Page 64 of She Belongs to Me

“I understand your frustration,” I told him, pointing toward the bar. It was well after four at this point. This had been the first time I’d been able to meet given the security. Now there were two reasons for the upgrade in security. What the hell did Mattia think he was doing other than angering me?

I wasn’t a happy man at all.

There were too many variables and coincidences, which didn’t set well in my mind. I didn’t believe in coincidences, something taught to me by my father.

Domino stormed to the bar, his two Capos closing the door and joining my guys. All four were the most trustworthy of our organization, but they weren’t used to war, only peace.

“What the fuck did the asshole want?” Domino insisted.

“At the time it would appear Alexandra.”

He was shocked by my statement. “You let her out of the house?”

“Isabella insisted on taking her to brunch.”

Snorting, he grabbed a glass and the same bottle I’d poured from. “Did Isabella confront him?”

“With both barrels as usual.”

“Did she learn anything?” His tone was far too accusatory for my liking and he could sense I’d bristled. “She’s good at that. Better than we are.”

I could feel my Capos thinking ‘nice save’ and it was.

Getting riled at my own brother wasn’t going to solve anything. “Unfortunately, he was busy flirting with my guest. But we both know he was fishing.”

“About Alexandra?” Luca asked.

“He came right up to her when Isabella took a call.” I didn’t like that at all. But I still couldn’t lock Alexandra away, much as I wanted to.

“Fuck. This is bad,” Domino stated more in passing.

“We need to figure out what Mattia was really doing here and if there’s any connection to the Greeks.” Yes, I was stretching it and I knew that, but I couldn’t leave any stone unturned at this point. Doing so could mean getting someone killed. I had no intention of allowing that to happen.

“What did Alexandra say about the conversation?” Enzo piped in.

“That she started suspecting he was fishing for information about who she was staying with and why. And now, she’s much smarter than to tell anyone anything.” I powered back the rest of my drink and immediately went for more. It had been a long day and was likely to be a longer night.

Although I’d prefer to spend it with her.

Fuck.

How many times had I thought that over the last few hours? Too many.

“So what do you want to do, boss?” Luca asked as my brother continued to fume.

“I need the four of you to check with every contact, every informant, and anyone who might know the reason for Mattia’s arrival and what business he was doing here.”

“And if no one wants to talk?” one of Domino’s men asked.

“Then we handle business the old-fashioned way.” I wondered if the men had waited to hear me suggest that. Brutality and blood. I wasn’t certain I was thrilled about it either.

“Been a long time, boss,” Enzo said more to me than to anyone else. Perhaps as a reminder. He’d been there along with Luca when I’d pledged to do things differently not long after my father had taken his last breath.

The truth was that I believed either he’d been injected with a poison, or had been terrified and angry enough it had pushed him into a heart attack. Of course, that would have taken someone knowing he had a heart condition that he’d kept from his entire family. It was something I’d mentioned once in front of my brother and sister and they’d about killed me.

The last thing my mother had needed was to hear my crazy ideas given her fragile state of mine. But just like with Gregory, my out-of-the-box thinking remained. Not that I could put any pieces of the strange puzzle together and at certain points, I hadn’t wanted to.

Now?

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