My love.She’d called me “my love.” And yet still, she’d left. Evil fucker that I am. I’m staring out the window of my room when Mateo arrives.
“What do you plan to do about it?” he asks. The sun has barely been up long enough to brighten the landscape I’m looking over, but he’d answered on the first ring when I called earlier. I’ve been up all night, trying to come up with an answer to the very question he’s just asked.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m frozen with indecision. Everything within me is screaming to bring her back.
“Do you know where she’s gone?” Mateo presses on, not waiting for me to answer his first question. I shrug.
“She left in a silver BMW at around 9 p.m.,” I say. “Guard got the plates when she went through access control.”
“I’ll run it,” he says, reaching for his phone.
“Don’t bother. It’s done,” I tell him. I know her doctor friend picked her up. It didn’t surprise me. That’s the woman she turns to for comfort…at times when I’ve fucked up her head. She’ll never be able to turn to me like that.
There’s a slight sound as my door swings wider behind Mateo. Raoul is moving into the room.
“She’s bolted?” he says, adding to the turmoil in my head.
“Could you blame her?” I ask. After what I’ve put her through…why is anyone surprised?
“Hardly,” says Raoul. “Especially not when you’d just handed her a crap ton of diamonds.”
Mateo’s head snaps up. “What?”
“That was your mother’s necklace she had on yesterday, right?” asks Raoul.
I glare at him. “What of it?”
“Jesus, Dario, are you out of your mind?” Mateo bites out.
Raoul’s staring at me. “That thing’s gotta be worth, what…quarter of a mill?”
“It’s worth millions,” says Mateo.Motherfucker. I don’t need someone taking inventory of my assets right now.
“It’s not important,” I say. But itisfucking important. One of the last tenuous links to the woman who gave me life. And I gave it to the woman I’d prayed would spend the rest of it with me.
“We’ll track her down,” says Raoul. “Get the fucking thing back if we have to pry it from her greedy little fingers. Fucking whore.”
“You!” I round on him with murder in my eyes, and he shrinks back slightly. “You do not get to speak of her that way!” I roar. “Do you fucking hear me?”
He nods silently.
“Besides, I think we have bigger issues to deal with,” Mateo adds. “You know there’s war brewing, right?” I heave a sigh. When I rub my eyes, they feel bruised. I’m not up to speed yet, dammit. My body is failing me. And a lot has happened while I’ve been languishing like some kind of pussy.
“We’ll discuss it at the gym,” I say grimly. The pair exchange glances.
“You sure that you—?” Mateo begins. I stare daggers at him.
“Are you making me speak twice?” I snap.
He gives a quick nod. “I’ll get my gear,” he says as they turn to leave the room.
∞∞∞
An hour later, Mateo and I are on the mat, sweating like pigs.
“Again!” I snarl, silently cursing my trembling limbs as I face down my second-in-command.
“Dario, you—”
