Page 11 of His Broken Queen

“It seemed like a good enough reason.”

“Oh.”

“I didn’t trust her before, but after I saw how uncomfortable she made you, she had to go.” He pointed to the shower stall. “I’ll join you in a few minutes. Let me call Gio back.”

“I hope this management change doesn’t cause extra stress for you.” I sensed he had already been dealing with so much even if he couldn’t tell me what was going on.

“You let me worry about it. No one disrespects my wife.”

“Thank you.” I stepped under the stream of the multiple shower heads. “Aria did make me feel uncomfortable. She tried to make me believe she had a chance with you. As if.” I rolled my eyes. “I know better.”

“I’m glad.” He glanced at my body and licked his lips. “I won’t be long.”

“I hope not or I’ll have to find other ways to occupy myself while I’m in here.” I ran my hand over my breasts and down my stomach.

“Be careful.” He gripped my wrist. “I might make you do that while I watch.”

“Hurry back.”

He groaned as he left the bathroom to tend to his business. I was used to him taking care of urgent matters at all hours of the day and night, but over the last few days it seemed to be happening more frequently.

Ever since we broke away from my family, we had been living as if nothing could touch us. I believed it when he said everything was fine, but I knew better. Nothing was ever fine in this world. A world where men like my husband, uncle, and cousins killed for what they deemed important.

The sad truth was men like them could disappear in a heartbeat defending what they thought was important. This life of loyalty, honor, and respect could be deadly.

Chapter 4

Romero

“Gio, I don’t want to hear anymore fucking bad news.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “We haven’t moved product in months. Our contacts are drying up. I’m useless to the cartel now.”

“If it’s any consolation,” Gio said. “No one is moving anything. It’s not just us. The Torrios are still recovering from the hit they took when we blew up the warehouse. The cartel doesn’t trust them either. The other families are laying low because they’re worried we’re going to go to war with the Torrios and no one wants to choose sides. Plus, the Feds are putting a lot of pressure on all of us.”

“I didn’t want this involvement.” I slammed my fist on my desk. “The fucking Torrios caused all of these problems for us.”

“You did get Lu out of the deal.”

I looked up from my laptop.

“Where do we stand with her new guard?” Salvi was doing double duty and that only worked because I didn’t let Luciana leave the house without me. She only agreed to that because she was busy with her online courses, but she needed her own guard.

“I did what you asked me to do, but I don’t know if it’s going to work out or if it would be considered in poor taste to take a guard from one family, especially that family, and put him in ours. How do we know we can trust him?”

“It’s the right move.”

“What about Jag?”

“Don’t.” I held up my hand. “That piece of shit almost got my wife killed. The only reason he’s still breathing and employed with us is because you like him. I will not trust him with her ever again.”

“We are short staffed if you haven’t noticed.” Gio tapped his fingers on the edge of my desk. “I’m vetting security as fast as I can, but I don’t trust a lot of the guys coming our way. They have too many ties to other families. Given the circumstances of the last mole in this house, I can’t take any chances.”

I glared at him.

“Hey, I love Lu too, but we have to be smart about who we let in here.” He gazed out the window. “Not to mention, with Giancarlo gone and Santino out of the country, we don’t have any advisors.”

“We don’t need advisors.”

“We need eyes and ears everywhere.” He sighed. “And now that I’m running the club, I have to split my focus. I’m not comfortable with that. We’re in a vulnerable position.”

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