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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Dario

She sat stiffly next to me in the restaurant, moving the food around on her plate but not really looking at me or talking.

She had seemed depressed ever since the doctor had visited. He had said she was fine, that she was just tired and probably stressed. He’d said that she needed more sleep and that she just needed to relax more.

I’d taken his words to heart, hiring a masseuse and esthetician to swing by the mansion to pamper her. Shit, I would have hired a harp player to sit in the courtyard playing all day if that helped her relax. It didn’t matter, though.

All my attempts to make things better had been met with indifference for the most part. She hadn’t been interested in the masseuse or the esthetician.

Not sure what else to do, I’d suggested a day off the island, maybe try a little retail therapy. She had agreed but I could tell her heart wasn’t in it.

We had just visited one of those horrendously expensive strips of private boutiques and designer stores. She seemed uninterested in everything.

After learning she had tried to contact someone on her computer the other night, I’d had my men pay more attention to what she did when I wasn’t around. She didn’t know it, but her freedom was now even more limited.

I’d had my guys block her emails and restrict certain sites. It had been subtle, but maybe she had noticed. Maybe she was catching on.

I couldn’t dwell on Mya, even though she was my favorite obsession. Hortensio’s mess had been the start of something that could mean the end of the empire I had carefully created and expanded after my father’s death.

There was trouble brewing in my organization. I was trying to get to the root cause so that I could exterminate it once and for all, but I didn’t quite know the source. I did know that my big brother, Matteo, had caught wind of it.

Part of me wondered if he was behind it all, but he wasn’t smart enough for that. Rumor had it though, that he was causing a ruckus in the underworld.

He had his own operation that he ran, and he was getting messy and pissing people off. It would only be a matter of time before he came running to me to clean up his mess, yet again.

People were dying. Soon enough, the feds would be involved. I had tried to save him from himself once before, but he was boisterous and stupid. I had a feeling that Nico was there with him, causing chaos wherever he went.

I was at the point where I didn’t know if I could protect them and keep the organization together. Everything that I had carefully planned and put together could all fall apart because of Matteo’s pride and Nico’s insatiable need to prove himself.

For that reason alone, I was concerned about Mya’s safety. I knew by now that Nico had figured out exactly who she was.

I’d lied to Mya. My reasons for marrying her had nothing to do with Nico and had everything to do with my need to have her. However, I hadn’t been lying about wanting to protect her.

Now that she was my wife, there was nothing I wouldn’t do to keep her safe.

My brothers hadn’t been invited to my wedding. There was no way in hell I would have Nico there and Matteo didn’t mix well with others. Matteo had taken the lack of invitation personally.

Oh, well. I hadn’t cared one way or another.

To be honest, Nico was more of a threat because he was a wild card. There were things I knew surrounding Nico’s role in Jason’s death that I hadn’t told Mya.

Some things were better left a secret. And the last thing I needed was Nico around pouring salt on a fresh wound.

Mya and I couldn’t grow together if my family was around. How could she trust someone who entertained the company of the man who killed her husband? Former husband , I reminded myself.

I was her husband now, and I would protect her in ways Jason never had.

The only way to protect her from what was coming was to keep her close. So, in the foreseeable future, I wouldn’t go anywhere without her. I needed to know where she was at all times.

She hadn’t complained once since the visit with the doctor. That worried me. Was everything really all right? Dr. Kali wouldn’t lie to me. I trusted him completely.

Yet, Mya seemed to be a shadow of herself. She was usually fiery. She kept things in check but she wasn’t a pushover.

Since the incident in the study where she almost fainted, she seemed to be a softer version of herself. But she also looked distracted.

I had given her privacy to meet with the doctor, but when Dr. Kali had come out, I had asked if Mya was okay. He assured me that she was. He had said that she was simply dehydrated and looked stressed.

Instantly, I blamed myself. It was the situation I put her in, living day and night virtually in captivity, restricting her movements. But I knew I couldn’t fully blame myself for every negative emotion she experienced, no matter how much I wanted to.

It was par for the course. Whatever I couldn’t fix, I became fixated on. I had to have order. All the pieces of my life needed to fit.

Mya had been the piece in my life I felt was missing, and seeing her sick had done something to me.

For that moment, her vulnerability and fragility hadn’t been something that I looked objectively at and admired for its beauty. They had been real, a reminder that she wasn’t an object that I could collect, but a beautiful soul that could be extinguished.

I had to be a better protector.

“I have to use the restroom,” she said abruptly. “I’ll be right back.”

I nodded and she got up. We didn’t go anywhere anymore without at least six of my men stationed nearby.

It ate at me knowing that the organization I built was slowly slipping away. Between Matteo and Nico’s shenanigans and the random idiots that threatened my business every day, I was starting to feel that maybe it was time for a change.

The problem was, I didn’t know how to change. I was who I was. My father had made sure of that from the very moment I was born.

“Hey, little brother,” Matteo said sliding into the booth that Mya had just vacated.

This didn’t make any sense. How had he gotten here?

“What are you doing here and what do you want?”

I kept my eyes trained on the doors that Mya had drifted through.

He reached for a piece of chicken on Mya’s plate and chewed it, his mouth wide open. The man was simply uncouth.

“Still like these fancy places, I see.” He stretched out his legs and looked around. There was bitterness in his tone and when he turned to look me in my eyes, all I saw there was hate.

Nothing had changed.

How many years had it been since I’d last seen him? Two? Three? He was turning gray around his temples.

Just a few years ago, his hair had been dark like mine. He was still stocky. He reminded me of a bulldog, but with fewer wrinkles and no personality.

“Answer the question,” I said leaning toward him.

“I just came to talk. I figured now that you’re married, you might consider spending more time with that little wife of yours and let me take over for you.”

I laughed humorlessly. “Go away, Matteo.”

He drummed his finger on the table, as he always did when he was irritated. He’d been doing it since we were kids. He’d hated me for that long.

He pulled a cigar from his coat pocket. “You want one?”

I didn’t bother to answer. “You can’t smoke here.”

“Oh yeah? Are you going to stop me?”

I took the cigar from his mouth and was tempted to shove it up his ass but resisted the urge.

“If you don’t have anything useful about family operations to share, move along.”

“Family operations?”

“I built this?—”

“Dad built it!” he said, slamming his hand down on the table, disrupting other diners nearby.

Typical, Matteo.

When he couldn’t get what he wanted he made a scene. “Is your tantrum over now?” I mocked him. “Do you feel better now? If you’re done acting like a toddler, I would suggest you leave.”

To my surprise, he did exactly that. “I think you’re right. Rumor has it, some important people want you gone. I would hate to get caught in the crossfire. Take care of yourself, lil’ bro.”

He stood up then and dusted himself off. It was a stalling technique. There was nothing on his perfect suit.

“By the way, tell Mya I said, hello. That was real cold-blooded to marry a dead cop’s wife. Nice.”

With that, he walked away. His cockiness unnerved me. What did he know that I didn’t?

Most importantly, how had he managed to get so close to us without me knowing? How had he known where I would be?

And his parting words…take care of yourself? Had that been a warning or a threat? I couldn’t trust anyone.

I didn’t want to take his “crossfire” comment seriously. In my line of work, someone was always after me, but maybe this time it was different. Was I on someone’s hit list?

Then I saw Mya coming back. What a coincidence. Where had she been while Matteo sat here trying to get a rise out of me? I studied her.

How much did I really know about her? Yes, I had her under constant surveillance and had watched her from a distance for years before that, but how much did I really know about this woman?

Her eyes were guarded as she came and sat across from me.

“Who was that at the table?”

She seemed genuinely curious as if she didn’t know, but I didn’t trust her. I didn’t believe in coincidences.

Someone was trying to kill me and it hurt to say, but I suspected Mya was involved.