“You don’t have it.” I glared at her. “You’re not staying in that food truck again in these next six months. You’ll be my untouchable soon, and I won’t risk your safety even if you’re willing to gamble with it. You’re too valuable.”
“What?” She crossed her arms. “Because of the company?”
“Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?” Standing outside at the ass crack of dawn made it not so obvious for me, though. Was she something more to me?
“Will you find out who did this? I think they should be held accountable.” She glared at the mess.
“Yes. They will be.” They could have kidnapped her and that thought alone had me wanting to hold them all more than accountable. “I protect what’s mine. And that’s you. My fiancé.”
She huffed and pushed past me to her food truck. “Fine. But I’m doing this for my town. You know that, right? Otherwise, I wouldn’t do a single part of it. I’d donate these stocks. I’d get rid of the burden this is. It’s ridiculous that you’d do all this for money, Bastian. It really is.”
I watched her storm inside. She threw things into a bag, not paying me any mind.
I completely agreed with her.
Money didn’t matter.
For me, it was never about that.
It was about the family, about making my legacy something better than my father’s.
I breathed it and lived by it and suffered for it. I didn’t take my responsibilities lightly.
She would have to learn not to either.
I peered into her food truck to ask, “Would you like me to call Mr. Finley to tell him we’re engaged or would you like to?”
“Why don’t we just do it together?” She sneered. “Since we’re a couple now and all.”
It took patience to deal with that attitude of hers. I liked to think I had a little of it. “Tonight then. I’ll send Dante over here to watch your truck while you pack. He can drive you over when you’re ready.”
I left her at the food truck and called a driver so that Dante could stay with her.
As I stood waiting, I knew I’d have to deal with finding the men who did this. The respect of my family and Morina’s life was at stake.
The uncomfortable feeling that she could have been hurt didn’t go away when I called Cade to tell him that I wanted action taken against those who’d wrecked her truck.
“What type of action, bro?” He chuckled. “It’s not like we’re going to throw them in a river. We haven’t used force in a long time. I’ll talk to the syndicates in the area to make sure they’re aware you’re now engaged.”
“See that you do.” I pulled at my neck and tried to get the kink out of it before the next words fell from my lips. “And, Cade, I want an example made. Use some force this time. She could have been seriously harmed.”
My brother didn’t say anything back for a moment as I heard rustling on the line. “You okay, Bastian?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine once this shit is over.”
15
Morina
Ineeded more time on the water or just on my own.
Nothing felt the same.
Bastian looked at me like suddenly the weight of my safety was on his shoulders and nothing about that sat right with me.
He’d been exposed to something so different in his life. I could see it when he looked over my food truck again and shook his head, the way the line between his brows deepened when he called someone to make sure there were eyes on me.
I didn’t know how they accomplished any of it or how I was going to deal with people following me around for the next six months but I knew I had to try.