Page 88 of Ruthless Contract
“Not exactly,” I muttered, not knowing how to explain that I fell for a woman who’d hacked me while I was in Italy.
A woman whose real name I didn’t know. I didn’t even know how she looked. A woman who broke her promises. Who may actually be a florist here in Biloxi. A woman who might be avoiding me because I had unexpectedly found her, leaving her shocked. My brothers and Leo would never let me live it down if I told them that.
Cas set another drink in front of Leo before looking back at me. “Does this woman have a name?”
“Not one I’m sharing with you,” I replied.
“He’s trying to keep her hidden,” Leo stated. “That means he’s serious about her.”
I was. That was the problem. I was serious about her whileshewas taking me for a joke, a game. I gritted my teeth, not wanting to get irritated in front of them. But I was irritated as fuck.
So irritated that two days ago, after staring at Blossoms and Vines’ page for longer than I cared to admit, I’d contacted one of my private investigators and hired him to investigate Blossom Brooks.
I’d wanted to do it myself. But if Blossom was really Juliet, she would be planning for such a thing. I figured she would catch on to me quicker than she caught on to him. I couldn’t risk that.
So, I’d let the PI handle the dirty work. I was still waiting to hear back from Tony. He’d promised to have a preliminary report for me by today. I glanced down at my watch. He should’ve sent me something by now.
“Rome,” Raz said. “Hey! Rome!”
I looked over at him. “What, Raz?”
Damn. Couldn’t he see I was stalking his fiancé’s florist?
Raz chuckled. “I remember when I sat at this very bar with Cas and Bryce, pining over Monique.”
“The difference was,” Cas started. “You’d already lured Monique into your trap and had her kidnapped up in your suite.”
“I never kidnapped her. It was she who approached me first that night,” Raz pointed out.
“And you locked her in your suite,” Cas countered. “That’s called kidnapping.”
“Says the man who locked her best friend in his room,” Raz stated.
“Oh, I admit to kidnapping Meka. If she ever tries to leave me, I’ll kidnap her ass again.”
Raz, Leo, and Cas started laughing. I stared at them as if they’d lost their minds. But then it hit me. If Juliet refused to come to me on her own, what was my plan? Would I end up like my brothers?
Would I kidnap her? Was I that desperate for her? Was I truly that far gone? Or had that been my intention all along? I’d planned to make her mine, no matter what. Was that considered kidnapping?
I didn’t want to become my father, that was for sure. But my brothers had kidnapped their women and hadn’t ended up like our parents. Was kidnapping truly the answer to all my problems?
“Look at him,” Cas muttered to the others. “That’s the look of a man planning to kidnap the woman he loves. I guess that shit runs in the family.”
I gripped my phone tighter. If she didn’t come to me on her own, what other choice did I have?Fuck!I was truly no different than my damn brothers. I guess I really did need to start preparing my beach house.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ROME
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I could not become my father.
Iwouldnot become my father.
Yet, I felt like I was headed down a similar path to the one he’d taken all those years ago. Nothing good had come of that. However, my brothers had followed a path not much different from his, and look at them. They were laughing and shit while I was sitting here, spiraling.
For months, I'd watched them lose their minds over their women. I'd judged them for it. Mocked them. Called them idiots. Then they’d kidnapped those same women and somehow ended up happily engaged and living with them.
