by L A Cotton
One of the best.
The kind of man I always hoped to become.
“Just keep your wits about you, Son,” he said, his eyes flicking to my mom. Once he was satisfied she wasn’t paying us any attention, he added, “DiMarco is a wily sonofabitch.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” I mumbled, swiping a cornetti while Mom’s back was turned.
My old man chuckled, but then his expression soured. “Stay safe, Matteo, and watch your back.”
The familiar rumble of Enzo’s GTO drew my attention, and I drained my coffee. “Thanks, Mama. I’ll see you soon, okay.”
She came over to me, taking my face in her dainty hands. “You come back to me in one piece, figlio mio.”
“Stop fussing over the boy, woman. He knows the drill by now. Besides, Zander DiMarco is all talk.”
Glad he thought so. Because I wasn’t so sure. Zander was a showboater. He loved the attention and reputation. In my experience, people like that were dangerous and unpredictable.
But this was my job. My father—the Family—expected me to fall in line and carry out Nicco’s and Uncle Toni’s orders. You didn’t get to argue or shirk your responsibility. Once you swore Omertà, you were all in. Famiglia prima di tutto. The Family came first, always.
A heavy knock at the door indicated Enzo was too damn impatient to stay in his car.
“Lorenzo, how was the big city?” Mom greeted him.
“It’s the Big Apple, woman,” Dad called.
“Big city, big apple, it’s all the same.” She waved him off, directing Enzo toward the breakfast counter.
“Eat,” she said.
“I’m good thanks, Aunt Marcella. I already ate.”
“I bet you did.” I smirked and he discreetly flipped me off, but I didn’t miss the smug look of satisfaction on his face.
Dirty fucker.
But I was happy for him. Him and Nora. After all they’d been through, they deserved to be happy.
“You ready to roll?” He looked at me, and I nodded, snagging another cornetti.
“Let’s go.”
“Matteo!” Mom called after me, but we were already out of the door.
“So how was the Big Apple? Did you manage to do any sightseeing?” I asked Enzo the second we were in his car.
“Fuck off.” Enzo grumbled.
“What? It’s a legit question.” I chuckled. “Let me guess, you did nothing but sightseeing… Nora was so pumped about the trip.”
“She was pumped… a lot.” The smug fucker smirked, and I shook my head.
“Did you just make a joke? Fuck, man, I’m going to need to check for your balls because that girl has you all—”
“We saw the sights. I made her come twice on the trip to Ellis Island.”
I almost choked on my own breath. “I bet the other passengers loved that.”
“Hired a private boat.”
“Of course you did.”
“If it’s good enough for Nic.” He shrugged.
“I’m happy for you, man, the two of you deserved to come out on top.” Silence settled between us.
I knew Enzo probably wanted to take this trip as much as I did. Things were tense after DiMarco’s club got hit in a string of attacks on our businesses a few months back, and since Enzo had been there when it happened… I doubted Zander would be in a hurry to see him either.
But Nicco wanted us to handle it—so here we were. About to handle it.
“She’s good for you,” I said, glancing over at my cousin.
He was softer around the edges, we all saw it. He was still Enzo—the love of a good woman didn’t change that—but he was different.
My chest tightened, but I stuffed those memories down. It had been months since I’d spent one amazing night with a red-haired, green-eyed angel. Caitlin. If that was even her real name.
The three of us—Nicco, Enzo, and myself—had been in Providence and there’d been a bad storm. I’d stumbled across a girl being threatened in a dark alley… and well, one thing led to another, and I’d spent the night at her place. It was the best sex I’d ever had. But she refused to give me her number, and when I’d finally plucked up the courage to drive back down there a few weeks later, to track her down, she was gone.
And I went back to my life without the Irish beauty who had marked my soul.
Enzo’s cell phone started ringing, but he took one look at the number and ignored it.
“Who is that?”
“Beats me.” He shrugged.
It immediately started ringing again.
“Maybe you should answer it? It could be important.”
He plucked the thing out of the center console and barked, “Yeah?”
I smirked. He was such a grumpy asshole still. I guess there were some things not even Nora could change.
“What? Yeah, okay. We’re on our way.” He hung up and grumbled, “Fuck.”
“What is it?”
“When I was down here with Gino, I helped one of Zander’s girls out. I think that fucker was hurting her.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I don’t know for sure what went down. But I gave her my number in case she ever needed help.”
“That was her?”
“No, that was the hospital.”
“Fuck,” I breathed. “Is she okay?”
“They didn’t say much, but she specifically asked for me.”
“She’s at Providence General?”
“No, she’s at County in Pawtucket. So, we’re going to have to make a detour.”
“Sure, man. Whatever you need.” If there was one thing I hated, it was men who beat women.
Thirty minutes later, we arrived at the hospital. A nurse directed us to the correct bay and Enzo went off to chat with another nurse. The place was a hive of activity as staff came and went, treating patients. I’d never much liked these places because they usually ended in bad news.
“She’s down here.” Enzo beckoned me over and we went down another hall. “Bay five.” He grabbed the curtain and slipped inside.
“You came,” a soft voice said.
“Yeah, I brought a friend with me. Is it okay if he—”
“Sure, I guess.”
I went inside the small bay and my heart damn near exploded in my chest.
“You.”
“I-I don’t understand,” I croaked, feeling myself grow hot all over.
“Wait a minute,” Enzo frowned. “You two know each other? But how?”
He was drilling holes into my face, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman lying in bed. Her face was littered with bruises, and she had fingermarks around her neck.
Fucking fingermarks!
“Matteo?” Enzo gripped my shoulder as my knees went weak.
“Caitlin?” The word barely got out over the lump in my throat.
It was her.
The girl from that night.
She was one of Zander’s girls?
A stripper?
It couldn’t be.
Yet, Enzo knew her. He’d helped her. And she’d called him.
What the fuck was going on?
“Caitlin?” I said again, my heart crashing violently in my chest as I took in her injuries. She was beat up pretty bad. Someone had done this to her… someone had—
The penny dropped as Enzo’s words from earlier came back to me.
“DiMarco did this?” My voice didn’t sound like my own as red-hot fury exploded inside of me.
“Why is he here?” Caitlin stared at Enzo, her big green eyes pleading with him. I wanted to roar—to tell her not to look at him like he was her savior—but to look at me.
Fuck.
Fuck!
This was totally fucking with my head.
All I could think about was Zander putting his hands on her, hurting her. Abusing her.
“Enzo, I said why is he—”
“I’ll kill him,” the words spilled from my lips. “I’ll fucking kill him.” My fists clenc
hed by my sides as I plotted all the ways I’d make Zander fucking DiMarco pay for ever laying hands on Caitlin. Something slow and painful, something that would make sure he never laid another hand on Caitlin or any other woman for as long as—
“Matt.” Enzo’s hand clamped down on my shoulder and I glanced up at him, blinking.
“Yeah?”
“Can you wait outside?”
“The fuck?” I balked, glancing between them.
“You’re scaring her, cous.”
Scaring her?
I was scaring her?
“Caitlin?” I choked out, but she didn’t look at me. She wouldn’t.
“Come on, Matt. Let’s take a walk.” Enzo slung his arm over my shoulder and guided me out of her bay.
“No,” I protested, glancing back over my shoulder. “I should stay with her. I should—”
“You need to cool it,” he said, the second we were out of earshot.
“Cool it? You want me to cool it? Did you see what he did to her? DiMarco is a dead man walking,” I seethed, anger coursing through me like wildfire, burning me inside out.
“You don’t get to make that call, and you know it.” Enzo scrubbed his jaw, his eyes hardening to slits. He didn’t like this anymore than I did, but it wasn’t his… whatever the fuck Caitlin was to me, lying in a hospital bed.
“Who is she to you?” he asked.
“Caitlin? She’s… Fuck,” I murmured, trying to rein in my thoughts. “Remember when we were up in Providence last summer, visiting DiMarco? We… I… I spent the night with her.”
“You did?” He frowned.
“Don’t look so surprised. Despite what you might think, I do know how to use it.”
“I didn’t… it doesn’t matter.” Enzo shook his head. “All that matters is that she’s safe.”
“She called you. Why the fuck did she call you?”
“I told you, I met her a few weeks ago, and got the impression she was in need of a friend. I don’t know why but I gave her my number in case she ever needed help.”
Which I was so fucking relieved about. But I couldn’t help the stab of jealousy I felt that Caitlin had called Enzo… and yet, she’d refused to give me her number all those months ago.
Was this why?
Was it because she was somehow tangled up with DiMarco?
I couldn’t make sense of it all. Because all I could think about was her lying there in that hospital bed, beaten and bruised. He was a… Fucking. Dead. Man.
“You know you need to stay cool about this, right?” Enzo pinned me with a knowing look.
“Like you’d be cool about it if it was Nora lying in that bed?”
His expression darkened. “It’s not the same, Matt, and you know it.”
“It’s—” Shit. He was right. It was a low blow—especially after everything he and Nora had been through.
Besides, it wasn’t the same because Caitlin wasn’t my… she wasn’t my anything.
He exhaled a steady breath. “Look, I get it, the two of you have history. But from the surprise on both of your faces, I’m guessing it’s in the past.”
Yeah, because she’d ghosted me.
But I’d never stopped thinking about her, not for a second.
Maybe that made me a pussy, but we’d shared something that night. Something that had burrowed deep into my soul.
“Let me go talk to her,” he said. “She called me for a reason, let me find out why.”
Seemed pretty obvious to me, but I didn’t argue. No matter how much I wanted to be the one to go to her.
To protect her.
“Yeah, okay. Tell her… shit, tell her, I only want to help. No pressure.”
Enzo’s brows knitted together as he scrubbed his jaw. “You really like her, don’t you?”
I gave him a weak smile and shook my head, “I don’t even know her.”
While Enzo went to see Caitlin, I got coffee and tried not to wear a hole in the floor. But I couldn’t sit still.
She was here.
Or rather, we were here.
Both of us, at the same time, in the same place. If that wasn’t some kind of freaky kismet, I don’t know what was.
Except, she hadn’t looked pleased to see me.
Not even a little bit.
This isn’t about you, asshole. It’s about the woman lying in a hospital bed hurting because of that fucker.
I could still vividly remember her from that night. Her soft, pale skin. The taste of her lips. How perfectly her body had fit with mine.
I’d been in fucking heaven, ready to make all kinds of promises, and she hadn’t even wanted to give me her number.
I wracked my brain for the exact details of our conversations. She’d told me she worked at some diner… but Enzo had said she was one of Zander’s girls.
Did that mean she was one of his dancers?
Shit.
How had I not noticed? Although it wasn’t like strippers wore a neon sign over their head.
Slumping down in the chair, I drained my coffee and threw the cup in the nearby trash can. I didn’t give two shits what Caitlin did for a living. She was still one of the most real, most beautiful women I’d ever met.
And she’s here.
I just needed to talk to her. To find out exactly what happened, and who I needed to hurt. My fist clenched against my thigh as I waited. Whatever she and Enzo were talking about was taking a long fucking time.
When he finally appeared, I shot up off the chair. “How is she?”
“She’s… a mess. She won’t tell me what happened, but it’s bad, Matt.”
My heart sank as I clenched my fists against my thigh. “Can I see her?”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“What do you mean? I just want to talk to her and reassure—”
“Shit, Matt.” Enzo stepped in front of me, cutting off my route to her. “She doesn’t want to see you.”
“She said that?”
He nodded.
“I see.”
Dejection flooded me. It was one thing to be rejected by her all those months ago. But to see her again, find her here of all places, only to have her shut the door in my face again…
“Hey.” Enzo gripped my shoulder. “This isn’t about you, cous. It’s about her.”
“Yeah.” The word soured on my tongue, my eyes flicking beyond Enzo to the row of curtains offering privacy to each bay.
“The doctor wants to keep her overnight for observations. Then she agreed to come back with us.”
“B-back with us?”
“Yeah, to Verona County. She can’t go back to Providence, Matt.”
“Say it.” My teeth ground together, my entire body trembling with rage.
“You need to calm down—”
“Say it, E. Tell me why she can’t go back.”
He let out a weary sigh, a dark cloud circling him. “Because she’s scared of what DiMarco will do if she does.”
Motherfucker.
My fist flew out, connecting with the wall before I could stop it. Pain ricocheted through my wrist and into my arm, and I swallowed a grunt of agony.
“Better?” Enzo quirked a brow.
“Fuck off,” I muttered.
“Look at you, cous. She’s got you all twisted up inside.”
“You’re telling me you’re okay with that piece of shit DiMarco putting his hands on his girls?”
“You know I’m not. But it isn’t that simple. He’s a trusted associate. And you know we don’t get involved with another man’s business. Not like this.”
I scoffed, cradling my busted hand near my chest. “That’s some bullshit and you know it.”
“You should get that looked at.” His hard gaze dropped to my hand. “You might have broken something.”
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t, but whatever.
“I’m going to call Nicco. See how he wants us to play this. You going to stay put and refrain from doin
g anything stupid?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” he said, digging his cell out of his pocket. “I’ll be five minutes.” Enzo took off down the hall.
The minute he was out of sight, I headed for Caitlin’s bay.
Chapter 5
Caitlin
I woke to the sensation of being watched. Slowly, I cracked a tender eye open, silently hoping it was him.
Matteo.
I’d dreamed he was watching me, felt his eyes lingering on my face as I dozed in and out of a drug-induced sleep.
I still wasn’t over the shock of seeing him, staring at me with a mix of confusion and lust and longing. And rejection.
God, it had been like a physical blow to the heart.
One I wouldn’t recover from anytime soon.
Still, it didn’t stop the sigh of relief slipping from my lips when my gaze landed on the petite, brown-eyed girl staring at me.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“I’m sorry,” I said, clearing my throat. “Do I know you?”
The girl approached my bedside, grabbing a cup and pouring me some water. “I’m Arianne, Enzo’s friend.”
“Arianne…” Her name sounded familiar. “You’re his… friend?”
She nodded. “He thought you might prefer some female company.”
“That’s… very thoughtful.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Like I almost got beaten to death.”
The joke missed its intended mark, and Arianne’s smile fell.
“That’s not funny,” she breathed.
“No, I suppose it isn’t.”
Silence descended over us. Thick, oppressive silence.
“Can you remember what happened?”
Fear raced down my spine as I clutched the crisp, white sheet to my body. “I—”
“It’s okay. I’m not here to interrogate you. Enzo said you needed somewhere to stay for a while.”
I nodded, wondering if I’d done the right thing telling him that. But he’d come through when I’d needed him, hadn’t he?
When he’d given me his number, I hadn’t ever planned to use it. Then I’d woken up in the hospital, scared and alone, and the doctor was looking at me with so much pity that when he asked me if there was someone he could call, I’d panicked and given him Enzo’s number. After all, it wasn’t like I could call anyone at the club.
