“I don’t blame him. I’ve wanted to kill that son of a bitch for the last four years.”
I glanced around the restaurant. The lunchtime rush hadn’t passed yet, plus it was Friday, so chances were it was only going to get busier. Paradiso wasn’t one of those grand Italian restaurants where you were too afraid to breathe, let alone eat. Decorated in typical Italian style with red, green, and white being the main color scheme, it had a homey atmosphere—especially with the smell of oregano and basil always hanging in the air. The reason I didn’t come here much was because of all the eyes and ears of the customers in this place. Customers were always extra polite to me, treating me like fucking royalty, and I hated it. I hated it because I knew it was fake. Their friendliness had nothing to do with my pretty face and the friendly atmosphere of the restaurant, but everything to do with who my father was.
Was it too much to ask to just be me, and to be treated normally?
Dante glanced at me. “Talk to me, Karina.”
“There’s nothing to say that hasn’t been said in the past. I’m sick of having to live my life around the whole Valenti legacy in this town.” I leaned back in my chair and stared blankly in front of me. Dante and I had this discussion so many times in the past because he felt exactly the same. He just handled it better than I did. Plus, he didn’t have a vagina, which in this case totally worked in his favor.
“Tell me about the cop.” He kept pushing. He knew I’d crack eventually…like now.
“It just happened, Dante. We couldn’t stop it.” My words came out flat and broken.
“Damn.” He leaned back in his seat. “I saw it at Vertigo.”
I looked up at him. “Saw what?”
“The intense chemistry between you two. You’d have to be a special kind of idiot to miss it. I think that’s why Enzio got a little carried away.”
I scoffed. “Why, because he’s jealous?” The thought alone was ridiculous.
Dante’s dark gaze met mine. “Yes, because he’s jealous.”
“That’s insane. Enzio is incapable of feeling anything.”
“You don’t get it, do you? We Italian men are insanely possessive over what we deem ours. Once we decide something belongs to us, there is nothing we won’t do to keep it.”
I finished the last of my cocktail and got up from the chair before placing my hand on his shoulder. “Well, in that case, you can be assured Enzio is not jealous, because I’m not his.”
“In his eyes, you are.”
A chill slowly spread down my back when I noticed the grim expression on Dante’s face.
“No, in his eyes, I’m nothing but a little lamb, remember?”
“He took your virginity, Karina. He claimed you that night, promising he would collect one day. What do you think it is he plans on collecting?”
The sound of my heartbeat echoed in my ears while I felt ice spread through my veins. “What?” I asked hesitantly, knowing all too well that I was not going to like the answer.
Dante stood next to me, his gaze sympathetic. “You.”
Before I even had two seconds to digest what Dante said, the restaurant door was flung open in a way that demanded everyone’s attention.
The second I laid eyes on the man storming through the door, my heart stopped, and I sucked in a breath.
“Lorik.”
Chapter 18
LORIK
Want to know the true meaning of a clusterfuck? When the daughter of the man you’d investigated for years storms out of your apartment while you can still smell her perfume on your goddamn sheets. And then your commander calls you two days later saying you’re no longer suspended, but now have to work with your partner on a case in which the brothers of the woman who managed to get your balls in a twist were the prime suspects.
Yeah, that had been my life ever since I last saw Karina. Normally, I was so damn focused when it came to my job. Catching the bad guy was my one and only goal. One would think I’d be fucking ecstatic when I heard my suspension had been lifted, and I’d have a huge chip on my shoulder knowing the commander thought my insight into the Valenti family would be beneficial to the case. But not so much.
All I could think about was her, like I was betraying her somehow by taking on this case. Why would I feel that way? I was just a man determined to do his job. It wasn’t my fault her family didn’t give a shit about the law I swore to uphold. If her family had made a decent living like the rest of us, instead of breaking the law every goddamn time they had the chance, I wouldn’t have to do this. I wouldn’t have to investigate them, and I wouldn’t have that goddamn cabinet in my bedroom—and then she never would have stormed out. And then I probably never would have met her.Motherfucking Catch-22, suck my balls.
I hadn’t seen or spoken to Karina since she left that night. I’d lost count of how many times I sat with my phone in my hand, staring at the chat screen with her picture on the side, wanting to say something, anything to establish some form of contact again. On Monday, I basically wiped all the battery life from my phone by typing message after message, then deleting it.Repeat, repeat, repeat. But I couldn’t seem to find the right thing to say.