Page 84 of The Woman on the Jury

“We’re not going to let you do that, Lore,” Lorenzo said, seeming as thrown off as the rest of us were.

“I’m an adult,” she said, voice smaller, but her head had lifted, chin jerked up stubbornly.

Of all the things to dig her feet in about, marrying a fucking Lombardi was weird as fuck.

“Alright, well, this seems like… I don’t want to be a fucking part of it,” I said, getting out of my chair, and moving toward the hall. “Have fun with your dysfunction,” I added, making my way out the front door as everyone’s voices seemed to raise.

I wasn’t surprised that by the time Miko brought the car around, Cesare and his other three brothers were rushing inside the townhouse.

I almost felt bad for the kid.

But I had my own shit to deal with.

I’d decided not to fully put Leon on the shelf, but I had punished him by absorbing a third of his crew back into the rest of my crew. Which, of course, came with its own headaches.

It didn’t help that I couldn’t fucking keep my head on work as I was trying to sort out all this shit.

All I could think about was Halle rushing around my place, trying to get everything she might need to hide away with and avoid me.

“You alright, Boss?” Miko asked when we left a meeting later that evening.”

“Need some sleep,” I said, leaning my head back against the rest.

Admittedly, I hadn’t been sleeping well.

And when I did sleep, my dreams were full of having Halle under and over me, her moans in my ear as I was buried deep inside her.

“Yeah, you’ve been looking rough,” he said. “Is Halle nocturnal or something?” he asked.

“No. She… goes to bed early,” I said.

“Surprised she hasn’t been to visit her grandfather. Or bitched about getting back to work.”

“She calls about her grandfather,” I said.

I’d noticed the phone box in the trash the day she’d taken it.

And then I got to think about her in my room when I wasn’t around. Impractical as it was, I kept picturing her sneaking into my tub, the bubbles playing peekaboo with her tits, her knees lifting up out of the water, resting on each side of the tub as her hand slid down between her thighs…

“Need anything else from me tonight?” Miko asked as he idled out front of my building.

“No. Go home. Take the night off,” I said.

As I rode up, I found myself hoping that the standoff was over, that she would just be in the apartment, waiting to have dinner, maybe even pissed at me for coming home so late and making her wait to eat.

“Anything to report?” I asked the guards at the door.

“Nah, been quiet,” one of them said.

Quiet.

Not a good sign.

I stepped inside, and wasn’t surprised to find the common area empty, and that the lights had even been dimmed.

Despite myself, I walked halfway to her room before forcing myself to turn around, and go to the bar instead, pouring myself a drink.

It did nothing to cut the tension growing inside me.

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