Page 33 of Stolen Bride for the Don

“And you think that’s something to be proud of? Maybe everything has been piling up and piling up and this is just the straw that broke the camel’s back, Hudson! Did you think about that?” I inhale sharply, hating that I’m starting to raise my voice. He doesn’t deserve my emotions.

“If we’re done here, I’d like to leave,” I announce.

He watches me quietly for a moment. “I’m going to propose this evening at the restaurant, but I want you to inform your family when you talk to them about our engagement dinner.”

Engagement dinner? “Fine,” I bite out and spin out of the office.

CHAPTER 21

HUDSON

“Fuck!” I swipe all the stuff off my desk angrily after the door closes behind her. I can’t help the feeling that I’ve just lost something vital. Her anger I could deal with. But this indifference? I hate it.

The door swings open and Eli peeks in, but I wave him off. I need to be alone right now.

I open the drawer, where I had stored Andrea’s new phone and pick up the small square box. I open the lid critically, studying the five carat diamond on the rose gold band. It’s an emerald cut surrounded by two, very rare, pink diamonds. Should I have gone for a bigger center stone? I close the lid sharply and return the box back to its place as I text Isaac, wondering where he is.

He said that he had something to tell me at the park. I expected him to follow me home so we could talk. I need him to distract me so I won’t go to our bedroom and force Andrea to yell at me, hit me…something. Just as I shoot off the text, someone knocks on the door.

“It’s me,” Isaac says. I tell him to come in.

“What came up?” I ask as he sits across from me.

“What are you doing, Massimo?” he inquires.

“What do you mean?” I lean back in my chair, folding my arms over my chest. As my consigliere, his role includes questioning me when he thinks I’m making a bad decision. It doesn’t mean I have to like it.

“With the girl, Massimo. I understand that you need to get married to keep the peace between the families and you have to make them believe it’s real but the girl isn’t–”

“I’d think very carefully about your next words, Isaac. That girl is going to be my wife. Your queen. You’ll treat her with the same respect you give me,” I interrupt him darkly.

He pauses, his gaze searching mine. “This… is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re falling for her. That’s not good, Massimo. Yes, I’m aware that you told the families this is a love match, but if they find out just how much you’re coming to care about her, they will not hesitate to use her against you.”

“I’m not falling in love with her,” I say automatically. Even now, my head is crowded with thoughts of her, wondering how I can get her to stop being angry at me. I snatched her out of her life for crying out loud. If not because of her brother, I doubt she would even be civil to me at all.

I can’t believe I’ve let her get so far under my skin. I may not be as far as being in love with her yet, but damned if I’m not well on my way there.

“I hear you, Isaac. I’ll make the necessary adjustments.” I’ll take as many steps away from her as I can. “Now, what did you say happened?”

“It’s the inferno,” he says. Inferno is one of my most popular strip clubs. “I went there a few nights ago and caught wind that the manager might be pimping the girls.”

“What!?” I stammer and sit up straight.

Ever since I took over the syndicate and formed the truce with the other families, we had drawn up an agreement. You can traffic and sell whatever the fuck you want except people. Yes, there are unavoidable situations, where the women voluntarily choose the profession, but for it to be happening in my own club?

“Impossible.”

“I had much the same thoughts so I didn’t say anything. I've been going there consecutively for three nights, Massimo. It’s happening.”

My hands form fist on the desk. “Did you talk to the girls?”

He nods. “They seem to be afraid of Noah, so they say it’s fine. But fuck, one of them was sporting large bruises on her wrists. Like her hands were held together in handcuffs for a long time.”

I curse under my breath and text Crew to come up to my study. After weighing the variables, I decide it’s best to step in. I check the time: it’s late morning. I should be done in time for my date with Andrea tonight.

I instruct Isaac to have people brought in to help Andrea get ready for tonight. Then Crew and I make for Chestnut street in upper south Providence where the club is located.

“How do you want to play this?” Crew asks as we pull into the lot. During the day it looks just like any ordinary building on the busy commercial street.

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