Page 42 of Humility

“Okay, I’m just going to say it. We’ve been sharing women for two years. What’s the difference now if Jasmine wants all of us? At the end of the day, it is her choice. It doesn’t matter that you think you claimed her,” Dario said.

“I did fucking claim her. You were there,” I said, spinning around to glare at Dario, my hands balled into fists.

“Yes, and I was there when we left for Chicago and ended up losing her.” Dario marched in my direction. “You think the memory of that shit doesn’t bother me? Do you think adding someone else is what I want? But Enzo is right. She likes him and trusts him. If we want find out why she’s here and protect her we need a way to get into the house consistently, and Enzo has proven himself to be loyal. If he wants her and she wants him, we don’t have a say anymore. We lost that right.”

“Fuck! I never should’ve lost her. This never should’ve been a fucking argument,” I yelled. “I love her, Enzo, but Dario is right that you’ve been loyal. So let me make this really fucking clear. If you try to take her from me, I will shoot you between the eyes, cut you up into little pieces and feed you to my fish. I won’t even lose a single night’s sleep, know that. Jasmine is everything to me…everything.”

“Understood, and hopefully, she isn’t here to meet Ciro. If he comes and claims her, we’re all out.”

Enzo’s words hurt. He was right that Ciro could show up any moment, and then what? We’d be left with our cocks in our hands and an ache in our chests. I’d gotten used to that longing, but to taste her lips and then give her up to Ciro felt impossible. No I wouldn’t allow it.

“If Ciro comes here to claim her, I’ll kill him with my bare hands and smile as the light fades in his eyes. I can’t get anymore banished than I already am, and I sold my soul a long time ago,” I said, turning to look out the window, dismissing the conversation.

I couldn’t let her go again. Her coming to this small town in the middle of nowhere was a sign. I felt it.

Chapter Twenty-One

ANGELO

The room was dark, and even though I knew I should, I couldn’t stay away. If Jasmine woke up, it would scare the crap out of her, but I’d spent too many nights wondering. I never thought she would fade into the background without me in her life—she was too strong for that—but I wondered if she thought about me as much as I thought about her.

Slipping my key into the lock of the adjoining room, I turned it as softly as possible. Stepping into the bedroom, it was like time had never lapsed. Jasmine was on her back, black hair fanned around her, and one arm over her head.

After I returned, and her father wouldn’t agree to a union, I was feral with anger. I snuck in and watched her sleep every night without her knowing, just like I had before she agreed to marry me. I’d been tempted to kidnap and take her away until her father agreed to let me have her. She made me insane.

Lowering myself into the seat in the corner, I watched the sheet rise and fall with her steady breathing. The world had seemed so much simpler five years ago. I had a plan to get the girl and everything else I wanted, and nothing was going to stop me…until it did.

My phone rang, and I quickly answered it, slipping from the bed.

“Father?”

“Angelo, good. Did you get my text messages?” I looked at the time. It was four in the morning.

“No, it’s only four. I was asleep,” I said and sucked in a shuddering breath as arms slipped around my waist. I looked down to see a pair of mischievous, golden eyes staring up at me.

My heart pounded harder just looking at Jasmine. It may have only been a couple months that Dario and I had been sneaking into her room at night, but it felt like forever, and only a single day rolled into one. This was where I was always meant to be. No matter how we got here, I knew this was right.

“Where are you? You weren’t in your room.”

“Does it matter?”

“No, I guess not,” he said.

I wasn’t telling him about Jasmine until I spoke to Don Falcone and we came to an understanding. There was no way in hell I was letting my father near that negotiation.

Lifting my arm, she stepped underneath to hug me from the front. I closed my eyes and sighed.

“What did the messages say,” I asked, annoyed to be pulled from her warm bed for whatever my father wanted.

“I need you to fly to North America and run the Chicago side of the family business.”

My mouth fell open. This was what I needed to prove myself, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

“What happened to Roberto?”

Jasmine kissed my chest, and I smoothed her long hair, loving the feel of the silky texture running through my fingers.

“He had to be dispatched. He failed me one too many times, and that is something I cannot tolerate.”