Page 54 of Contempt

Now was not the time.

Renzo went back to his problem. “Why isn’t Dare picking up my calls?”

Cree grunted. “That’s your problem? Because that sounds like Dare is sick of your shit for the moment.”

“No, that is part of my problem. First this, then we’ll talk about the second part of it.”

“Ren, I don’t know why he isn’t picking up your calls, all right? And I’m not interested in hearing you whine about it, either.”

Nice.

Really.

“I’ve been compromised,” Renzo said, figuring it was better to just get that shit out there and over with quickly. Then, maybe Cree would see this wasn’t just another regular call from Renzo where he rankled their chains. Sure, he pulled shit on them sometimes, but when there was a real problem, he wasn’t the fucking idiot crying wolf. They knew that. “The Savino prick—he saw me, we shared words.”

For a long while, Cree was silent. Sometimes, that could mean bad things, but other times, it just meant Cree was thinking. Problem was, it was often hard to tell the difference between the two things. Especially when one wasn’t looking him right in the face.

“What words did you share with the Italian?” Cree finally asked.

Renzo sighed. “Nothing bad—I stepped in on a situation to divert what was happening.”

He mentally patted himself on the back for not outing the fact that he stepped in on a conversation Christian had been having with Lucia because he was, in fact, an idiot. A jealous idiot who didn’t like the fact that Christian was touching her, grinning at her, and getting closer by the second. Not to mention, giving her his phone number it seemed like. Why else would the prick be holding her phone and typing into it?

Sure, he didn’t like the fact that the guy seemed interested in Lucia given his business, but it wasn’t like Christian was any different than the other men in Lucia’s life, or even Renzo, for that matter. They were all bad men. He couldn’t say that was why he stepped in—he could blame it entirely on jealousy, though.

Because yeah, he was an idiot.

Cree made a noise under his breath before finally saying, “I know what Dare would tell you, so that’s what I’m going to say.”

“Shoot,” Renzo muttered.

He’d not even left the lobby of the hotel because, depending on how this conversation went would determine what Renzo did after this. Whether he went upstairs, packed, and got the hell out of this city … or if he stayed. And if he did stay, well, there was a woman in this city who he figured that he owed an explanation to.

Lucia, that was.

After that car ride earlier … yeah, he owed her something.

A lot.

It scared him to death, and he wasn’t one to feel fear. He shouldn’t be scared of Lucia, but in a way, next to the love in his heart for her … the fear was ever-present, too. Because how might this end between the two of them—with her walking away?

God.

Renzo wouldn’t be able to take that.

Nope.

He was not the same as he had once been. He was not the same person.

And she didn’t ask for this.

Neither had he.

“Are you listening to me?” Cree demanded.

Renzo blinked out of his thoughts. Not really, he thought, but instead, said, “Yeah, keep going.”

He’d catch up to whatever Cree said, surely. There was no need to make the man think he wasn’t listening, That would only piss Cree off, and the last thing Renzo needed was the man making a trip to New York to kick his ass because he felt like it. Knowing Cree, he absolutely would do it, too.