Page 53 of Cardinal

"I have a meeting to attend to."

Chapter 28

Juliet

The next three days were tense…

Okay, that might be an understatement.

Things haven't been well around the house or with anything ever since Luciano upped and left me in the air for his evening meeting. I tried to question him about it that night when he came to bed, but he shrugged me off and kept changing the subject whenever I would return to it.

My annoyance only grew the next day when he kept telling me not to worry about it and that it wasn't any of my business to get involved with. Then, he placed a wall between us with everything and practically locked himself in his office for the past two days. He only ever came out during meal times and when it was time for bed, but even then, he came to bed pretty late both nights.

I hated how stressed out he became and how he refused to let me in to help. I wasn't useless, and I wanted to help. But his grumpy ass has been like, 'No, it's Syndicate business,' and blah blah blah.

Ugh!

Clatter!

Making a mess out of frustration probably wasn't wise because I would have to clean it up later, but my arm lashed out across my desk before I could control myself.

Deciding I've had enough, I let out a frustrated groaning shout and trudged my ass down to Luciano's office, not giving a damn about his stupid rule. I was even bold enough in my emotional state that I glared and flipped the guards off when they tried to stop me from entering his office.

"Touch me, and I will scream bloody murder and drain your bank accounts later tonight and order glitter bomb mail to your places." I threatened them when they reached out to restrain me physically.

Holding their hands up in surrender, they backed away from me, giving me full access to the closed office door.

Letting my adrenaline guide me, I grabbed the doorknob and kicked the door open, causing it to slam against the wall. "We are talking."

Luciano's dead eyes didn't soften up one bit at the sight of me. If anything, he only seemed more peeved that I barged in. "Juliet. Now is not the time. Leave." Luciano was very much not amused by my sudden appearance with his somewhat hostile tone.

"No." I stood my ground with my head held high.

Shutting the door, I crossed my arms and mustered up as much confidence as possible while I walked up to Luciano's glaring figure. Closer and closer, his huge figure grew bigger than I remembered with each step I took toward him. Standing before him, he felt like a mountain giant even though he remained sitting in his chair after he turned it around to face me.

"I am done with this stupid macho man act of yours." I don't know what spurred my hand forward to jab him in the chest, but no taking it back now. "I am done being in the fucking dark about shit that is clearly about me. You didn't get all silent and moody until I told you that person's name, so it has something to do with me to an extent."

Seething breaths heaved at my chest as I struggled to gather myself together enough to form coherent thoughts with my rising anger. "I don't give a damn if it is mafia business or not, if you are involved, then so am I. You are mine, so, therefore, your problems are mine, too. That is how a fucking relationship works. At least a good and functioning relationship works like that last time I checked." Okay, that didn't come out as I planned, and it also sounded a lot better in my head.

Taking a deep, calming breath, I stepped forward and fell into his lap, straddling him and wrapping my arms around his neck. "I refuse to be in those pointless relationships where the guy keeps the girl out of things because he thinks it's best for her. I knew what I was getting into the moment I made up my mind about you and stepped into your world. I know it's a shit show filled with violence, guns, blood, and crime galore, and I accepted all of that before I accepted you."

Sliding a hand down to his cheek, I rested my forehead against his while my thumb stroked his cheek. "I know you want what is best for me and want to protect me, but I am not a child. I am your woman, so let me step into that role. I might not be able to shoot a gun or knock someone out with a single punch to the face. Hell, I don't think I can throw a proper punch without breaking my hand, but that's not the point right now." Okay, maybe I did sound a little useless compared to him and a lot of other people now that I thought about it.

"Just let me in and let me help, please. I want to ease your burdens and help you with them. We are in this together now, whether you like it or not. If you had no intentions of letting me be involved in this part of your life, then please, do us both a favor and end this relationship before it ends itself down the line." It didn't feel fair for Luciano to keep me shut out of his whole life. "I do not want this to be some cliche book or movie where the mob boss keeps his wife ignorant and out of his business. We are in the twenty-first fucking century, so I am going to be just as involved as you."

"Are you done?" Luciano asked bluntly with a twitch of his eyebrow.

"No, because you asked, so no, I am not." Did I have anything further to say? Fuck no, but I didn't want to shut up because he wanted me to. "I will be done when I want. You are not the boss of me."

Eek!

THAT WAS THE WRONG FUCKING THING TO SAY!

My words flipped a switch in Luciano, and his hand wrapped around my neck in a nanosecond. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, principessa. Care to repeat that?" His eyes grew dangerous with a wave of excited anger as he leaned off the chair and pressed me lower than him.

Gulping, I shrunk under his intense gaze. Not out of fear, no, it was out of submission.

"I-I said you're not the boss of me." I squeaked, barely recognizing my nervous voice as I shivered in his hold.

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