She turned to leave before she whipped back around, her finger in the air as the entire room fell silent.
“One last thing, Mateo.”
I lowered my voice. “Watch your words.”
She giggled. “That bank deal with Mr. Porchenzo? I’d take it if I were you. The Luccheses don’t do anything with the banks on this island, and it would give you another leg up. But, I’d like to get in on that deal. Have my name on something.”
“Over my dead body.”
“That can be arranged, if you’d like.”
Red dripped over my vision. “I’ll think about it, but that’s it.”
She snickered. “I knew you’d see it my way. Oh, here. Your tie is crooked.”
In front of the entire crowd watching us, she straightened my tie. And in that moment, I saw Char disappear into the darkness out of the corner of my eye. I’d never seen my wife so threatened. I’d never seen her so territorial and defensive over me. Char was her weak spot. The one thing she couldn’t get past in my life right now. And I knew I could use that to my advantage.
The issue? Char was becoming my weak spot as well.
Which made her a target for far more nefarious people than my fucking wife.
19
Charlotte
The second I saw that woman straighten his tie, I disappeared into the crowd. At first, I wanted to stand by Teo’s side and defend him if necessary. But, it almost seemed as if he was letting her one-up him, and I couldn't stomach watching it.
Not to mention, now the entire crowd knew I was nothing but the ‘other woman’.
All I wanted to do was get out of there and back up to my room.
I slinked through the crowd with a smile on my face and made my way back into the kitchen. The luscious smells of food still being cooked pulled me to the chef’s side, where I stacked a plate full of delectables before reaching for a bottle of that wonderful dry red wine. I took the back stairway leading up to my apartment, readying myself for a drunken night of loneliness.
Before a voice sounded behind me halfway up the stairs.
“Emerald green suits you, Miss Pettigrew.”
I slowly turned around. “Lorenzo.”
He nodded. “Charlotte.”
I studied his still-bruised face. “I’m surprised you’re up and about.”
He walked up the steps toward me. “And I’m surprised you’re still alive.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because the bounty I heard your head might bring someone is pretty substantial.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re bluffing.”
He held out his hand. “Why don’t we go speak in private?”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I’m afraid you really don’t have a choice.”
I heard the door open above me and I looked up to see two bodyguards standing at the entrance to my apartment quarters. I gritted my teeth and drew in a deep breath, not wanting to upset the balance anymore than it had already been upset. I ventured up the stairs and pushed between the two men who made no effort to get out of my way. And as I stalked over to the couch in the living room set-up just outside my bedroom door, I placed the food tray in my lap.
“Mind if I have a bite?” Lorenzo asked.
I looked up at him. “Do I really have a choice?”
He picked up a cheese and sausage ball before plopping it between his teeth. Then, he took the bottle of wine from my grip and made his way over to the kitchenette. I tried to crane my neck around him to watch him open the wine bottle, but his bodyguards stood in the way. So, when he brought back two glasses of wine, I turned my nose up at it.
“No longer thirsty?” Lorenzo asked.
I snickered. “For all I know, it’s drugged.”
His eyes held mine. “Then, allow me.”
His stare didn’t waver once as he took a pull from my glass, and I watched for any sign of poisoning. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew people like Lorenzo could drug themselves to build up a tolerance to things. So, I watched the whites of his eyes. I watched for any dilation of his pupils. Any tremor, or cough, or bobbing of his Adam’s apple that signaled to me his body was having a latent reaction to something in the drink.
But, there was nothing.
“See?” Lorenzo asked.
He handed me the glass of wine and I plucked it from his hand.
“What is it you want?” I asked.
He leaned back. “Just a conversation. That’s all.”
“With two armed guards hiding up here in wait?”
He shrugged. “Can you blame me after our last run-in?”
“Don’t try kidnapping me and we won’t have an issue.”
He smirked. “How has it been, being a bought woman?”
I sighed. “I suppose it wasn't terrible. But, now that I’m under Mr. Emiliano’s employ and free to roam, I’m hardly a kept woman.”
“Does he allow you to freely venture out?”
“Why would I want to when you’re roaming the streets?”
He chuckled. “You’re a fiery one. I really like that in a woman.”
I set my wine glass on the coffee table in front of me. “I don’t really care what you like.”
“Then, you shouldn’t have any problem answering my question since you don’t care what I like or what I think anyway. Or, do you have an issue with the answer to that question in the first place?”
I cleared my throat. “Mr. Emiliano has hired me onto his staff. So, I’m sure that if I needed to run an errand somewhere or go meet with a client, I’d be more than free to take his town car.”
“Has he unlocked that cell phone he gave you?”
I tried not to give away my shock. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Oh, come on now, Charlotte--.”
“Miss Pettigrew,” I corrected.
His eye twitched. “You and I both know you're nothing but a prisoner here. If you resigned and said you wanted to go back home to your business, I know he’d throw you back into that basement.”
“No, he wouldn’t. I have faith that he’d freely let me go.”
“So, then why haven’t you discussed going back home?”
I blinked. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want to?”
He smiled, but it didn’t affect his blank stare. “So, you enjoy being a bought woman who just so happens to be the consort of a married man?”
I stood to my feet. “You and your bodyguards can see yourself out the same way you got in here.”
Lorenzo lunged to his feet, gripping my arm so tightly that my plate of food went crashing to the floor.
“Get off me!” I exclaimed.
He pulled me against his body. “I want to hear you say it, Miss Pettigrew. I want to hear you admit that you’re still nothing but a prisoner here. Unable to go home, unable to place a phone call, unable to even grocery shop for yourself.”
“Help! Someone help me!”
His bodyguards rushed over and barricaded the door as heavy footfalls sounded up the concrete steps.
“Help!” I shrieked.
Lorenzo’s face was so close to mine that I felt his breath against my lips. “Admit it, and you’re free to go. Admit the truth you don’t want to stomach because Mateo’s blinded you with money and jewelry and a job. Admit you’re just like every other woman he’s ever purchased and held on a pedestal before executing on his private beach.”
I hissed. “You’re lying.”
“Tell that to the bodies he’s fed to that ocean out there.”
I would simply sink you in the ocean. Why do you think I live on the coastline?
I swallowed the bile wafting up my throat. “Yes, Lorenzo. I’m still a prisoner here.”
His nose nuzzled my cheek. “And how does that make you feel?”
“Better than you’re making me feel right now.”
He shoved me away with anger in his eyes. “I know your gunshot on my man would’ve kille
d him had Mateo not intervened with his mercy shots. I know damn good and well the blood of my guard is on your hands. And so long as you’re on this island, I will make sure you pay for that life.”
I snickered. “Says the man whose bodyguard would have killed Teo had I not done something to intervene.”
“You’re playing with a fire you know nothing about, Miss Pettigrew. You’re meddling in plans that have been years in the making. You’re interjecting yourself into a war that has been brewing for decades, and if you’re not careful you’ll simply be another casualty in a war Mateo himself could stop if only he weren’t so stubborn.”
“Because it’s his fault you come from a selfish family, right?”
He reached for his gun. “I’ve got half a mind to put a bullet between your eyes and leave you here to rot.”
I held my arms out. “And yet, you haven’t taken a single shot. I wonder why that is?”
I watched him draw his gun and level it with my head. I drew in a deep breath as I rolled my shoulders back, summoning all of my strength to play my part. The last thing I needed to show a man like Lorenzo was exactly how much he scared me. Because if I was going to work alongside Teo, I needed to have a strong gut. I needed to have resolve.
I needed to understand that this job might actually get me killed by the one family we wanted to bring down.
“Go ahead. Just pull the trigger,” I taunted.
“Sir?” one of his bodyguards asked.
Lorenzo’s nostrils flared. “Not now.”
“Sir. You know what our orders are.”
Lorenzo snickered. “My brother has no place here unless he’s physically here.”
I slowly put my arms down and started laughing. “You can’t even kill me without permission from your brother.”
His hand started to shake. “That’s what you think.”
“Then, go ahead. Just do it.”
He took a step toward me. “Don’t taunt me, or I will.”
I walked up to him and pressed my forehead against the barrel of his gun. “Go right ahead. I’m prepared to die either way.”
I stared into Lorenzo’s eyes and saw nothing less than a power-hungry man who felt lost in the sea of his own war. In some ways, I felt sorry for the man. But in other ways, I wanted to see his head on a stake while his body burned in someone’s basement kiln.
“Sir!” his bodyguard exclaimed.
Lorenzo let out a deafening roar as he holstered his gun, and it made me smile.
“It was nice speaking with you this evening,” I said.
He wrapped his hand around my neck. “You’re finished, do you hear me? I’ll make sure you’re executed right beside Mateo when his entire family topples. And I can guarantee you that when I give that man a choice, he’ll save his wife over you. Because the last thing he wants to do is compromise the deal he made when he married her.”
I blinked. “What deal?”
He chuckled as he squeezed tighter. “Now who’s in the dark?”
I started wheezing for air. “Says the man who’s a prisoner to his own brother’s command.”
He tossed me to the couch. “Let’s go, guys. We have another party to attend.”
And as Lorenzo and his bodyguards made their way out of my apartment, I felt my entire body quaking with fear.
As my mind debated back and forth between the cost of my feelings for Teo, and the cost of my freedom.
20
Mateo
I slid my hands through my hair as I leaned back in my leather chair. With my office door propped open, I heard Char typing away in the new office I set up for her right next to mine. But this morning, the sound did nothing but grate on my nerves. My wife had effectively backed me into a corner with these bullshit threats of hers, and as I perused our prenuptial agreement, I realized she was right.
That bitch swapped out the agreement at the last minute before we signed it.
The only thing keeping me from absolutely exploding was having Char underneath my thumb. The power exchange gave me a high unlike anything else in my life. But, with Rosana threatening to call the goddamn police, even that was under siege. And with the police practically in the Lucchese Family’s pockets right now, all it would take was one ounce of suspicion on their part before I had the whole of the island’s department swarming my place.
What a fucking headline.
I wasn’t ready to release Char yet. I wasn’t ready to give her up. In a perfect world, I never would. But, the last thing I’d let her be was yet another pawn my wife could manipulate. For all of the bullshit I tolerated from that disgusting, sorry excuse for a human being, Char deserved better than that. She’d been more loyal to me than anyone I’d ever employed or come into contact with.
Including my wife.
I wouldn’t put it past Rosana, though. I knew what she was capable of doing. I’d seen her rip apart entire families with nothing but a file and a few pictures. And if she decided she wanted to ruin me through Char, she’d have my villa raided while filing for divorce.
Taking me for all I was worth and leaving me out in the cold.
“How the fuck did this happen!?” I roared.
Char’s voice piped up. “Teo? You okay in there?”
I stood from my seat. “I’m fine. Get to work.”
I slammed my office door closed and heard the air kick on. The ventilation shafts I had installed in this panic room enabled me to shut the entire world out without anyone being able to get to me. Well, except Char.
I need to change the code on my door.
While I wasn’t the kind of man to back down from any fight, I had to play this very carefully. With the Lucchese Family breathing down my neck and my wife understanding way too much about my life, I was sitting in the hot seat of a brewing cauldron of anger that would bubble over the second I decided to stoke things. I had to keep the upper hand. I had to keep things in my court.
And I had to keep Char safe.
I heard his office door slam and I jerked in my seat. I stood up and walked over to my door, peeking around the corner to see if he was standing outside. And while it shouldn’t have shocked me that he wasn’t there, I also didn’t appreciate being cut off like that.
Especially with the frustration in his voice.
“Dickweed,” I murmured.
Teo had been basically absent since the party last night. Even after my encounter with Lorenzo, he didn’t come up to check on me. He didn’t knock on my door for breakfast. He didn’t even come up to summon me downstairs for work. I didn’t even know if he was aware that Lorenzo had been upstairs waiting for me.
For all I knew, he didn’t care anymore.
What did that bitch say to him last night?
I walked back to my buttery leather chair and eased myself down into it. I stared at the formal letter I was drafting for Mr. Porchenzo, reading it over to make sure there were no typos. There was nothing more unprofessional than a formal attorney letter hitting the streets with misspelled words and displaced commas. But, as I read the first sentence for the fourth time in a row, I still couldn’t have told anyone what the damn thing said.
My mind was too preoccupied with Teo’s quick onset of assholery.
I swiveled away from my computer and started at the wall. There was a beautiful painting of a sunset over a mountainous range, and it made me feel homesick. It felt like a ball of lead had settled in my stomach, and the more I stared at the picture the more I thought of Mom. And Dad. And the trips we used to take driving through the mountains just to watch the leaves change colors.
It was those few and far between moments that I clung to the most. Moments when my family was together and enjoying something that had nothing to do with work, school, or drama.
Did I imagine all of this?
I closed my eyes and started combing over every single move Teo ever made against me. From dragging me down into the basement to chaining me up, to freeing me enough to have the apartment upstairs to hirin
g me on as his personal attorney. I thought back to last night and the pleasure that washed over me in exchange for a job well done, and I wondered if he meant any of it.
I wondered if any of his affections were real, or simply for show.
Maybe the sex is manipulative, too.
So many thoughts tumbled through my mind. But when my eyes finally opened, only one question remained: if I really was a free woman, why the hell didn’t I leave and go home?
If he really had dismissed all of those guards, why didn’t I make up some excuse to get into town and run straight to the airport?
Or the police station?
There was only one reason to stay, and that was if his affections were real. If Teo could look me in my eyes and tell me that he’d leave his bitch of a wife, that was enough for me to stick around and put up with whatever bullshit he threw my way. As much as I hated to admit it, I’d fallen in love with him. All of him. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the aggressive. I could stomach the bulk of what he did if it meant taking legitimate clients and knocking the Lucchese Family down a few pegs, but his wife? She needed to be out of the picture for good.
So, I stood from my chair and walked up to Teo’s office door.
“Teo?” I asked.
I knocked on the bulky metal door, but I didn’t hear anything on the other side.
“Teo, can I speak with you for a second?”
At first, I thought he was ignoring me. But, when the metal door hissed and popped open, I stared up into the blank eyes of a man I almost didn’t recognize.
Don’t lose your courage now.
“What is it, Char?” he asked.
I straightened my back. “I know this probably isn’t the best time, but there’s something on my mind that I have to say.”
He nodded curtly. “Spit it out.”
I scoffed. “Your wife is a bitch.”
His cheek twitched. “Yes. I know.”
“And she needs to be gone if we’re going to do what we really want to do.”
His eyes narrowed. “What is it we want to do?”
I licked my lips. “If you’re going to keep having me in your life--and having me in other ways--I’m not going to be the other woman. I’m not going to settle for second place, or second best. I know what I deserve, and I deserve you.”
Liar : An Enemies to Lovers Mafia Romance (Sold to The Don Book 2) Page 11
