Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
With that, he and Santino left.
I took ten minutes to give Luca a much-needed update.
Then, finally, I made my way into the bedroom.
“Everything okay?” Roe asked, turning onto her back where she’d been staring out the window.
“Yeah. I might have to leave for a few hours later, but you’ll be safe. Until then, though, we’re alone.”
“Oh, really?” she asked, her eyes warming. “I can think of a way to spend our alone time,” she added, sitting up, reaching to frame my face, then pressing her lips to mine.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Roe
“Yeah, I see you, you traitorous brat, you,” I said to my cat through the phone screen of one of Remo’s brother’s phones.
He wanted to show me that Alley was being well taken care of while I was away from her.
“She ate all her dinner,” the voice on the other end of the phone assured me.
“Even the dry food?”
“Yep.”
I rarely ever got her to eat her kibble.
“She’s getting better care with you than she did with me,” I said, shaking my head as my reserved cat, who hated being touched, rolled over and stretched as the guy’s hand petted her. “Thanks for checking in,” I said. “Thanks,” I said to Santino as he tucked his phone away.
“Figured you might want a little distraction.”
“This is taking a long time, isn’t it?” I asked, looking out the darkened window.
“Business can take some… finesse. And Frank is likely paranoid right now, so he’s going to be extra difficult.”
“Do you think they’re in danger?”
“His henchmen are nothing to be worried about. And Remo has a bunch of his guys around. They’re as safe as they can be.”
That didn’t feel like enough.
But if I was going to be with a man in the mafia, I guess I had to be comfortable with ‘as safe as they can be.’
“Want a distraction? I can scrounge up some cards.”
“I don’t know how to play poker.”
“I was going to suggest Go Fish,” he said, shooting me a smile.
“I don’t think I could even concentrate on that.”
“Food? You didn’t get dinner.”
“I usually eat after work. I guess I’m going to have to start adjusting my schedule now.”
“You sad to leave it behind?”
“I think I will miss the stage, yeah. But I think I’m more nervous than anything else.”
“Nervous about what?”
“What’s next, I guess.”
“Seems like Milo thinks you’re heading up to Navesink Bank with him.”
He’d hinted as much to me.
But we hadn’t had a lot of alone time to talk since everything went down. There’d been constant interruptions. We’d barely been able to cover up before someone came into the room to talk to Milo.
“We haven’t really discussed it yet.”
“You will. This was just a meeting that had to happen ASAP. Once this is over, things will calm down for Milo.”
“But not for you guys?”
“We all knew when we moved here that this was going to be a five-to-ten-year plan before we would be able to breathe. Lucky for us, we all kind of thrive on this shit.”
“I can’t imagine,” I said, shaking my head.
“Don’t worry. Mob wives don’t usually have to worry about actually living through things like you’ve been through. They’re very protected.”
Wife.
My belly flipped.
Not out of fear.
But because it sounded so right.
“I think I would spend a lot of time worried about Milo in that case.”
“To be fair, how things are here aren’t the way they are in Navesink Bank. That’s an old, very established organization. It almost sounds boring up that way,” he added, giving me a smile. “Come on. Let’s watch something stupid and get your mind off of things.”
We did just that: picked something stupid and stared at the screen. But I was relatively sure neither of us actually watched it. We were both miles away. If he was anything like me, he was racked with worries.
I kept glancing down at both our phones that sat face-up on the table. But the screens stayed stubbornly blank.
Another hour passed.
Two.
The credits of one movie rolled before another one automatically started to play.
Neither of us moved to change it.
Both of our shoulders started to inch up.
Santino drummed his fingers on the arm of the couch.
I picked at my cuticles.
Both of us coiled tighter and tighter with each passing moment. So much so that when the door opened, we both nearly jumped out of our skin.
But there were Milo and Remo.
The latter had a bottle of champagne raised over his head.
Milo had a big smile for me.
I didn’t even try to hold myself back.
I flew around the couch and then threw myself into his arms.
He scooped me under my butt and twirled me in a circle as I peppered his face with soft kisses.
“Worried about me, huh?”
“Only a lot,” I admitted, pulling back to smile at him. “You’re okay?”
“It was a business meeting, baby,” he reminded me, fingers squeezing my butt.
“With Frank.”