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“No, I don’t mind. I already know you talk to your guards, and I want you to do that. I told you to do that.”
“I didn’t know if you had changed your mind.”
“Never. How are the brochures?” he asked.
She groaned. “Not good.” She spun on her heel and made her way into the kitchen to put Frank’s empty cup in the sink. “Do you want coffee?”
“Love one.”
He was already heading to the main dining room table. She quickly poured him a coffee, topped up hers, and joined him at the table, as he looked through the brochures.
“There are a lot of choices.”
“You can start with one and work your way up.”
“That is what Frank said, well, I think he meant it that way. Start small and work my way up. I don’t know. They all sound so good. I was good in high school. I wasn’t great. What if I take something that is too far out of my depth?”
She hadn’t even thought of that. Her grades had been good, not great. She had always known high school was going to be the last part of her education. No daughter of his was going on to higher education, that’s what her father always said.
Isabella had been expected to look pretty. As for her, nothing had been expected, except to do as she was told, seeing as she was the ugly one. Men wouldn’t want her for her good looks, but they would prefer an obedient person.
It sucked. She could even think that now as well.
“Maybe I shouldn’t do this?” Lucia asked.
“Or maybe you should sit in on a couple of classes.”
“Do you think I could do that?” Lucia asked.
“It’s either that, or I can attempt to arrange for you to get a paper or something.”
“You could do that?”
“Whichever you would like, is what you can have,” Boone said.
Lucia looked to the table and was a little speechless. “Uh, I’d like to go to a couple of classes.”
“Excellent. I’ll have it arranged. Frank will go with you for your own protection.” He was already pulling out his cell phone, glancing through the brochures and finding the phone number.
Who was this man?
She didn’t know how this was possible. Her family had sold her for peace, and she had a feeling they had done it in the hope of him being angry and killing her.
Boone was nothing like she imagined. Her mother and sister had warned her that he was an animal. On her wedding night, she was to lay there and let him do his thing. That was what all men wanted—a willing, submissive wife.
Boone hadn’t done that. They had not even stayed the night at the wedding venue. There had been no bloody sheets. Boone wouldn’t have any of that. He was not an animal.
Her family was so very wrong when it came to Boone.
****
Boone sat in the office trailer and looked toward the boss, Jimmy O’Cara, part of the Irish mob doing business between the Bratva and the Bonaldis. He wondered if either family knew the man was double-crossing them both.
There was a shipment of girls locked in a container. It had arrived last night. He’d gotten the news and came down here right away. He left his wife’s bed after watching her sleep. The excitement in her eyes at the prospect of going to campus was somewhat infectious. He had mentioned letting Frank go with her as a precaution.
After Bonaldi’s attempt on his life through Leandro, he had upped his game in payback. So far, the drugs Bonaldi liked to move had gone missing, conveniently found in local law enforcement’s parking lot. There was a big newsreel about it. He’d been the one to remove the drug dealers and send the dope straight to the source. It had made headline news, so all the dirty cops didn’t have time to cover it up.
“What the fuck are you doing in my fucking joint?” Jimmy asked.