“What are you so happy about?” I asked him. I could feel the slight throb of a vein at my temple.
“Nothing, boss,” he said, turning to face me and schooling his features.
I was about to lose my shit. I didn’t deal well with lies. I expected honesty from the people I surrounded myself with. For the second time in three weeks, Dante’s actions drove me to pin his arm behind his back and this time he was up against the front door.
“I just saw you with her,” I said through clenched teeth. This imbecile was meant to be my best friend and someone I regarded as family. “I’m meant to trust you, but you can’t seem to follow orders. I told you she’s mine.”
“I wasn’t sure that still stood with Amber being here,” Dante hissed through the pain. “Mia looked blindsided when she walked in and saw her this morning.”
Mia’s face, when I walked back in this morning, had hit me hard. She’d barely been able to keep eye contact with me and suddenly I was struck with the urge to explain my way out of the hole I had dug myself. She was not a woman who jumped into bed with a man, that much was evident. For all of the respect I had stipulated from her, I had embarrassed her in return. I could fix it if I could speak to her alone, but the morning had spiralled, and now continued the downward trajectory.
“So, you thought you’d help her out again?”
“You’re trying to have your cake and eat it, Luc,” Dante told me. At times, he knew me too well. “She doesn’t seem like a girl who’s going to be up for that.”
“And you could do better?” I snapped. “You’re no different to me, Dante or have you forgotten that we grew up together?”
“I’d wager that she trusts me more than you at this point.”
That was the final straw. I had brought Mia here and the thought that she favored someone over myself did not sit well with me. It awoke a jealousy that I didn’t realize I possessed. Without a second thought, I twisted and placed pressure against Dante’s arm and there was a sickening crack before he screamed and cursed at the top of his lungs.
“I told you I didn’t expect to repeat myself,” I told him coldly, no remorse or sympathy for what I had inflicted on him. I let go of his arm and it dropped limply to his side as he continued the stream of expletives.
In the din, I hadn’t heard Amber until she appeared at my elbow and said, “What the hell is going on? Are you boys playing nice?”
“Looks like I have to cancel lunch,” I told her, fixing the sleeves on my shirt. “I need to take Dante up to the hospital.”
“Luc,” Amber whined, and it grated on me, doing nothing for my already dismal mood.
“I mean it, Amber.”
I had a distinct change of plans after this morning's events. Putting things right with Mia and proving Dante wrong in his smug assumption, would require me keeping some distance from Amber. Something I was more than capable of doing.
I marched Dante through the door and towards the car while Amber stormed off to her own, unhappy with being blown off. Dante looked pale as I helped him into the car. The adrenaline had worn off and the pain was setting in. Jumping into the driver’s side, I set off for the hospital.
“Why don’t you just listen?” I asked him now the initial anger had passed.
“I did, Luc,” he replied. “But something’s going on and Mia didn’t seem happy about it. Wasn’t like you were going to give her an explanation.” He spoke through gritted teeth before heaving from the pain.
“Don’t you dare,” I warned him, dreading the thought of Dante’s vomit across the leather interior of my pride and joy.
“You shouldn’t have broken my fucking arm,” he shot back.
I kept my eyes on the road and put my foot down.
“I’m not interested in her, Luc,” he told me.
“Are you sure about that?” I could see him nodding from the corner of my eye.
“She’s a stunner but that’s a woman who’s going to want more than to keep your bed warm and a wad of cash. She’s not Amber.”
There was a silence that stretches between us as I contemplated his words. It wasn’t just me who had noticed Mia’s mood this morning and drew conclusions. “I know.”
We reached the hospital and I helped him out of the car and into the building before alerting the staff to my clumsy friend who fell down the stairs.
“You need to figure out where your head is, boss,” Dante said to me. “It doesn’t seem like she’s strictly business to you.”
A nurse came through to escort Dante to X-ray.
