Page 27 of Broken Prince

Dom nodded. “It’s true. I still think she is good for you, but I forgot a crucial part. “

I crossed my arms on my chest. “Which is?”

“You’re not good for her.”

I snorted. I knew that I was not good for anyone anymore. What did my father call me? Poison, yes that was it and yet, despite everything, I was determined to make her stay.

His phone vibrated in his shorts pocket. He grabbed it and sighed after reading the text. “She’ll be ready to go in a few minutes. I need to shower.”

“I’ll go talk to her.” I wasn’t sure where that came from. I was barely good at talking to her through the computer… Why did I think…

Dom turned to go up the stairs, but I didn't miss the grin on his face just as he gave me his back.

“It was your plan all along!” I called after him, somehow impressed.

He kept on going up but stopped just as he reached the top. “You’re the boss, you figure it out,” he replied before disappearing down the corridor.

“Asshole,” I grumbled but took the front stairs up to her room before I had a chance to overthink it and admit to myself that it was better for her, and in extension for me, that she left and never looked back.

I took a deep breath as I stood in front of her door, the apprehension in the pit of my stomach both new and unsettling.

I was—well, I used to be—Gianluca Montanari, fearless and adulated underboss. I’d never felt apprehension before, men like me never did because we always got what we wanted.

I’d never feared or got a refusal and yet that was exactly what I expected from the fierce young woman behind that door.

I pulled my hood up and knocked. I knew that with my black oversized hoodie I looked more like death than anything else, and in retrospect, it was exactly what I was.

“Come in!”

I opened the door and stepped in.

“I’m sorry,” She started looking down at her suitcase, a bright-green shirt in her hand. “I’ll be done packing in a—” She stopped as she looked up and saw me standing there. “What are you doing here?” Her tone turned cold and wary.

I couldn’t blame her for that either; I’ve been nothing but a heathen to her.

She shook her head when I didn’t answer, throwing her shirt in her suitcase. “Don’t worry, I’m on my way out. I’ll go spy on someone else.”

Yeah, I deserved that. “I’m sorry.” The words felt foreign in my mouth—I’d never been the kind of man to apologize, for anything.

“What?” she asked but didn’t stop her task of picking up the folded clothes from the small pile on her bed to put them in her suitcase.

“Could you just stop for a minute? Please.” That too had not been a word I often used. I didn’t ask, I ordered.

She slowly put back the shirt she was holding on the bed and eyed me warily, crossing her arms on her chest.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, my view of her slightly shadowed by my hood. “Yesterday wasn’t the best of days for me, and then I thought you were lying to me.” I shook my head. “I don’t deal well with lies and then you cooked—” I swallowed painfully around the ever-present ball of pain and guilt in my throat. “You cooked my mother’s favorite meal—just the way she did it and—” I sighed.

“I’ve done nothing wrong,” she said with a small voice. “You had no right to snap at me the way you did, scare me the way you did.” She shook her head. “I- I don’t feel safe here anymore. I can’t help but wonder what will be the next thing I do that will make you snap and what could happen to me if Dom is not here to stop you.” Her voice broke a little at her last word.

Fuck, I’d terrified that poor woman. I was also irrationally irritated that she saw Dom as her protector and me as the beast.

“I would never hurt you.” And it was true. I had a moral code—I never hurt women.

No? What about your mother and sister? You didn’t just hurt them; you killed them. My father’s voice raised from his fucking grave to haunt me.

“How would I know that?”

“I tell you that.” I sighed. I could see with her crossed arms and the stubborn jerk of her chin that I was losing the debate. Time for step two—negotiation. I knew what she wanted the most; I just had to give it to her.

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