"I know why you carved out the word 'whore' on my back."
"Oh?" I tilt my head.
"It’s because you feel something for me."
"You’re right about that."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Apathy." I look her up and down. "You’re a nice hole to bury my cock in, but considering I’ve already sampled what you have to offer," I raise a shoulder, "I think it’s time I set you free."
"You're lying!" She bursts out.
"Am I?" I round the desk, drop into my seat, then flick on my laptop. I busy myself looking at the figures from last month’s sales…which has taken a hit, thanks to the Kane Company hijacking our gun shipments in and out of Eastern Europe. Fuck… Something I need to deal with right away. I glance up at her, "What are you still doing here?"
She opens, then shuts her mouth.
"You’re free to leave."
"What will it take for you to realize that this connection between us cannot be broken so easily?"
"There’s no connection…and even if there was one, it shattered when you took the oar to my head."
"Oh, my god!" She throws up her hands, "Your stupid ego is going to be the death of me."
"That day can’t come soon enough."
"And yet you faked your death so I'd come back to you," she points out.
"I faked my death so I could draw out my brother who betrayed me; you were a fringe benefit."
Her features crumple, hurt writ large across her features. My heart twists and I glance away to stare at the computer screen. The figures fade in and out in front of my eyes.
Cazzo!What’s wrong with me? Why does she still affect me so? When she had walked in here, it had felt as if the world had finally tilted right on its axis. Then I had seen the men in the room look at her and had experienced the kind of jealousy that had twisted my guts, that had made me want to whisk her away somewhere, away from all of them, hide her in a place where no one else could see her or talk to her or glance at her.
Then, I’d realized that I have to let her go. If I continue to hold onto her, she’ll completely undo me. She’ll make me weak, expose my frailties, derail me from the course I have set for myself. Something I can’t afford.
As for her relationship with the Seven and how that would have strengthened my own bid to be the next Don… Well, I’ll just have to do without it.
"So, this is it?" she whispers. "This is what it’s come to? You asking me to leave because you can’t deal with your own insecurities?"
"Interesting theory," I drum my fingers on the table, "but I’m afraid I am not in the mood to listen to it."
She stiffens. Anger pours off of her. Then she straightens her back, "You’re going to regret this."
"I regret the day I saw you in that park. I should have turned around and left. Sadly, you seemed too easy an opportunity to pass up."
"That’s all I am to you, then? After everything we’ve been through, it’s all you view me as?"
"You know the answer to that already." I glance away, pretend to focus on my work.
She stays motionless for a second, then out of the corner of my eyes I sense a flash of movement. I turn to find her pulling off the ring from her finger. "Here." She slams it on the table. Turning, she walks out.