t know how long he would spend in.
Would Madison want to stay and wait for him to get out? Would she want to be with someone who had been to jail and had a possible prison sentence looming? No. He would need to wait until after everything was settled before he approached Madison for something more.
“I better go. I just came here first. Zoe will look for me.” She kissed him and then got up. “Can I leave my overnight bag here? I wasn’t sure if we were leaving from here or from my place.”
“Yeah, you can leave it with me. We’ll leave from here. You can come up after you’re done getting the bar ready for tomorrow. I’ll have a few things left to finish up, but it shouldn’t take too long and then we can leave.”
