Carmen turned to me next and examined me. “Babe, are you okay?”
The pain was strong, but nothing was broken. “I’ve lived through worse. I’ll be fine.” I straightened, ignoring the pain in my skull and standing tall like the man I was.
“I’m so sorry,” Carmen whispered as she cupped my face, her eyes filled with pain.
“Don’t apologize, Beautiful.” I kissed her forehead. “I’m fine.”
“You kept your promise to me…”
I kept my promise to her more than she realized. “I don’t break my promises.”
Griffin turned back to me, still angry any time he looked at me. He wasn’t going to apologize and I wouldn’t expect him to, but there was a look in his eyes, an expression that wasn’t clear. “You love her?”
“You think I would have called off my men if I didn’t?” We both knew I had enough power to do whatever I pleased. If Carmen were just my prisoner, I would go ahead and kill him to make my life easier. If I didn’t give a damn, I would have killed her father and uncle too. “You think I would be having lunch with Carmen and your wife if I weren’t trying to…” I didn’t finish the sentence, not wanting to sound like a pussy. “You can do whatever the hell you want to me, Griffin. I promised Carmen I would never hurt any of you. So if you beat me to within an inch of my life, I still won’t fight back. I’ll kill a man with my bare hands, but I’ll also sacrifice my life if that’s what Carmen wants. You must not love her as much as I do because you can’t keep your shit together.”
Griffin didn’t react to my words, his eyes turning to Carmen. “And you love him?”
Carmen nodded. “Yes.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, like he was disappointed with the news. “Alright. Then I’ll behave from now on—as long as you do as I ask. We have a deal?”
I nodded. “Fine.” I was a little annoyed that I’d just proved I would never hurt any of them, but that still wasn’t enough for Griffin. If I’d wanted to hurt his wife that much, I would have let my men shoot him so he would be out of the way. He also knew I was an honest man, and that was something he already respected about me.
Griffin turned to Vanessa. “Baby, let’s go.”
Judging by the way she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, that wasn’t happening. “No. You’re leaving. You’re going back to wherever the hell you came from. And maybe tonight when I get off work…I might come home.”
Carmen placed the ice against the back of my head to help the swelling go down.
“Beautiful, I told you I’m fine.”
“Well, I’m looking at the back of your head, and it’s not fine.” She sat behind me against the couch, her legs spread around me. She pressed the towel against the back of my head for long stretches of time before she pulled away to let my skin warm up again. “A lot of swelling. Maybe you should see a doctor.”
Doctors were for pussies. “I’m fine.” I would say it as many times as I had to.
She kept cycling the bag against my head before she pulled it away, giving my skull a chance to thaw out once more. “God, I’m so sorry… I didn’t even know Griffin was there until you were against the wall.”
“Don’t apologize for his actions.” I was the one who’d wanted to have lunch with Vanessa. If I was really that worried about Griffin, I could have avoided it. It was entirely my fault. I didn’t have any regrets since I’d made some progress with Carmen. Listening to her confess her love for me to Griffin made it all worth it. “He did what he had to do. Let it go.”
“He did not have to throw you against a wall.”
“Beautiful.” I silenced her with her name. “That’s how men communicate. Don’t worry about it.”
“But you were powerless to do anything about it.”
“That’s what you asked for, right?” I said quietly. Her father and uncle came into my casino and made demands no one else could pull off. Anyone else would have been thrown into the ring for that kind of disrespect. Because of their halo of safety Carmen provided for them, they could have done anything they wanted and gotten away with it. “Maybe Griffin will take me more seriously now.”
“I don’t know…he’s stubborn. I am disappointed in him for being so callous. When he first came around, I defended him to everyone. I treated him like a human being even though everyone said he was dangerous. I ignored his past and focused on his present. I wish he would do the same for me…”