Page 697 of The Tempted

“What’re you doing here?” he says.

“Looking for you,” I admit. I started to remove the pads from my hands but he stops me, grabbing my hands he pries them off himself.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” he rasps.

“Yeah, you want to tell me what’s got you twisted?” I ask, cocking my head to the side as he examines my hands. “Did something happen with my father?”

“It’s nothing,” he insists, bringing one of my hands to his lips then the other.

“Bullshit, Bianci.” I call, pulling my hands back. I lift them to his face, forcing his eyes to mine as I straddle the bench and inch closer to him.

“When I went to visit your old man, I figured he was just giving me another message to deliver to Jack, but he had another visitor, your cousin, Rocco,” he explains.

I squint in confusion. Rocco and Gina are my first cousins on my mother’s side, and to be honest we don’t have much of a relationship with them. We did when we were younger but then their father was deported and they moved back to Italy. Gina is off killing it as some big shot investment banker and the last I heard, Rocco was living in Florida.

“Apparently, your father’s been grooming him for a long time to take his place within the organization,” Anthony mutters.

“What? Wait a minute, you’re telling me Rocco is going to be taking my father’s place?” I shake my head in confusion, I drop my hands from his face and place them over my knees, processing what my husband was telling me. I lift my head and look at him as I piece it together.

“Yeah,” he confirms.

“And that bothers you,” I state, sliding back an inch to better assess him. “Because a part of you wishes it was you taking over, am I right?”

He reaches behind me, grabbing a towel and wiping his face.

“I don’t know,” he admits, wrapping the towel around his shoulders. “I spent most of my life doing all sorts of fucked up shit, thinking one day I’d be the one Victor handed his empire over to. I sold my fucking soul to the devil and have to live every day with the sins I’ve committed. This guy comes out of nowhere, spends a year or so under Vic’s thumb and suddenly he’s in charge.”

He twists the ends of the towel in his hands as he stares back at me.

“You want the truth? I’ll give you the truth, Reese’s. I should be the one in charge, not your cousin,” he confesses.

My eyes widen as I stare back at him.

“What are you saying?” I question, taken aback by his confession, trying to understand him and control my own feelings at the same time. Was he telling me he regrets our life? Did he regret choosing me and Luca over the lifestyle he grew accustomed to?

“Don’t look at me like that, Reese’s,” he says, reaching for me and pulling me between his legs. “This is why I didn’t come home, I needed to make sense of what I was feeling so I could better explain myself.”

“I never asked you to choose,” I blurt. “I accepted you for who you were. You were the one who insisted you couldn’t be with me, you insisted Luca shouldn’t grow up the same way I did, and while I agreed, it was never me who made you choose.”

“You want to let me explain?” he argues calmly, brushing away the strands of hair that had fallen from my ponytail.

“It was my choice, and it was the best decision I ever made in my life. If given the chance, I’d always choose you and our kids over that life. But, that life was a part of me for so long, A. It’s all I knew, all I know. Until now, since your father turned himself in, there has been one situation after another pulling me back in—keeping me in the game even if it’s just sitting on the sidelines waiting for Jack to call me and tell me he needs information or for me to rough someone up for him. I thought your father’s organization was being phased out, I didn’t know the whole time he was preparing Rocco to take the reins. There is no place for me in that world anymore and it got me thinking about how I don’t know life without the mob. I’ve always had my hand in something and now there isn’t anything left.”

He pauses, letting his hands travel down my arms, lacing our fingers together as he continues to stare at me.

“Even Jack’s been reminding me I don’t have a place within that life anymore. The only reason I made a move when the Red Dragons attacked the MC was because that shit was personal. They shot my sister and forced my nephew to be born before his time, if it wasn’t for Riggs coming to me, well, I wouldn’t have been involved in taking them down either.”

Lifting my fingers to my temple, my head pounds from all he has laid out for me and I begin to knead my fingers against my skin.

“Are you telling me you want a patch now? That you’re going to buy a Harley? Because I’m telling you right now I will not be called an old woman. I am not okay with that,” I insist, dropping my fingers from my head. “That’s Lauren’s gig, not mine.”

He grins at me.

That wicked grin of his that makes my insides melt every single time. All these years later, I’m still a sucker for that cocky grin and those eyes. Man, those eyes, so cold and uninviting to everyone else, but to me they were home.

“I’m pretty sure they call them old ladies,” he corrects, taking hold of my hands again. “And no, I’m not buying a Harley although I wouldn’t mind seeing you on one.” he Winks, smiling faintly before his face grows serious. “I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t know life outside the mob.”

He leans his head against mine.

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