“Point it out when we get to it,” he says.
A few moments later we’re rolling down the street where this night began for us.I’m pretty sure the coats we left in the bushes are gone, but it’s hard to tell in the dark.And the street is as empty as it usually is this early in the morning.Or late at night, depending on how you want to look at it.It’s almost three thirty.I’d planned to come home at dawn.That way we’d sneak in with the maintenance staff and be in bed when anyone came looking for us.
I’m not even sure if the back door will be unlocked at this time of night.If it isn’t we’ll have to go through the main lobby and that is not a good idea.My dad’s guys have access to the security cameras in the building.I just hope they’re not checking them too diligently at three in the morning.
“This is it,” I say, pointing at a black metal door we just passed.
“Here?”he says, eying the door and then me like maybe he thinks I’m not in my right mind.
I open the door.“This is just the side door.Don’t worry.Thanks for everything.”
I step out so Chiara can get out too.Then I have so much trouble putting the seat back upright, he comes out too, standing so close I can smell his expensive cologne mixed with his natural odor.It’s an intoxicating mix—way more so than alcohol and whatever that guy slipped me.Strong enough to make my knees very weak and images of things I’ll only ever be able to do with my husband rush to the top of my mind in vivid images and sensations that I’ve never felt for a man.Sensations I’ve only felt on my own, thinking of men.Imagining all the stuff I could do with a man I loved.
My head is spinning again, and it has nothing to do with the amount of alcohol I consumed—just him.He even looks so damn good.About a head taller than me, built like one of those Michealangelo statues and a face that’s at once manly and gruff, and lips that look so damn kissable.The bleeding wound on his arm, the one he got saving me, makes him even more desirable.And the fact that his arms and hands are covered with tattoos isn’t helping either.
“What’s your name?”I hear myself ask.Chiara rolls her eyes at me.
“Matteo.”
Chiara slips her arm under mine and pulls me to the door.“Thanks for everything, Matteo.But we really have to go inside now.”
I’d really very much rather not leave him, but Chiara is relentless in dragging me towards the side entrance of the building.The whole while, I’m staring back at Matteo who’s walking back to the driver’s side of his car, looking like maybe he’d rather stay and talk to me some more.Just like I’d like him to stay.
So I don’t even see the side door open.I just hear Chiara’s gasp and feel and hear my dad’s guys rush past us, Rafaelle in the lead.
Matteo does try to get in the car and speed off, but he’s too slow.Mostly because we’re still locking eyes.I don’t think either of us want to stop looking at each other.
But then they have him pinned to the ground and it’s all my fault.I yell for them to stop, to let him go.
But all I get is a curt, “Your father wants to talk to you,” from Rafaelle as he leads the pack dragging Matteo into the building.
The look in his eyes suggests he could take them all in a fight, and I believe it.He’s not pleading or asking any questions, his face hard with the kind of confidence I’m only used to seeing in my dad’s eyes, and in my brother’s back when he was still alive.
“I’ll clear this up.Don’t worry, Matteo,” I call after him anyway.
Michele, our other personal security guard, is waiting for us by the door.
“This was very irresponsible of you girls,” he says as he waits for us to enter the building.
Chiara tells him that we’re entitled to a little fun once in a while, but I just rush past him and towards the elevators.Matteo and the rest must already be riding up in one of them, because they’re nowhere to be seen.
I press the up button repeatedly, muttering, “Come on, come on, come on,” as if that’s going to make the elevator door open any sooner.
Chiara is telling me to calm down, but I barely hear her.
All I know is that I have to get to dad before he hurts Matteo.I have to let Dad know he saved me.And I hope that will be enough.
Because in some weird way, I feel like my life is directly tied to his now.Maybe because he saved me, maybe because of something else… but either way, I need him to live.
Chapter6
MATTEO
If only Goldiehad been better at getting the Lambo closed, I’d have been three streets away before the goons rushed me.As it is, two of them are now dragging me down a windowless corridor that smells a lot like a sewer.I have no idea what’s about to happen.But I definitely see the old family curse of Ruin rearing its nasty head in all of this.
What the fuck was I supposed to do?Let that Russian murder her in that back alley?
No, I made the right choice.
