Matteo sits down opposite Lucio with a gentle but dominant swagger, a don’t-give-a-fuck attitude plastered all over his face as he leans back and stares at him with disdain. “You have a lot of balls showing up late,” Matteo responds, narrowing his eyes. “Maybe I should cut them off.”
Jesus.
Lucio’s men immediately tighten their muscles, ready for the attack, but Matteo doesn’t even flinch, and I’m left scrambling for a breath that feels like it never comes.
“I get that you’re pissed off,” Lucio begins.
“Pissed off?” Matteo interjects. “That doesn’t even begin to describe the amount of violence I wish to inflict on you, but go ahead, explain to me why you kept me waiting, with your filthy little henchmen over here.” He eyes all of the men at the table. “Couldn’t even be man enough to show up on your own,” Matteo huffs.
Lucio draws in a breath. “A certainsomeonedecided to throw a fit in the car on our way here.”
He turns his head and looks right at me, and a lump immediately forms in my throat.
Is he going to throw me under the bus now?
His eyes quickly flit to my neck and the missing jewelry he tried to bribe me with so I’d behave after he just gave me the worst news a girl could ever hear. He turns his head again and says, “My fiancée likes to get under my skin, but I won’t let her.”
Matteo’s brow rises. “Fiancée?”
I gulp when he glances at me, cold beads of sweat rolling down my back when his gaze flitters across my body and back to my face again, as if he’s searching for the reason a girl like me would ever choose to marry a guy like Lucio. But the answer is simple: I didn’t choose.
“You shouldn’t have brought her here,” Matteo sayscoldly.
“Is she a distraction to you?” Lucio asks, gripping his gun hidden beneath his jacket. I know it’s there. I saw him hide it after he put on his shirt.
My heart picks up speed, throbbing in my chest.
Matteo smirks. “When your blood splatters the wall, it’ll be a distraction for her.”
My face turns white as snow.
Oh my God.
Lucio’s men immediately get up, guns pulled and pointed right at Matteo’s head. But Matteo stays seated in a nonchalant manner, as if he’s not impressed at all. He simply sways his wrist back and forth and says, “Tell me … how fast do you think my men will storm in and litter this place along with your bodies in bullets after they find out my heart monitor is not functioning? I’ll wait.” When there’s no answer, he adds, “Do you think killing me will save you from hell?”
He smiles as Lucio gestures at his men to back down again. “Relax, relax. No one is getting killed here.”
“Very confident words for a man on death’s door,” Matteo responds.
“I realize how badly you have been affected by this situation.”
Matteo suddenly slams his fist onto the table. “Situation? My mother beingkilledby the likes of you is not asituation.”
So that’s what this is about.
“And I understand,” Lucio responds, “which is why I’mhere, to pay for my debt in full.”
He nods at one of his men, who puts a giant box on the table and opens it up right in front of Matteo. But Matteo seems unimpressed despite the fact that there must be at least two million dollars inside that box.
What I wouldn’t do for that kind of money. But if I got up now and stole it right underneath their noses, a bullet would hit me before I’d even touch the doorknob. Lucio would never let me get away, especially not with his money, which is why I’m so surprised he’s willing to part with it. Matteo must be one powerful man.
“You think this will be enough for me?” Matteo asks.
Lucio flicks his fingers. Another box just like it is put on the table, double the size, double the amount.
Jesus Christ.
“How much do you want?”
