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“Not really. Emma lured her out of the room by telling her she’d talk to you about letting her call her sister.”
“Her sister.” I vividly recall the younger girl who clung to Mona's arm that day. She’d worn glasses, and her hair was not as fiery as Mona’s. “We can’t set up a call.”
“I know.”
Things are more than a little contentious right now between the O’Haires and me. I have no loyalty to them. None of the heads of families are going to call me over them. The situation with them will escalate eventually. If not soon, then I'll pull the trigger on it myself.
“Anything else?”
“Yeah.” Sergio is attempting to suppress a smirk.
“What?” His evasiveness is starting to piss me off.
“She took all her stuff and moved it to another room.”
I grab my phone off my desk to check for myself. It’s fucking dead. I grab the bottle of scotch off the table and chuck it as hardas I can against the wall. It explodes. She wanted space, so I gave it to her. That’s over.
Now she’s gone too far. My little rabbit has no idea how nice I’ve been.
“We’re leaving.”
“Might want to clean yourself up first,” Sergio suggests.
I take a breath, nodding before I head to do exactly that. In the meantime, I try to come up with another plan. I can’t go on like this anymore. Mona is mine. She'll be my wife and mother to my children. They wanted to marry her off, so be it. They’ll get what they want. Well, the marriage part anyway.
I’m sure Mona didn’t really have a choice in what she did. She probably went along with whatever her family asked her to do. It’s all she knows. Still, it’s hard to believe when I stare into her eyes. There is so much innocence there. It drew me in. She was the first woman that ever called to me. I had never experienced such temptation in my life before. I prided myself on it. I wasn't weak like so many others.
“Are you leaving?” Nikolai asks when I exit my bedroom. He’s been staying here for the past few weeks. There is something going on with him. He denies it, but I know him better than he thinks I do.
“I need to get back.” He nods.
“All right.”
“I heard you’ve been at the club on the south side almost every night.” The same one where I’d met Mona.
“Is that a problem?” Nikolai asks.
“No.” It would be if he'd been getting drunk and acting like a fool, but they say he's only hanging around. That he’s even broken up a few fights, which is a new thing for him. Reports from my other men say it seems like he’s watching the place. “You need to tell me anything?”
"Not that I want to talk about."
"Then, I'll leave you to it." He's being honest. I'll take that for now. He also hasn't gotten into another brawl.
Emma is waiting when I enter the house. “Which room?”
“We need to talk.” She steps in front of me.
“Not now.”
“Yes, now.” I can tell she’s pissed. “It’s about Mona.”
“I know it is.”
“Strippers?”
“Jesus Christ.” This shit again?
“Matteo,” Emma snaps at me. Her tone almost takes me back to my adolescent days. “I don’t question your decisions. I have always thought of you as a good man, but you're going to destroy that girl."