She wasn’t sure if she wanted to cry or scream. She wasn’t even sure if the confused feeling inside was positive or negative. “Mr. Guerra—”
“Santino,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll make me ask again, but call me Santino, beautiful. And when you’re ready, when you trust me a little more, I want to hear all your stories.”
Reiko locked her jaw for a second, swallowed hard, and spoke in a quiet, firm tone, “I’ve already told you I can’t get you closer to my father’s company.”
“I would rather throw a Molotov through his office window than buy out that shitshow, especially now,” Guerra said. “I don’t want Osamu’s company, beautiful. I wantyou.”
She nearly dropped the phone.
His words shouldn’t have jarred her. There was just something in the delivery, something in his tone, that carried straight past her logic filter and slammed into her emotional core.He said hewanted me…She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard those words.
It was a shame she knew the smart thing to do was still to turn him away.
“I’m flattered,” she said, quieter. Her free hand twisted in the material of her shirt, around her midsection, in a familiar habit she doubted she would ever break. “But I … I have a….” The words died on her tongue.
She hadn’t even wanted to tell him the easy part of her past. There was no way she could tell him the worst, ugliest things.
Guerra tsked at her. “We both know you don’t have any kids yet, and we just covered you being single. Don’t try that with me.”
His words startled her. “What? No, of course not.” She gave herself a shake. “I didn’t mean anything like that. I just meant— I’m trying to say that I … I’m not …beautiful.” She choked a bit on the word. She didn’t want to tell him, but maybe he’d give up if she gave him the superficial detail. As hard as that was on its own, that was easier than the whole story version. The end result would be the same, regardless.
Guerra paused for about two seconds before scoffing almost abrasively. “Do I need to buy you a new mirror? I don’t hand out compliments to people who don’t deserve them, Reiko. Don’t make me bust out the adjectives.”
His words made something in her chest ache in a way she wasn’t familiar with at all, and Reiko held tighter to her phone.Superficial explanation it is, then.She needed to chase him off and be done with this whole strange entanglement for good. As much as she could like his attention, there was no way it would last.
And the rejection would hurt worse if, or when, he became angry at realizing what she could have warned him of from the start.
Reiko swallowed and dug up her voice, doing her best to hold it steady. “I’m scarred. Physically. My body is scarred. That’s what I mean.” She snapped her mouth shut as her jaw began to tremble.
A muted thud carried through the line, like something heavy hitting the floor. Then Guerra’s voice growled into her ear in an angry tone she hadn’t heard from him before. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
Her eyes widened and her lungs seized.No.That wasn’t the response she’d been aiming for.
But why … why did she feel … almost hopeful? That was wrong. It wasn’t what she was supposed to feel. That wasn’t what was supposed to happen, either.
She dragged in a breath and whispered a strangled question. “You’re not … repulsed?”
“Repulsed?” Guerra exhaled hard. “You thought you could scare me off by telling me that, didn’t you?”
She didn’t know how to answer. Rather, she did, but to put it to words seemed incredibly rude. Especially because suddenly, and without any rational reason, she wanted desperately to be wrong. She’d never thought she could be before—not about that. No one had ever given her the hope.
“My beautiful Reiko,” Guerra said, a smile seeping back into his voice, “I tell you what—take the next hour to finish up whatever you were doing. I’ve got a meeting to polish off. Then I’ll swing by your place, pick you up, and we’ll spend the day together. Get to know each other. By the end of today, regardless of what we do or where we go, you will know one thing.” He paused, as if for effect. “You have someone in your corner. You have me.”
Chapter four
(Not) A Date
Armando popped his headpredictably into the Santino’s office not ten seconds after the keyboard crashed against the far wall. Shattered fragments of supposedly durable plastic and circuitry decorated the floor barely an arm’s length from the doorway.
Santino ignored his head of security while the older man studied the mess, still fuming. He wanted to upend his entire desk just to release a portion of the anger coursing through him.No.He wanted to put his fist through Osamu Matsunaga’s face, repeatedly. He wanted to personally beat on the man he’d never met until whatever teeth Matsunaga had left were dotting the floor at his feet.
But if he indulged before Reiko clarified what all her father had and had not put her through, Santino was sure to find himself lacking a satisfying target later. Osamu deserved his fury, of that, Santino had no doubt. Just for the pain he’d heard in Reiko’s gentle voice. But he needed to know the full story, the full scope, before he meted out any long-overdue, blood-soaked justice.
“Boss,” Armando said, calling his attention outward. “Everything okay?”
Santino grunted. “Just get that fucking cleaned up.” What on earth had compelled him to come into the office that morning? If he were home, he could at least take advantage of his personal gym and the punching bag he kept affixed to the basement ceiling.
Maybe he’d see about talking some fool into meeting him at the family’s boxing ring later. There was always somebody willing to take a few free swings at the boss, especially with the right bribe on the table.
