"I have to say, I expected someone a little less articulate of Matteo's famed Executioner," he commented, leaning back on the table with his arms crossed. "A mindless killer, someone who spoke with his fists rather than words." I smiled at him in response, not bothering to answer. "I didn't expect someone so intelligent."
"Making assumptions is your mistake. Preconceived notions of people only blind you to their truths."
His head jerked back as he smiled in disbelief. "A man of your talents is wasted as Bellandi's thing that goes bump in the night. He's turned you into a punchline, when you could be a man of true power, if given the proper opportunity. He’s made you a dog, when you were born to be a wolf. Bellandi is too soft to do his dirty work, so he lets you do it for him."
"You’re offering me a job?" I asked, and my hands twitched at my sides as Antonio's eyes met mine in shock. The kid had to know I'd never turn on Matteo, no matter what happened or what they offered me.
"I am."
"I could have been a powerful man if I’d been willing to stand on the backs of the vulnerable to do it. I was born to a life that makes your little operation look like child's play. What you have to offer doesn't interest me," I growled, and I watched his eyes narrow in suspicion.
"That's unfortunate," he sighed. "Take the kid, get him out of here and consider it a gesture of good will between Matteo and I. But if I catch him watching my woman again, he's a dead man. That goes for people who stalk me, too. Matteo should only assign people he views as expendable."
I glared at him as Antonio hustled from the corner and stood behind me. "If you have nothing to hide, it shouldn't matter, Murphy. But good luck. You'll have to find me before you kill me, and you didn't have the first fucking clue you were even being followed. You will never see me. They never do."
Murphy's lips twisted in a sneer, and I gave Antonio a gentle shove toward the door.
As soon as we stepped out the front door, Antonio heaved a huge breath of relief. "You're insane. You know that, right?"
I ignored him, unlocking the car and climbing into the driver's seat as he got in the passenger side.
"Just don't get blood on my wife's seat,” I grunted, pulling out into traffic. The others followed, appearing from their hiding spots so we could return to the Bellandi estate to regroup.
Even with him in another vehicle, I could practically feel Matteo’s fury vibrating through the air that blew in through the air conditioning in the Maserati. Antonio went silent at my side, remaining stoic despite the pain he must be in.
“Take some time off, heal up,” I told him as I turned down the road that would take us to Matteo’s. “When that’s done, you come follow me around a bit. I’ll teach you how to really blend in better so you don’t get caught next time,” I said. In the corner of my eye, he snapped his head to look at me sharply.
“Seriously?” he asked, his voice rising with excitement. “I thought you worked alone.”
“Yeah, well, I’m getting really tired of stalking people that aren’t my wife,” I laughed. “I’d like someone to do it properly so I don’t have to. You’re as good a man as any.” The harsh, impersonal words dissuaded the kid from getting too attached or thinking we had some kind of bond.
I didn’t bond. I didn’t do people aside from the few I considered family.
But the light in his eyes signified I had been entirely unsuccessful on that front. He didn’t speak again, didn’t thank me. He was too smart for that. And as soon as we pulled up to the Estate, he hurried around the back of the main house to the building where the security took their breaks. There’d be a doctor waiting for him.
Matteo’s face was thunderous as he climbed out of the SUV Simon had driven him in. “When that fucker is dead, I’m going to dance on his corpse,” he growled, stopping near the fountain at the front to warn me.
“That’s if I leave anything to dance on.” I grinned, loving the uncharacteristic fury in Matteo’s body. He so often hid behind that icy exterior, sometimes it was easy to forget that it covered a well of rage just like mine.
“I can’t keep this from Ivory anymore. Lino is planning on telling Samara so they know to be extra careful. Those two aren’t known for keeping secrets,” he warned, and I dropped my head back as frustration ate away at me.
“I have to tell Calla then. She needs to hear it from me. Fuck,” I groaned. Her fear for her children would mean I lost all the progress I’d worked so hard to gain.
“Good luck with that.” He blew out a breath as he stepped into the house. “I do not envy you that conversation.”
Neither did fucking I.
???
The kids were already in bed by the time I got home, given that I'd had to talk over our options with Matteo and the others. We'd decided not to let off the pressure because, as unfortunate as it was, we couldn't be seen giving in to Murphy's demands.
We didn't back down, and we didn't take shit from a nobody who thought to climb above his place. If he'd just stayed where he belonged in his position as Liam O'Connell's second, we wouldn't have had a war on our hands.
Calla was awake, reading in bed when I strolled out of the bathroom from my shower. Even in the best scenarios, she knew not to get too close to me until after I showered when I got home. I hated tainting her with the filth of my work, so I refused to so much as hug her until I showered. Ines hugging me with blood on my clothes had been enough of a wake up call for me, even if Calla had felt the need to drive that point home. She glanced up at me nervously, smiling awkwardly before she turned her eyes back to her book.
I sighed, strolling over and taking it out of her hands to set it on her nightstand. She'd been distant since our argument over the kids' adoption papers, though we both knew it had started the day Jason snuck into the studio and spoke to her.
She still hadn't confessed, hadn't told me the truth, and her secret ate away at me every day. Even knowing that she hadn't taken him up on his offer, she still hid it from me. It made me wonder if she planned to reach out to him in the future.