Just seeing her name eases something in me I didn’t realize was tight. I message back.
Do you want me to come pick you up? I’d prefer to see you before going to dinner.
So I could kiss the shit out of her before meeting her parents. Remind myself that she’s mine, that she chose me.
No, it’s fine. I’ll be there by eight. Order me a red. I need a large glass after today. X.
Consider it done.
“Everything okay?” Lucien asks.
“Yeah, Dallen is going to be working back an hour, but it’s all good. One hour less I have to be with her parents.”
Anthony cringes. “I don’t envy you, but good luck. Something tells me you’ll need it.”
Something tells me I will as well. Because charming enemies is easier than convincing a cop that his daughter is safe with a Moretti, and for once, I care how this ends.
TWENTY-TWO
DALLEN
I sendoff the last email of the day and shut down my laptop. The soft whir of the system powering down seems unnaturally loud in the otherwise quiet office. I lean back in my chair and reach for my phone, sending a quick message to Stephen that I’ll be leaving in five.
Tonight is important to both Stephen and me. I have to convince my parents, especially my father, that Stephen Moretti, no matter his family’s shady past, is who I want in my life.
By my side.
Did I love him? Had I fallen in love for the very first time?
I sigh and put down my phone, placing several papers into files and setting them neatly in a tray for filing tomorrow. The overhead lights hum faintly above me, casting long shadows across the glass walls of the office. I still don’t know. I know what I feel is stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before. Probably not a hard outcome considering I’ve not dated anyone seriously, and that Stephen is my first sexual partner.
It’s only normal that I would feel far more feelings for him in that case.
Still, my stomach knots thinking about him. I don’t want to be apart from him. I plan things with an eye to what he’s doing and whether he can be included. I want him at my side, in my bed.
Maybe that means I do love him after all.
“Good evening, Dallen.”
I start at the sound of my name. The air in the office feels suddenly thinner. I’m alone, taking the extra hour to get ahead of my workload. The cleaning crew hasn’t even come through this floor yet. “Mr. Romero, how did you get in here?”
The pit of my stomach knots, and I stand, glad that the desk is between a man I no longer have any professional relationship with. Why is Elio Romero here? Has security allowed him to come up?
He tips his neck to the side, and I hear it crack in the stillness. “No welcome? No…good evening, Elio, how lovely to see you again? No handshake? Nothing?”
“It’s after office hours, and we don’t have a working relationship any more than a private one. Why are you here, Mr. Romero?” The smirk on Elio’s face raises the hairs on the back of my neck, and I swallow. I force the fear coiling through me down, not wanting him to know his presence here rattles me. That I don’t trust him or what he is capable of.
There is something in his eyes that is unnerving…
I know the Romeros are not good people. Granted, they’re probably as bad as the Morettis, but at least Stephen’s family is trying to right their wrongs. I can’t see Stephen cornering any woman in an unoccupied office late at night with unknown motives.
That had to count for something.
Didn’t it?
He pulls out a chair and slumps into it. Even from here, the smell of brandy is hard to miss, sharp and sweet in the recycledoffice air, and I force myself to relax, to think clearly and keep hold of the situation.
“I came to state how disappointed our family is that you’re no longer our lawyer. I’ve come to find out why we’ve been thrown over to your boss.” He pauses, leaning forward on his knees and meeting my eyes. “This decision doesn’t have anything to do with Stephen Moretti and you fucking him, does it? That by working for the Romeros put you at odds with the Morettis, who killed my cousin.”
