"I just did."
"We're going to have this conversation again when you're better," I told her as I realized just how much trouble this woman could be. If anyone else dared to speak to me the way Mia did, I wouldn’t hesitate in showing them their error, but as with everything, Mia had become the exception.
"Sure thing," Mia blew me off.
I’d looked down to say something else when there was a loud bang from somewhere downstairs in the house. We both sat up straight.
"What was that?" Mia asked, eyes wide with panic.
"Stay here," I ordered her, making it to the door before I turned back. "Do not move."
I heard the commotion as I walked down the hallway. A quick stop in my room allowed me to arm myself before I moved quickly down the stairs to see Dom trying to push someone out of the house.
"There he is! Lucas!" The man Dom tried to remove grinned at me. His eyes were sunken, and his shirt untucked from his pants from the scuffle.
"Marco. What are you doing here?" I asked as my grip tightened on the gun and Marco clocked it. Most of my morning had been wasted trying to get this man to understand the word no.
"Uh, uh, Lucas, we don't want this getting messy now, do we?" Marco asked. He pushed Dom aside and walked towards me as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his own gun. "I just want to know why you won't take me up on my kind offer."
I looked over Marco's shoulder at Dom. Marco had always been a loose cannon and I didn’t trust that this wouldn’t end with a shot. There didn’t need to be collateral damage in a dispute that was solely between us. "Get Lydia out. Now."
Marco was toe to toe with me, as Dom left us to do as I’d told him. "I was surprised to be dealing with Dante today. You finally leaving that puppy in charge must mean you have something more important going on. How's your brother doing?”
I gritted his teeth, a flash of pain running through my jaw. How dare this man walk into my house and insult my family?
"Marco, I suggest you turn around and walk the fuck back out of my house because I won't hesitate to bury a bullet in you," I hissed at him. Marco raised his hands in defense as I pressed the barrel of my gun into his chest.
I should have known that he would pull a stunt like this. Marco Bianchi had been a thorn in my side for as long as I could remember. He ran a ring in the next town over so our paths had crossed, but whereas I liked to think I conducted business with some sense of moral code, there was nothing that Marco wouldn't do. Association in any form with this man was something I had avoided.
He had tried to get me to work with him for the past year while I refused to work with such a sorry excuse for a man, and the desperation had reached its peak. I had begun to think he was either losing control of his territory or that there were some serious cash flow issues. Whatever it was, Marco couldn’t deal with it alone.
"Oh no," Marco commented, a smile creeping onto his face. "It looks like something much better than that." His focus was beyond my shoulder to something by the stairs, "Come introduce yourself, sweetheart."
My stomach dropped and, glancing behind me, I saw Mia stood watching us. She looked paler than when I had left her in bed.
"Go!" I yelled at her. I hadn’t specified for Dom to get Mia with Lydia on purpose, so that she remained hidden away. She didn’t hear me or didn’t listen, so she stood there in shock, eyes fixed on us both.
"You don't want to introduce us?" Marco asked me. "You obviously didn’t inherit your hosting skills from Charlie. He would be turning in his grave."
"LISTEN TO ME!" I barked at Mia. "GO!"
That jolted Mia out of her daze, and she turned and moved with haste back and away from the mess. Marco laughed and my knuckles turned white from the way I clenched them around the gun. Why had she not listened?
"You want to talk business, Marco, then get out of my house and do it at either your club or my casino," I told him.
"You're actually going to give me the time now?" He pulled his focus away from the stairs where he had watched Mia disappear and back to me.
I pushed him so he moved backwards. "Let's go."
∞∞∞
There would be no more taking time off now that Marco had decided to rear his ugly head. I was beginning to lose my patience with him, but I couldn't afford to start a war when I had to deal with everything to do with Mom and Stefan, and now Mia.
Mia. I had barely seen her, let alone spoken to her since that morning. She had taken my temper personally. It was one thing to tell her about what I did as boss, but it was another entirely to potentially have her involved with psychopathic Bianchi.
"Are you serious?" Mia asked Dom, causing me to stop in my tracks. Taking two steps back, I stopped by the door to watch them. They were partially obscured by the sofa, having chosen to sit on the floor.
"As a heart attack."
