Page 44 of Fixate
Pharrell
Fucking Pip.
I nearly killed him the second I saw the gun he had pointed at Ricardo’s head. The urge was so strong, it took everything in me to only bark at him to stand down.
My men were worried. I could see it more now that I’d had some proper rest and watched them take in the newcomer to our group. They didn’t know what to make of Ricardo.
Neither did I.
He wasn’t as clear-cut as I thought he’d be.
I’d assumed he was straight. No one had ever indicated otherwise. But what we’d done together wasn’t all that straight in my book. The looks he kept sending my way weren’t either.
His gaze was full of heat. It was also laced with confusion.
Was I an experiment to him? Would he up and run into a woman’s arms the minute he got me out of his system?
Doubt filled me as I went over the day’s progress with Henri and Pip. Ricardo remained by my side through it all, though his eyes were taking in our operations. He was looking for something, only I wasn’t sure what.
Only once we were alone in my office did he speak up. “There are still some men who aren’t loyal to you on the floor.”
“What makes you say that?” I leaned back in my chair, letting him think I was calm when really, all I wanted was to pull him into my lap.
I wanted to hold him.
To take care of him.
Fuck everything else. I was so damn tired of never getting what I wanted.
Ricardo leaned forward against the desk. “Call it a hunch, mostly. When Pip was ready to kill me, there was glee in their eyes. Like bloodlust. Then you stepped in and told them to trust me. It was like a flip of a switch. Disgust. Anger. Hatred. It’s not all that obvious, but it’s there.”
His eyes glazed over as he spoke, like he was lost in his own world. I wondered just what he was remembering.
My first guess would be Domenico. That asshole ruled with an iron fist. I’d known him for years before his demise. I had no doubt being under his thumb made Ricardo an expert at reading people.
Sometimes it’s the greatest skill one could have when trying to survive.
“Can you keep an eye on them? Maybe let Henri know as well? He is around them more than I am, what with my need to now manage the casinos and this part of the business.”
He tilted his head. “Let me guess, she handled some of the darker parts?”
The way he said she left no guesses as to who he meant. His disdain for my dead wife was evident the further we were away from the events that went down in the compound.
How had he hidden it so well before?
If I thought back, I knew it had to be because he wasn’t around much. Even when I’d meet up with Dante for drinks ordinner, Ricardo always found a way to either stay on the edge of everything, or he’d leave early.
It was like he couldn’t stand being around me. At least, that’s what I thought.
Maybe the problem wasn’t ever me.
“She did. It was her skillset being a Bratva princess and all.”
At the mention of my former in-laws, he sneered. “She was no princess. Her uncle cares more about her in death than while she was alive, I’m sure.”
While I didn’t want to agree with him so quickly, there was no denying there was some validity to his words. Stasia’s uncle was more upset about the slight to his family at her murder than he was with wanting to keep up with her before.
Then again, they could have talked daily, and I wouldn’t have known. She kept far more secrets than I could have ever imagined.
