I can’t place the voice, but it sounds familiar. “Who’s this?”
“You wound me. It’s Frederico.”
“What the fuck do you want?”
“I want Gemma back with her family where she belongs.”
That little shit. “Did Lorenzo put you up to this?”
I can totally see how Gemma’s dad wouldn’t want to cause unrest himself and instead has someone else do his dirty work.
“Does it really matter?”
Not exactly an answer, but I guess he’s right. In the end, I don’t really give a fuck who calls me. I don’t appreciate it, no matter what. And it’s not like any of them deserve Gemma anyway. The woman I first met was merely a ghost of the person she could be. Married off to someone who wasn’t a great guy, but who was obviously chosen for her by her family. The least they could have done was show her some respect and pick someone decent.
“Santarossa, are you still there?”
God, even on the phone he’s annoying the shit out of me.
“Yes.”
“So you agree?”
“Agree to what?”
He sighs like I’m the stupidest person he’s ever talked to, and I vow to myself to teach him a lesson about respect one day because he clearly has none. “We want you to bring Gemma back.”
“We’ll be back in the city next week.”
“We want her back before then. She belongs with us.”
“Well, tough shit, since she’s with me right now.”
I almost said,No, she’s mine, but I swallowed those words before I showed my hand.
“Don’t push your luck, Santarossa.” He growls the words through the line.
I tighten my fingers into a fist. This guy needs to learn who’s higher up the food chain, considering it’s not him.
“Or what, Gallo? Are you gonna run to Lorenzo?”
“I wouldn’t want to find out if I were you, stronzo.”
The line goes dead, and I stare at the phone. He just hung up on me. After calling me an asshole. That motherfucker.
His words echo in my head.I wouldn’t want to find out if I were you.He didn’t even threaten me directly like so many do. If he so much as touches a single hair on any of my family members’ heads, he’s a dead man. I don’t care what family he belongs to, or that he’s Gemma’s cousin, no one crosses a Santarossa and lives to tell the tale, not as long as I’m alive and breathing.
With my body as tense as a bowstring, I walk up the rest of the steps and pause a minute in front of the bedroom door to get my thoughts in order.
First, I want to make sure Gemma’s okay. I can figure out what I’m going to do about Frederico later.
After taking a few breaths to calm down, I open the door and stop short when I see her.
Chapter10
Gemma
Strong arms nudge their way under my body to lift me out of the chair. I’m disoriented for a moment but relax against the warm body the instant I smell Matteo’s woodsy orange scent.