The elevator arrives, and I step in, hitting the ground floor button. "No. I didn't." Much. "I just helped set her on the path to not continuously get rejected."
His silence says way too much.
"This isn't forever here," I add. "Just until we find out who is after her."
"Yeah, well... Be careful?—"
"This? Coming from you?"
"I wasn't ever Violet's boss."
"No, you were so much worse."
"Hey, I married the girl."
"Like that improves matters. And you told her about Cancun." I'm ticked off, and I don't know why.
Probably because Cancun pisses me off. And also, I'm gonna be Lola's boss.
It doesn't even matter if she is not directly under me—Nope, not letting my filthy brain go there, and that I'm not going to actually be changing career paths to Barwon. I still might run into her.
I'm right back where I started with this.
"I'm not planning to be an active part of Lola's life. I'm just trying to solve the situation I'm going to send you."
"Okay. Just a friendly reminder, Mr. Playing CEO. We do have actual Syndicate work coming up."
"I'm aware."
He sighs. "Fine, send it."
I hang up and, fingers flying over my phone's keyboard, I do just that.
Then I lean against the wall as I descend, a few different people coming and going on this elevator. Not as many as I assumed. Good.
I look at what she has sent me again.
The wet patch that makes me want to groan. The cotton that is bizarrely a turn-on.
Shit, I shouldn't be turned on by someone I have known for most of my life. Someone innocent and fragile I have just wanted to protect for longer than I care to remember. Someone I haven't met in years.
Then again, not having met in years doesn't mean I haven't kept tabs on her. Intervening when she might get into trouble, helping remove traces of her from anything that could put her in the public eye, even if she was innocent. Especially because she was.
If anyone found out she was linked to big money and worse, linked to big crime, then she would be fodder like so many mafia princesses end up being.
No one cared if whichever girl was innocent. They just wanted clicks and sales.
But like I promised my father, I kept my distance. Fuck, I'm honestly not sure why, other than he thought we might tangle the families.
Dad has never known the extent I have been involved in her life. He would be pissed if he even suspected half of it.
Fuck. Uncle Gino would be pissed, too.
What am I thinking?
My father wouldn't just be pissed. He would be birthing kittens and disowning me, banning me from the family.
To be honest, considering Gino got singed by her father, he might help.
