Adrenaline surged through me. It filled me with want and dread at the same time as Tyler pulled into the parking lot of our next stop. For the most part, gyms tended to be crowded toward the end of the day. However, this place only had a few cars parked near the entrance. I climbed out and rubbed my throbbing hip. Other than the minor pains, the window incident from this morning felt like it’d happened days ago, not hours.
“Could you wait in the car, please?” I met Tyler’s kind gaze in the rearview mirror.
I had no way of knowing what we were walking into. Truth was, I didn’t want Tyler to see me make a fool of myself. Not that I had plans to beg Dom to come with me. Did I?
“I’ll be here if you need anything. Take your time.” He offered a warm smile.
I went up the cement steps that led to the steel doors on the side of the gym. The doors were rolled halfway up and cast a shadow inside the warehouse, where clanking noises and grunts echoed against the walls.
A woman in black leggings, a tight sports bra and killer abs met me two steps in. “Can I help you, doll?”
“Hi. I hope so. I’m trying to find a friend.” Crap. I still couldn’t figure out how to explain to a complete stranger that I was here because the company logo hanging outside their gym was tattooed on a guy I used to sleep with. “I’m sorry. Never mind.” I spun around to leave.
“What’s his name? I know a lot of people.”
“Dom Moretti,” I said with a confidence I didn’t feel.
She chuckled and hollered over her shoulder. “Hey, Angel Face, there’s someone here to see you.”
In the corner of my eye, a guy punching a heavy bag stopped dead in his tracks. Dom moved away from the bag and the flutters I’d had in my belly since this morning exploded into a thousand pieces. In the month we were apart, his hair had grown longer, at least an inch, and the stubble on his cheeks was now a full beard. I’d never seen him in workout clothes. Of course, he looked crazy hot in jogger slim pants that showed every muscle on his legs. He appeared different, or rather, he seemed indifferent when his gaze met mine.
Sweat trickled down his bulging biceps as he prowled toward me, a half smirk on his face. The wraps around his hands showed red blotches around his knuckles. I fought the urge to run to him, wrap my arms around his neck and kiss that impossibly beautiful face.
His girlfriend, on the other hand, did exactly what I’d been dreaming of doing for the past few weeks. She snaked her arms around his waist and whispered something in his ear. And all I could do was stand there and watch them as tears burned my eyes.
Dom glanced at her. “Mia, I got this.”
I froze. I never really thought Dom would move on. When Dom switched his attention back to me, I spun and darted out of the warehouse.
28
But I Have A Better Idea
Dom
Mia squeezed my arm, but that wasn’t enough to stop me from going after Emilia. Emilia had been here all of two minutes and I was already chasing after her like an idiot. This was why she couldn’t be here, why she couldn’t stay. When she was within reach, I wrapped my arm around her waist and held her against me. Fuck, she felt good. I buried my face in her vanilla-scented hair.
“Emilia, are you okay?” Cole’s brother walked a wide circle around us until he was in front of her. Did I look so deranged that he felt he needed to use tactics on me?
“Hey, man, she came all the way out here to see me. Give us a minute?” I tried my best to sound casual, but the strain in my voice couldn’t be hidden.
Emilia relaxed her stance, and I released her. She braced both hands on her hips. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Okay. I’ll be in the car if you need me.” His gaze flitted toward me, a tinge of warning in his eyes that said Friends or not, I won’t stand for it if you do something stupid.
If I wanted to take Emilia away from here, he wouldn’t be able to stop me.
Emilia watched him saunter back to his black sedan. When he was out of sight, she made no effort to turn around and face me. And all I wanted to do was hold her again. A month was a long-ass time to be away from her. What could I say to her? Sorry for leaving you? I wasn’t sorry. Would she believe me if I told her I missed her every goddamn day we’d been apart? That I’d fantasized about this moment constantly?
I shot a glance over my shoulder toward the warehouse entrance. Mia glared at us, lips pursed, cheeks red. Of course, she was right. Emilia shouldn’t be here. How long did we have before Mickey realized she was in town?
No, he already knew. This was the kind of thing Mickey kept tabs on. Why the hell did Vic not give me a heads-up? I would’ve had a better reaction to Emilia’s presence than the one I had—ogling her like an asshole.
When I first saw Emilia standing next to Mia, I thought she was a hallucination. She visited my dreams so often, it was hard to tell the difference now. She had to go. Without giving it a second thought, I wrapped my arms around her waist, pinning her arms to her sides.
“Are you insane?” She struggled against my chest, but I gripped her tighter. Her smell was intoxicating.
“You’re here to talk. Let’s talk.” I lifted her and carried her across the parking lot, back to the gym. Mia blocked the path at the top of the stairs, but I sidestepped her and kept going past the boxing ring to the office in the corner. My office.
“I can walk on my own, you know.” She pushed down on my forearm and her back pressed harder against my chest.
“I know.”
I opened the door and released her, using my body to barricade the entrance, in case she decided to run off again. She strode to the center of the room and ran her hand over my desk. The only piece of furniture I bothered to bring in. I opened my mouth to apologize for the condition of the building and the musty smell of sweat, but the words didn’t come out. I hated seeing her here. This place wasn’t for her. It was beneath her. I shut the door and threw the deadbolt.
“Why the hell are you here?”
She spun to face me. Red rose into her cheeks when she met my gaze. And that was my undoing.
“I thought—”
I closed the space between us and kissed her, burying my hands in her hair. I didn’t want gentle or slow, and neither did she. She tugged at the hem of my T-shirt with urgency. Every one of my muscles tensed under her hot touch. Her hands traveled up and down my torso as she traced the edges of my tattoo. Like I’d done with her, she’d memorized every plane on my body. I deepened our kiss and groaned when she pressed against my hard-on.
“Christ, Emilia, I missed you.” I moaned against her cheek, sucked on the cord of her neck, and kneaded her perfect ass.
“What?” she whispered against my temple while I nibbled on the hard peaks poking through the fabric of her top. “Stop.” She sighed and pushed against me.
I took a single step back and placed both palms on the desktop behind her, caging her in. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, but a month is too long to be away from you.”
She covered her mouth with one hand and shoved me with the other. I shuffled back to give her the space she wanted and to catch my own breath. “Seems to me you’ve made a home for yourself here.”
“This is my home.”
“Yes, I’m sure your girlfriend was glad to see you back.”
I chuckled. “Who? Mia?”
“Is that her name?” The fire in her eyes filled me with an intense need to be inside her. How was I going to send her away? This was why I hadn’t said goodbye when I left Phoenix. If I’d seen her that night, I never would’ve agreed to leave with Mickey. I needed her. I stepped toward her, and she backed away. “I’m such an idiot for thinking that you left me because you loved me.”
“I do love you.”
Using her hands for support, she leaned against the edge of the desk and met my gaze. “Then why are you with her?”
“What? I’m not. What makes you say that?”
“She kissed your cheek.” She balled her fist
and tapped her forehead.
I rubbed the spot where Mia’s lips brushed my cheek. Yeah, when I got back, Mia had tried to be more than a friend. At first, I was willing to give it a shot and truly move on for Emilia’s sake. I figured having someone in my bed would make all this bearable. But every time Mia touched me, Emilia and all her little details flooded my brain, my entire body, and I just couldn’t go through with it. Emilia ruined me for everyone else. A smart girl like Mia, she caught on quick and let me be. She knew where we stood. “She’s only a friend.”
“A friend with benefits?”
“No benefits. Not even once.” I searched Emilia’s features. Every inch of her was tattooed on my mind. The cluster of freckles on her nose, the pout of her lips, and the intense brown of her eyes. A grin spread across my face, and it filled every empty space in my chest. “Are you jealous? Why?”
Emilia opened her mouth to speak but the words didn’t come out. The scent of vanilla infused the small office that had been my prison for almost a month. “Because.”
“Say it.” I stepped closer to her.
“Because I’m in love with you. I should’ve told you when I had the chance.” She ambled toward me, her gaze on mine. “You shouldn’t’ve left.”
“Nothing has changed, Emilia.”
She laced her fingers around my neck, and I let out a sigh. “There are a million other ways to fix this. You returning to the place that hurt you so much isn’t the right answer. And you know it.”
I gripped her wrists and pulled her arms off me. My mind went fuzzy whenever she touched me. And I needed to focus. This conversation was long overdue. “Okay. Let’s talk about what we know. You think you know me, but you don’t.”
“Then tell me.”
“You remember this?” I lifted my T-shirt to show her my inked torso.
“Yes. That’s how I found you, actually.” She shuffled away from me, crossing her arms over her chest.
“How do you mean?”
“I had no idea where to start looking once I landed. I Googled Mickey’s name and this logo came up. We went to another warehouse like this one before we found you.
“That was smart.”
“So was the tattoo some kind of initiation?”
“Not really. Growing up, the crew called me Angel Face. I didn’t mind it. When I came up with the idea of opening a string of ‘gyms’ I used that name for the franchise. The angel wings became the logo.”
“It’s a big warehouse for just a CrossFit box.” She regarded me. I nodded and gave her a minute to connect the dots, to understand that I was knee-deep in this, to see why Mickey needed me back. “What do you use the warehouse for?”
“It’s a distribution center. For whatever the hell we want.”
She put up her hand and shook her head. The lawyer in her didn’t want details. This life wasn’t for her. “So what if this was your idea? You can still walk away from it.”
“I’m very good at this. I’m a fucking criminal, Emilia. A hired gun. Do you understand?”
“You’re also a good lawyer.”
“I’m way better at this.”
She let out a breath. “You’re being stubborn. You don’t think I have those thoughts too? My life would’ve been so much easier if I’d caved from the beginning and dealt with Levi the first chance I got but these are the choices we make. We are who we choose to be. You taught me that.”
“This world, my family, they’re part of who I am. And that’s never going to change. I spent five years of my life lying to myself, pretending I could be normal. A decent man. I earned my place here. Good or bad, this is exactly where someone like me deserves to be. You need to go.”
Emilia smiled at me. “Yeah, I’ll go, but you’re coming with me.” Not what I had expected after what I told her.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Look around you. There are no chains here. I choose to stay here.”
“You’re coming with me,” she said matter of fact.
“You think I’m kidding?”
“No. I think you’re serious about this, but so am I. I can be stubborn too. I made a mistake before. I shouldn’t’ve let you confront Mickey alone. I should’ve been there for you. I was scared of my feelings for you and the future. I’m not anymore. I want a future with you.” She kissed my shoulder twice and wrapped her arms around my waist. Hot blood charged through me as she molded her body against mine. I wanted this future too, but this whole thing had never been about what I wanted.
I cupped her cheek, running the pad of my thumb over her full lips. “I can’t think straight when you’re near.” I leaned over and covered her mouth with mine. Maybe if we wished hard enough, we could make this work. Her tongue swirled against mine and woke each one of my senses. The same ones I spent the past month lulling with whiskey.
She pulled away first. “We can leave now. Cole’s private jet is waiting for us at the airport. We’ll deal with Mickey later.”
“Cole? You called Cole? Dammit, Emilia.” I paced the office. I was an idiot for thinking I could keep this under control.
“He’s your friend. I didn’t tell him the whole story. I didn’t have to. When I said you needed help, he showed up, no questions asked.”
“So that’s why he was so pissed when I left. He had expected me to come clean.” I rubbed the creases on my forehead.
“He offered to help me escape Vic and Mom that day. It would’ve been impossible to get to you then when everyone was on high alert.” She placed a hand on my chest, and I covered it with mine. “I love you. I’m not leaving this place without you.”
“Levi is here too.”
“Why?”
“As long as he’s here, you’re free.” I cupped the nape of her neck. I wanted nothing more than to be on the plane with Emilia, kissing every inch of her. To hell with the rest of the world. “He’s a loose end.”
“He was never your problem.”
“Mickey made him my problem. He’s alive because…”
“Because you can’t go around shooting people dead. You taught me that too.” She took my hand. “Where is he? Maybe we can work out a deal with him. His life for mine.”
“We tried that, remember? Without the cartel backing him, he can’t stand up to Mickey. And you and I both know that if he goes back to his boss to ask for help, he’ll have to tell them you and your mom are not dead. How is that going to help us?”
“He could lie about us. He’s been doing it all this time.”
I shook my head. “He’s a coward. If push comes to shove, he’ll choose himself and tell them whatever they need to hear to save himself. And you know that.”
“I know.” She lowered her gaze.
We were back to square one. “There may be a million ways to solve this but only one where you get to be home free. Leave.”
“No.” She jutted out her chin in that way that was so Emilia, determined and final.
“Yes.” I towered over her. “If I have to carry you back to the airport myself, I will. I mean it.”
“Don’t push me away.” Her eyes filled with tears, and my heart broke in two.
“Don’t throw your life away because of me.” I advanced on her, and she stood her ground. I’m sorry, Emilia. I made a grab for her knees and hoisted her over my shoulder.
“Are you kidding me?” She took fistfuls of my shirt.
“I warned you.” I unlocked the door and threw it open. I squinted out of habit, expecting the bright light from the front entrance to hit me in the face as it always did this time of day. Instead, only the halogen lights high overhead illuminated the building. My pulse quickened. Every beat exploded like loud sirens in my head. I let Emilia slide down my front, but when she tried to move away from me, I held her tight.
“Stay close.”
Mia moved to my side. “I called you, but I guess you two were busy in there.”
I took my phone out of my sweatpants pocket and hit home. She had called ten times in the last ten minutes. She
had also texted: “He’s here.”
The side entrance door creaked open and Mickey strode in. The creases around his mouth deepened as he pursed his lips. He pinned me with a dark stare before his gaze darted to the back of the gym and then to Emilia.
“So this is the famous Emilia Prado. We finally meet in person.”
“Yes, finally,” Emilia said in her best Little Miss Proper tone of voice.
“You have a lot of guts showing up here. I can see why Dom has this obsession for you.”
I bit the inside of my lip and gripped Emilia’s waist tighter. Mickey knew Emilia was much more than an obsession. “She was leaving.”
Mickey shook a finger at me and offered a chilling smile. The hair on the nape of my neck bristled when he turned his attention to Emilia. “Yes, I saw that. You were making every effort to take her back to your friend’s private jet. I appreciate that, but I have a better idea.”
29
Yeah, The Gun Was Loaded
Emilia
Mickey regarded me with cold, greedy eyes. To him, I wasn’t Dom’s girlfriend or his obsession. I was the thing standing in the way of what he wanted. By the way his mouth twitched into a smirk every few seconds, I could only assume his idea had something to do with getting rid of me for good. Mickey scared the crap out of me, but all we could do at this point was let his game play out.
My muscles tightened, and I squeezed Dom’s fingers between mine. He kissed my temple and stepped forward. “Let her go. You know very well that if anything happens to her, I will burn this place to the ground.”
Mickey put his hand up. “I know. You’re my son. In spite of all you’ve done, I want you to be happy. I’m here to do both of you a favor. Stop assuming my intentions aren’t honorable.”
“We didn’t ask for any favors.” I stood next to Dom, who shot me a glance that said stay behind me as if that would stop Mickey from getting his men to riddle me with bullets. Had he not noticed we were surrounded? That our only way out was his office, which was, quite fittingly, a dead end.
Ignite You: A Second Chance Mafia Romance (Cole Brothers Series Book 0) Page 22
