Page 38 of Promised Vows

He fit me. Oddly enough.

That abandonment ghost threw its wispy blanket over my shoulders and sent a chill down my spine. I didn’t want Ari to leave me, and my issues with that were rearing their ugly head as I sat half dressed in the dressing room.

The deeper things got with Ari, the more chance this situation had the potential to leave me with lasting, permanent damage if something went wrong.

Chapter Sixteen

ARI

In a few moments, Jason would walk through the back door straight into Lucas’s office. Since our last meeting, there have been a few sightings of Michael around Chicago. He’d stopped slinking around in the shadows.

The office door opened, and Lex led Jason and Thomas inside. Lex and Thomas stayed by the door while Jason strode to the desk, hand extended to shake mine.

“Ari.”

“Jason.”

He took a seat. “How’s Anna?”

I held my breath as I sat down and tried to keep the discomfort off my face. “You should ask her yourself. She misses you.”

Not in so many words, but I knew that he’d hurt her. I could see it in her eyes when she talked about him and her father. Those two men had made my job of gaining her trust much more difficult. To her, if they could leave her, then I could too. She didn’t need to tell me as much. I wasn’t dumb.

I had my issues with Lauran. Wanting me one minute, and then finding out something she didn’t like. At that time, I wasn’t even sure I was going to stay with the family. I’d loved Lauran, and she hadn’t even allowed me to choose her. When she left, all I had was my broken heart and my anger. I’d had to deal with that outside of Chicago and away from my family because I’d blamed them. I needed to find a way to love them again. I’d only been back a year when Gianna was murdered.

The guilt would forever plague me. Would she still be alive if I’d stayed? I would never have that answer.

It wasn’t too late for Jason and Anna though. They had a chance to repair their relationship, and I wanted to make her happy. If I could facilitate that, I was going to do it.

“It’s too late for that. Besides, with Michael back in town, I can’t risk him thinking we’ve mended our relationship. He’ll use her against me.”

“I’ll keep her safe.”

Jason rubbed his face with his hands. His father hadn’t prepared him to take over the family. At least not as well as he should have. It made me wonder about that relationship. Had it always been strained?

My father loved us. We worked with him from a very early age. He was firm but fair. He ran his area well, and when he was murdered, Lucas knew what to do. I did too. Lucas and I had both attended events with him. I knew the mayor before he was even a blip on the political stage. If I had known then what I know now, he never would have claimed the title.

Which reminded me… after this meeting, I needed to talk to Lex. He was looking into a few mayoral replacements that we could back. This time, loyalties would be locked in place long before they ever made it to the ballot.

“Tell me what happened.” I didn’t want to disrespect Jason, but I laid the sentence out like a demand.

Jason hesitated and then sighed. “I could never find anything to support my suspicions, but I thought Michael might try to marry Anna off to a Moretti. Plus, I always got the feeling he was holding something back. I never could figure out why Marco or my father trusted Franklin. He was a weasel-like character. He had a knife behind his back at all times so he had something to stab you with.”

How about holding back a two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar trust? It took effort not to laugh at how on point Jason was. “He was a slimeball.”

“I hear Remy isn’t too bad. That’s rumors though. From what I gather, he’s cleaning house and tidying things up.”

I shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been a little preoccupied with my own house, which brings me to why we’re here. Dimitris has had eyes on Michael.”

“Yeah, he’s getting bold, which makes me wonder if he doesn’t have something planned.”

Thomas cleared his throat. “Couple of my guys managed to get their hands on one of his security team. He was dead before they could ask him anything.”

“Shot?” I asked.

“No, cyanide. They said it was something like out of a movie. Also said they never heard him use anything but Greek.”

“Any idea who he was?” I asked.

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