I wouldn’t try to claim that I was the most even-tempered of men, but I wasn’t typically someone who acted out with fits of uncontrolled violence, either. For me, violence was a tactic and it needed to be used, but carefully and wisely to bring about the result I wanted.
But this was the second time I’d raged out and acted like a lunatic.
And, it had to be said, both times were because of Isabella.
When the fucker touched her in the restaurant.
And when someone threatened her safety in her own home.
I couldn’t say for certain where that overwhelming response came from. It wasn’t like I was passionately in love with the woman. I didn’t really even believe in that shit. But she was mine. And no one touched, threatened, or hurt what was mine.
“She’s going to be pissed,” Dulles told me early the next morning. None of us had actually gotten any sleep. We’d been up late checking the security cameras and trying to figure out who the shithead was that had tried to get into the building. Then, of course, I’d had to call all of my men individually to tell them shit was going down again. And as soon as the city started to wake up, I had to go down and have a chat with some of the people in the neighborhood.
The problem was, we’d all hit dead-end after dead-end.
We were no closer to figuring out who the bastard was or who he worked for than we were right after I’d killed him.
So I’d needed to come up with a new plan to make sure Isabella stayed safe while we figured it all out.
Dulles was right; she was going to be pissed.
“She doesn’t usually sleep this late,” Dawson added, frowning.
“Primo said she was sick after she saw him pull the bullet out of himself,” Terzo said, shrugging.
I’d never actually seen someone look green before, but she sure as fuck had in that shower when I’d walked in.
“Yeah, said it wasn’t the blood, just the whole digging the bullet out thing,” I said, going over to make her a cup of coffee when I finally heard her moving around upstairs. I figured maybe a small kind gesture might soften the blow of what I had to tell her.
She came down a few minutes later with her hair piled on top of her head and fresh-faced, but dressed in blue skinny jeans and a heavy red sweater.
And fuck if she wasn’t as beautiful right then as she’d been in her wedding dress. Or when she took time to get herself all dolled up.
“Oh, hey,” she said, looking surprised to see my brothers and Vissi hanging around all at once. “Are you guys up early, or am I late?” she asked, accepting the coffee from me, but being careful not to let our fingers brush or our gazes meet.
“You’re late,” Terzo said, always surly. “We have to get moving,” he added, looking at me. “Get it over with,” he demanded, making his way toward the door.
No one spoke to me that way. Not even Terzo. But I was going to go ahead and blame it on the fact that he hadn’t gotten any sleep. And since it was only our brothers and Vissi, who was practically a brother, around, I didn’t have to worry about what anyone thought about it. We were all allowed to have a shit day here and there.
“Get what over with?” Isabella asked, but was looking at Dawson and Dulles as she did so.
Oh, this really wasn’t going to go over well if she’d already decided she wasn’t happy with me.
Oh, well.
It had to be done.
Whether she liked it or not.
“Giving you some news you’re not going to like,” Dulles said, getting up and whacking Dawson across the chest. The two of them started making their way toward the door.
“Chickenshits,” Vissi mumbled under his breath, shooting me a smirk.
“What news am I not going to like?” Isabella asked, stiffening.
“We don’t know who tried to break in here last night,” I told her. “Well, we know who did, but we don’t know who sent him.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, frowning. “That’s it?” she asked, sensing that it wasn’t.
“No, that’s not it,” I said, placing my mug down on the counter, internally bracing for her anger. “Until we figure out who it was and neutralize the threat, you are going to be confined to the loft.”
“I… what?” she snapped, eyes flickering into fires in a blink.
“You heard me,” I said, nodding. “It’s not safe.”
“It’s not safe,” she repeated. I might not have known everything about a woman’s anger, but I did know that when they started repeating everything you said with absolute murder in their eyes, that shit was about to hit the fan.
“Are you allowed to leave?” she asked, chin arching up.