Page 76 of Because I Need You
“You know I can’t say anything about that,” Lorenzo said.
I knew he couldn’t since Silvio was his fucking uncle, but I hoped he would since he was my brother-in-law and friend. I exhaled heavily as I got to my third mile.
“Did you look at the camera feed?”
“Yeah. Black ski masks. There was one short guy and two average build, they were covered in camo head to toe, as if they were expecting war.”
“But they weren’t. Someone let them in.”
“Do you think…”
He didn’t even bother finishing the sentence. It was what we’d all been wondering. Was Mike screwing us over? Did he set this up? He easily could, but why would he? I couldn’t fathom it. He had to know he’d be killed for it. Fuck. I hated that thought. People often thought that it was easy to kill someone who betrayed you, but you only felt betrayal from those closest to you and getting rid of them was gut wrenching. It wasn’t something I’d ever had to do. I knew my father had to once. Dean had to once. I’d never wanted to be put in this position, so I’d chosen to surround myself with people who wouldn’t turn into Judas.
“I don’t know what to think.” I shut off the treadmill.
“I don’t want to think what I’m thinking,” he said. “We can’t do anything about it right now. Let’s take the night. I have some guys working on it and they’ll keep working on it until they find something. Get some rest, G. You look like shit.”
“You can’t even see me.” I scowled as I headed to the showers.
“I’ve been seeing you these last few days and you’ve looked like shit the entire time. Get some sleep. We’ll continue this tomorrow.”
“Call me as soon as—”
“I know.” He hung up on me.
I showered, taking extra-long under the spray of hot water. The robbery was stressing me out, and somehow, instead of obsessing over my missing Rolexes and Phillip watches, I was obsessing over Isabel being at that stupid game. Lorenzo told me to take the night and I was going to. I was tired as fuck. It wasn’t like I didn’t need one, but with every second that ticked by my fury rose little by little until I felt like I was going to explode with it. I finished my showered, changed, and went back to my office. Nadia was still there, going through numbers, rubbing her eyes as she looked at the screen.
“You need to go home.”
“I thought you were going home early?” She looked up at where I was standing by the door.
“I went downstairs.”
“To work out?”
“What else is downstairs?”
“Why don’t you just go home? You need rest, G.”
“I’ve heard.” I dragged a hand through my hair.
“You’re a little more on edge than usual,” she said. I shot her a look. She ignored it. “The liquor is getting to the club tonight. Are you going to be there?”
“I’ll have John handle it.”
“Are you on edge like this because Isabel is at a game with William?”
That was definitely the current reason. I stopped pacing, turned to her. “Petra told you.”
“Isabel told me.” She pressed her lips together. “She was trying to gauge how upset you’d be.”
“And?” I asked, trying and failing not to shout.
“I told her you wouldn’t like it.”
“And?” I said again, louder.
Nadia flinched. “Jesus, lower your fucking voice.”
I growled and started pacing again, shutting my eyes as I tried to breathe through the anger. Breath in, breath out. Repeat. I’d just taken off the damn bandages today and I already felt like I needed to punch something else.
“She said you were never home anyway,” Nadia continued, “Which, I told her was exactly what she should get used to if she chose to stay with you. A lot of lonely, sleepless nights.”
“You told her that?” I stopped walking in front of the desk and stared at her. “Why would you say that?”
“Because it’s the damn truth, Gio.” She shook her head. “Anyone who tries to tame you deserves to know the ugly truth about that up front.”
Tame me. I scoffed. Like I was some wild animal. What a load of shit. People didn’t get tamed, they chose to be tame. I took a seat in a chair across from her and picked up a stress ball she had sitting on the desk, squeezing it. “I take it she didn’t like that answer.”
“It seemed like she already knew that. She said if you didn’t call or come home after work, she was going to the game, so she did.”
“She could have called me and told me she wanted to go to the fucking game.” I threw the stress ball against the wall. “I would’ve taken her.”
“Really? You would have left your meeting, left whatever else it is you’re trying to handle right now, and gone to the game with her?”
