It was as if James had known I needed someone to talk to… It was as if he knew my father’s death could’ve been stopped had he made the right choice. Now it was my turn to make the right choice. Letting go of the Mafia was never a choice. They gave you options where I came from, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew I wouldn’t have any other option but to choose…
I could continue down this path, or I could choose Bree. My heart knew what it wanted, but my mind told me something else. The day was coming…
My phone ringing in my pocket pulled me from my own thoughts, and as I stared down at the caller ID, my mind took a different turn.
“Devon,” I growled. I was still pissed about what he and Bree had been doing. I knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but the fact he had known where she was for hours before contacting me made me furious.
“Alzerro, you don’t sound all that happy,” Devon mocked. I could tell he had a smile on his face. Asshole.
“What the fuck were you thinking? You should’ve called me right away,” I all but yelled into the phone.
“Chill out. It’s not like you came barreling down the street for her. She needed time to breathe. Even I could tell that,” he replied in a manner making me uneasy. What had she told him?
“Fuck, I know. Why do you think I wasn’t right behind her? That doesn’t give you the right to just take her wherever. I was losing my shit, you’re lucky you didn’t find yourself on the receiving end of my blade. Until I got the text from you, I was contemplating murdering you.” My hand was running through my hair so fast, I was sure I would be bald by the time this was all through.
“Tsk, tsk, Zerro. I call the shots. I’m the one helping you out. I had the right to do whatever I wanted. I didn’t hurt her or tell her anything she didn’t need to hear.”
She didn’t need to hear? What did he mean?
“What do you mean? I haven’t lied to her about anything, asshole, and don’t fucking talk to me like you own me. You don’t. Have you forgotten I extended a leave to you so you could leave the Mafia? This is how you repay me?” I expressed my anger with every word. Who the fuck did he think he was?
“I’m grateful for all you have done, but you need to relax. I took her out, let her have some fun and that was it. She deserved it. After all, she’s going to be put through the ringer next week.”
“That doesn’t fucking matter. Just know that she is mine. She belongs to me, and whatever the hell happened tonight will not happen again.”
He laughed into the phone, and I was all but two seconds away from crushing my cell phone.
“From the way you fucked her against the hood of the car it didn’t look as if you didn’t want it to happen again. I gave her the freedom she needed at that moment and time, so put the caveman antics away, and pull your head out of your ass. If you want to take Mack down, you need to focus on him. If Bree loves you, she’ll be here when the smoke clears.”
What he said had slowly started to clear the fog from my mind, but it only helped a little bit. The jealousy I was feeling was hotter than the sun.
“Still, you need to leave her alone. As for her and I fucking, watch us one more time, and I’ll gouge out both of your eyes with my hands.” It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. Fuck with me and that was fine. Fuck with my Bree… and that was an automatic death.
“Whatever, Zerro. Here is the deal. I will come by and get Bree next week. Mack is on the lookout for you two. Hell, if he could get his hands on Jared or James, he would be splendid.”
“Yeah, yeah… Get to the plan,” I said impatiently.
“I’ll come in the middle of the night, we’ll scuffle, you’ll cut me, punch me a couple times. Bree has to have some type of damage done to her… then I’ll take her.”
The idea of hurting Bree at all caused my stomach to flip. I never intended to hit her the first time I had. My mother had raised me better than that. Even if I was a stone cold killer, it was never my idea of fun to beat on women.
“Where are you taking her?” My voice came out gravelly. It was after one in the morning, and since James had slipped off the bed, it was just me.
“Don’t act dumb. I’m taking her to Mack. I’ll make sure he doesn’t touch her or anything.” Devon sounded convincing, but nothing was more important to me than her safety. In the end, if I didn’t pick the right path, I knew I would have to let her go.
“I’m not acting dumb, I just wanted to fucking know where she was going.” I wanted to snap his neck for talking down to me. He wasn’t above me and we both knew it.
“You’ll find out. Just make sure she’s prepared. After talking to her tonight, she’s not nearly as naïve as I thought she would be. Seems you have trained her far better than the other women you are known to be with.” The way he compared her to other women I had slept with caused my chest to hurt. She was nothing like those women.
“You’re right. She’s nowhere as dumb as those other women were. She could stand on her own two fucking feet. Now, if you would like to keep that tongue of yours in your mouth, I’d shut it. As you know, I have a habit of cutting tongues out,” I threatened before hanging up the phone. It hit the floor with a thud, and I had no intentions of picking it up. My mind was all over the place.