Lover in Lingerie (Lingerie 15)

I helped myself to a glass, enclosed in a private space with him without the women to mitigate the tension. “I bought a place down the road from here. It’s within two miles. Three stories. Five bedrooms—”

“Are you trying to be a show-off right now?” He interrupted me, his gaze as cold as it was earlier.

“No.” I swallowed the harsh retort I wanted to throw back at him. “I bought it for Carmen and me…whenever we get through this nightmare. She wants to live close to you while she raises a family. I just wanted you to know I’m not trying to take her away from you.”

He stared at the fire burning in the fireplace.

“I thought that might make you happy.”

“The idea of you shacking up with my daughter doesn’t make me happy at all, Bosco. I wish you’d never met her.”

This guy was the stubbornest person on the planet. And that was saying something because I was pretty stubborn. “That’s a shame because my mother would have loved Carmen. It breaks my heart that they never met.”

The mention of my dead mother seemed to soften Cane, or at least made him rethink being such an asshole. “What about your father?”

“Abandoned us after my brother was born.” I didn’t feel any pain about it. I never sensed like there something missing in my life. My mother raised me to be a man—and she did a great job.

“You never spoke to him again?”

“No. And I’m glad I didn’t. If he ever came back into my life, I would tell him to fuck off. I don’t harbor a grudge against him because my brother and I didn’t have a father. My mother was more than enough. But I’ll always hate him for abandoning her, making her work two jobs just to support us. Raising two kids as a single mom is tough work. His behavior was unforgivable.”

Cane stared at me.

“I think that’s why I fell for Carmen so easily. She’s strong the way my mother was, independent, smart, and fierce. Most women want me for my money, but Carmen couldn’t care less. She can do anything she wants on her own. She doesn’t need a man. But that makes me want to be the man she never needed in the first place.” I wasn’t sure why I was saying all of this to Cane. I guess I wanted to have a conversation that didn’t have anything to do with the casino. The one subject we had in common was Carmen. “I like taking care of her…” She let me buy her diamonds that she never asked for. She let me protect her with my army of men. She let me buy her dresses that she loved. She let me share my home with her. She wasn’t the kind of woman to be dependent on a man, but she let herself be dependent on me.

Cane looked away. “I know you love her. You don’t need to keep trying to convince me.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“If any man said he loved my daughter, I would believe him. She’s the most wonderful woman on this planet. She’s beautiful, smart, ambitious…knows how to throw an awesome right hook. We both know she could have any man she wants.”

“Then why is this so hard for you to accept? I have all the money in the world, all the resources. I want to give Carmen everything. For once in my life, I don’t want to be greedy and keep all my money to myself. I want to give that woman the world.”

“Bosco.” He turned his body toward me and held his glass in his fingers. “It’s nothing personal. You come from the underworld. I just don’t want my daughter to marry someone from that world. I spent decades trying to get out of it, but it still keeps pulling me back in.”

“I’m not part of the underworld,” I said confidently. “I own it. I can make any problem go away.”

“And every man hates you for it. You might have the respect of most men, but you have the envy of even more. There’s nothing an unhappy man wants more than to destroy a happy man’s life. You’ll always be a target.”

“My brother is taking over the casino.”

“And you’re associated with him. If people want to get to Ronan, they’ll come after you.”

He had me there. “I’m very cautious. I have fifty men who have secured a two-mile perimeter around your property.”

“And I’m aware of their presence—because I’m cautious too.”

Now I stared at him with tension rising in my chest.

“The worst feature of a man is arrogance, not because it’s tacky, but because he thinks he’s invincible. And that’s when his enemies find his weakness—because he’s too conceited to think he has any.” He pointed his glass at me. “That’s what I see when I look at you. I know my daughter loves you and you love her, but that’s not always enough. The best way to be safe is to disappear. My brother and I have been trying to disappear for decades, but our sons have inherited our affinity for trouble.”