“You can get matching mugs, then. You like kissing your Morelli, too.”
She smiles fondly, grabbing my tie and pulling me in for a kiss. “I sure do.”
Chapter Thirty Three
Vince
A strong hand lands on my shoulder, squeezing to get my attention. I turn back and see Adrian, a man I once considered a friend. Now, I shrug off his hand and turn, already guarded.
“What do you want?” I demand.
Adrian’s eyebrows rise. “It’s what you want. You requested an audience with Mateo.”
I can’t help scoffing. “An audience? He’s not a fucking king.”
Adrian shakes his head at me. “Don’t be bitter just because he stole your princess, Vince.”
Carly wraps a protective arm around my side. “He found a new one; he’s just fine.” She springs naturally to my defense, but I can see mild confusion in her eyes when she looks at me. I never got around to telling her about the plan I hatched last night when I told Mateo I needed to talk to him, so she didn’t know I asked to speak to him. Mia circumvented the plan when she hauled me in the bathroom and told me not to take the bait, so I didn’t need to tell Carly.
I do still need to tell him about Meg, though, so I pull Carly’s arm from around my waist, giving her hand a squeeze. “I have to go talk to him real quick. I’ll be right back.”
“Be… calm,” she says, for lack of better advice.
I leave Carly and walk with Adrian down the haunted halls I grew up in, toward the man I’ve come to hate more than any other man alive. Tension tightens my muscles, the blood in my anger heating. Carly just told me to stay calm, but it’s impossible to be calm around him. Mia’s words to me last night spring to mind, reminding me this is his last chance to goad me into fucking up. He’s probably going to hit me with all he’s got since there are no witnesses. What can he do to me that he hasn’t already, though? What can he say to me that hasn’t echoed off the walls of my brain for years?
I look over at Adrian, like I’ll get some indication of what waits for me inside, but Adrian is expressionless. A good fucking soldier, like all the rest.
Adrian turns the knob and pushes open the door to Mateo’s study.
I step inside, my eyes drawn to the imposing figure Mateo cuts, standing by his beverage cart, pouring himself a drink. He hears me come in, so he pours me one, too.
With his back still to me, Mateo tells Adrian, “You can go.”
Adrian is understandably reluctant to leave. “You want me to go?”
Mateo turns back with both glasses. “Yes. I can handle Vince on my own.”
“All right.” Adrian still sounds mildly surprised, but he nods and backs out of the room, closing the door behind him.
Mateo waves me over, indicating the chair in front of his desk. He sets my glass down there and walks around to the other side, dropping into his chair and leaning forward, holding his arms on top of the desk.
“Now, tell me what it is we need to talk about.”
Seeing him here like this, imposing, composed, unbothered by me, makes me feel like a kid again. An angry, lonely, sad fucking kid. It makes me think of the day I sat in this desk and he told me about the job I would do, my first hit. That wasn’t my job. I was only 18. I didn’t want to, but he wanted me to dip my toes into all aspects of the business. He wanted me to break in and steal something first, then he wanted me to clean up the mess afterward. My first job solo, but with Adrian for training wheels.
The house next door to Mia’s.
Of all the ways I thought that job might ruin me, I never anticipated it would end this way.
Since I haven’t spoken, Mateo lifts a dark eyebrow. “What’s on your mind, Vince?”
“I was just thinking about when I was younger. How many times I wished I had a way out of this family.”
Mateo offers a faint nod. “You found one.”
“The price was too high,” I murmur, my gaze dropping to his desk.
“The price is always high,” he states, without sympathy. “It has to be.”
I can’t look at him. I don’t mean to ask, but the words creep out of my heart and fall out of my mouth without my permission. “Do you love her?”
He doesn’t answer right away. It’s almost certain he won’t answer at all. After a few beats of heavy silence, though, he surprises me by saying, “More than anything.”
My head bobs, but without any instruction from my mind. In a way, that makes me feel better. I know I’m responsible for bringing her into his crosshairs to begin with and it would be unbearable to think he captured her, possesses her love, and only views her as some kind of trophy. I felt like she was just his trophy. It makes it slightly easier if she’s not.