I fucking love her.
CHAPTER 20
Hard Decisions
Rico
“Son, here, take this,”my father says as I pass him in the foyer.
I look down to find him handing me a leather notebook. I look back up at him and lift a brow. He gives me a smile and pats my cheek as I take the book from him.
“It belongs to Oni. She left it in my office the other day. You might want to take a peek. That is one special young woman.”
I open the book to the page that has a ribbon in it. I’m taken by surprise as a sketch of me comes into view. It’s so detailed I would think I was looking at a photograph of myself if I didn’t know better.
“Wow,” I breathe.
“Yes, wow.”
I look up into my father’s eyes, hearing his unspoken words. I have Oni here for the wrong talents. Once again, it sinks in that I don’t deserve her.
I know this, but I also know I’m in love with her and it’s going to be nearly impossible to let her go now. The look on her face from earlier comes back to me. The right thing would be to let her return to New York and forget about everything that’s happened here.
She’s capable of something this beautiful and yet I’ve turned her into a killer. I swallow hard and turn to walk away with my thoughts. Once I’m in my room, I change for bed and climb into it with the notebook to look through it.
Drawing after drawing takes my breath away. She’s so skilled. How did I not know this about her?
I’m leafing through the pages when the door to my room opens. Lightning fast, I reach for my gun and flick off the safety as I aim at the door.
“It’s me.”
I release a sigh of relief and place the safety back on the gun. Placing the gun back where it belongs, I then move the notebook to my nightstand. Forcing a smile to my face, I wave her in.
“Come here, baby,” I say as I open my arms.
Oni rushes over to me and straddles my lap. I envelope her in my arms as she sobs into my neck. I hold her tight and rub her back.
I had a feeling this was going to happen at some point. She handled everything like a champ earlier, but she’s still an innocent sixteen-year-old girl. So much turmoil fills me.
The next words out of my mouth taste like shit. “I’m sending you back home. Your debt is clear. You don’t ever have to worry about me or my family ever again.”
She pulls away and looks me in the eyes. Big fat tears are gathering and spilling from hers. I cup her face and wipe them away with my thumbs.
“You’re getting rid of me. You don’t want me anymore?”
I crush my lips to hers, but don’t deepen the kiss. I don’t know that she’s ready for that. I just want to show her I still want her, but this is the right thing to do.
“I still want you, baby. God, you don’t know how much I care about you. I just feel like this is the right thing to do.
“You don’t belong in the middle of any of this. If I love you, I should let you go.”
She sits frozen as she searches my eyes. I think over my words and realize what I just said. A little smile comes to her trembling lips.
“You love me?”
“Yeah, baby. I do. I love you so much it’s going to fucking kill me to let you go,” I breathe against her lips.
“I love you too. I don’t want to leave you. I promise I’m okay. I just needed to get this out of my system.”
