“As my roommate,” Matteo explains. “But she just agreed to officially move in with me. So, you won’t have to worry. We’ll be taking ittoourroom quite often.”
“New rule.” Lorenzo glares. “I don’t want to hear about youtakingmy sister anywhere.”
“How about wetakethis to lunch?” I push Matteo back and hop off the desk. “I’m starved, and I saw there’s a Greek place right across the street—my favorite.”
Matteo groans. “You’re lucky I love you because I am sick of eating Greek food.”
We get to the restaurant and order and then find a table outside since they’re covered and have fans, helping to cool the hot day down. Matteo, of course, sits next to me, his hand going to my thigh.
“I like this skirt on you,” he murmurs, leaning in and nibbling on my bottom lip.
“Rule number one,” Lorenzo whines, reminding us that we’re not alone.
“Sorry,” I tell him. “We’ll try harder.”
“No, we won’t,” Matteo says. “You’re just acting like a whiny bitch because Hillary fucked you over.”
“Matteo!” I hiss.
“What? It’s the truth. You need to get back out there,” he tells Lorenzo. “You going to the fight this weekend? There will be women everywhere. Find one and fuck that bitch out of your system once and for all.”
I gasp at Matteo, ready to tell him that’s not how it works, when another thought occurs to me. “Your fight is this weekend?”
He glances down at me. “Yeah. You knew I had a fight coming up. Hence all the training I’ve been doing.”
“I know. But I didn’t know it wasthisweekend. How does it work? Where is it? Do I need to buy tickets?”
Lorenzo chuckles, but Matteo frowns.
“No, you’re not going.”
I rear back. “What? Why can’t I go?”
“Because I already told you no before,” Matteo says as if his word is final.
“I want an actual reason,” I say. “I’m a grown woman, and you’re treating me like a child.”
The waitress drops off our food, but neither Matteo nor I make a move to eat.
“Because the last fight ended with a fire,” Matteo finally says.
“Well, a false fire,” Lorenzo points out, making Matteo glare. “What? The Underground didn’t catch fire,” he says to me. “It was a distraction to get everyone out. Then, while the girls went home, we went to the warehouse because there was another fire. But again, it was only a distraction so that psycho Anthony could try to kidnap Dominick’s son.”
I heard about this. While Brielle and I were shopping, she gave me a bit of a backstory so I would understand why we had guards. She also told me about her past, which had me wanting to cry for her. I couldn’t imagine someone forcing me to have an abortion. She comes across so put together, but I can tell there’s a part of her that will forever be broken because of what she went through.
“Will Brielle be there?” I ask.
“It doesn’t matter,” Matteo says, taking a bite of his food. “You won’t be.”
“That’s not fair.” I pout, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Eat your food, Little Russo,” Matteo says, pointing at my untouched food.
I huff in annoyance, but my stomach growls, so I eat, but not because he told me to.
“This conversation isn’t over,” I warn him, hitting him with a look that makes him close his mouth rather than argue.
27
