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“You don’t need to head over to Ether,” he said. “I’m already heading that way.”
“Too bad,” I told him. “I already gave Nero my word that I’d meet with Oisin. Plus, it can’t hurt for the both of us to hear what he has to say.”
“C’mon, Aurelio,” he whined. “Do we really need to worry about some pissant gang-”
“And that’s why Nero’s in charge of the family,” I said, getting into my car. “You never see the potential threat until there’s a gun in your damn face.”
“Hey,” he objected. “You need to watch how you talk to me.”
“File a complaint with customer service,” I said, reminding him that I had more power than he did at this stage of the game.”
“You’re an asshole,” he harrumphed before hanging up on me.
What a fucking night.
Chapter 8
Savina~
With the bouncer laughing at me, and Aurelio making it clear that I was the last person on earth that he’d ever make time for, I had no choice but to go back to trying to figure this shit on my own. As the tears fell, I quickly wiped them away because I didn’t have the right to cry over Aurelio’s rejection. The fact that he’d even spoken to me had been more than I probably deserved.
As I headed back to my car, I couldn’t believe how much my chest ached. Though I’d been expecting some sort of visceral reaction to seeing him again, I hadn’t expected for the very sight of him to take my breath away. Three years hadn’t done anything to lessen what I felt for the man, and it really did suck when the mess that you found yourself in was all your fault.
Though everyone in the family had known who Aurelio Provenza was, it hadn’t been until I’d first spoken to him that I had realized why his name had been on everybody’s lips. He’d been only thirty-one at the time of our first official meeting, but his presence had been unmistakable. Though everyone had been in the habit of dismissing him as simply Nero Sartori’s bodyguard, Aurelio had been so much more than that, and he still was.
When Aurelio had first been assigned to Nero, he’d been only twenty, only two years older than Nero himself. However, the rumors that had surrounded Aurelio Provenza had been almost mythical. The older members of the Sartoris had likened him to Xiahou Dun because Marco had taken Aurelio in when he’d only been fifteen, and he’d hadn’t had a problem getting his hands bloody on day one. In five short years, Aurelio had impressed Marco Sartori enough that Marco had assigned him to the Sartori heir, and Aurelio had just continued proving himself after that. I didn’t know it for a fact, but it was said that Aurelio’s specialty was weapons and that he was capable of shooting anything that you put in his hands with absolute accuracy.
At any rate, our first conversation had been me talking and him listening. It hadn’t been until a few weeks into our courtship that I had realized that Aurelio didn’t speak much. He listened, observed, and assessed, which made him the perfect bodyguard for Nero Sartori. To this day, Aurelio knew more of my secrets than I would have ever known of his had we stayed together.
Along with his legendary reputation, there was also the fact that he was gorgeous beyond sin, a combination that had made him a prize among the female population. Aurelio was six-foot-three, had dark brown hair, black eyes, and his body was carved to perfection. Even three years later, it’d been easy to see that he still worked out. No matter how expensive or how tailored, no suit could disguise that phenomenal body of his. Speaking from experience, Aurelio Provenza was built like a machine, and he also fucked like one.
A lot of the women in our world used to say that Aurelio looked like Zinedine Zidane, but I couldn’t ever see it, and maybe that was because Aurelio wasn’t bald. If anything, I’d say that he looked like the soccer player, Rodrigo De Paul. Maybe Aurelio was a combination of both men, but no matter, there was no denying that Aurelio Provenza was what you fantasized about when you were alone in your bedroom with your hand between your legs.
When he had first asked me out, I’d been overwhelmed with the sheer responsibility of dating a man like him. Though the lifestyle automatically came with a sense of self-preservation, being linked to Aurelio meant that I’d have to be on my guard more. It’d meant checking in all the time, even if it’d been just to assure him that I was safe. At first, I’d been swept up by everything that he’d been, and I’d fallen, and I’d fallen hard. Within weeks, I’d been madly in love with him, ready to hand over my entire life to him.
However, as Nero had started taking over for his father, Aurelio’s role in the family had also evolved, and with that, I could see the freedom to do something with my life fade with each day. The more important that Aurelio had become, the more stifling the lifestyle had felt. With every climb up the ladder, my life had become more valuable to his enemies, and I’d had no choice if I’d wanted any chance at real happiness. Had Aurelio asked me to marry him, I would have said yes, then my life would have been the same life as my mother’s, and I hadn’t wanted that.
So, selfishly and stubbornly, I’d told Aurelio about my real estate license, then had begged him to go with me, even knowing that he couldn’t. Even though I’d already been twenty-eight, fully aware of how things were done in the Mafia, the naïve part of me that believed that love conquered all had still asked him to leave with me. Our last night together had been the most painful thing that I’d ever gone through, including the beatings that I still received at the hands of Ashton, and it hadn’t been until I’d told Aurelio that he’d never be able to make me happy that he had finally let me go.
I’d been such a fool.
So, was I angry that he refused to speak to me? No. I’d have to be insane to hold that against him, and I wasn’t that far gone yet. At least, I wasn’t at this moment. I had no idea if that’d still be true years from now, married to Ashton, trapped with him forever by children. As pathetic as it sounded, I could see myself as a zombie wife, strung out on Xanax, refusing to face reality. It also stung like a bitch because I hadn’t ever imagined myself a victim, and that’s exactly what I was. Whether by choice or not, I’d taken the easy way out, and while lots of people would argue that regular beatings weren’t the easy way out, it was a lot easier than living with guilt. I’d been a selfish asshole once, and I’d never be that again. I’d rather endure the beatings.
Getting inside my car, I knew that I needed to come up with an excuse for walking into the house at this hour. My original plan had been to never have to go back to the brownstone ever again, but with Aurelio’s refusal to speak to me, I knew that I needed to go back, and I needed to go back with a lie that Ashton couldn’t pick apart. Granted, this wouldn’t be the first time that I’d ever had to ‘work late’, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Ashton had a private investigator on me when he went out of town.
Resting my head against the seat, I could always tell him that a client had insisted on meeting here or something of that nature. I could always play off my encounter with Aurelio as purely coincidental, and though it wouldn’t keep me from another ‘learning opportunity’, he might not kill me.
My eyes squeezed tight as tears burned my lashes. I used to always judge the women around me for being weak and not wanting more from life than the hand that they’d been dealt, and it hurt to know that I’d been that self-righteous. We were all just doing the best that we could in this life, and it’d taken Ashton Oliver to show me just how wrong I’d been about too many things.
I jumped when my phone rang, and I’d never wanted to break down so much than I did in this moment. There could only be one person calling me this late at night because I didn’t have any friends. I had coworkers, colleagues, and political acquaintances, but I had no real friends.
With shaky hands, I answered the phone. “Ashton.”
“Where in the fuck are you?” he snapped. “The cameras are showing that you haven’t been home.”
“It’s…it’s been a long day,” I said, doing my best to sound exhausted and not like a nervous wreck.
“That doesn’t explain why the fuck you haven’t gone home,” he replied angrily.
