Dark eyes meet mine. “Bella,” he cajoles, “you have my word that I won’t touch him. But there are words that need to be said and I would prefer them to be discussed in private.”
“Does it have something to do with me?” I ask even though I know the answer.
He eyes me wearily. “Yes.”
I fold my arms across my chest, the overnight bag still hangs from my shoulder. “I’m not leaving. If you have something to say to Dominic, I’d like to hear it.”
My refusal exasperates him. He’s not used to me fighting him. All he usually has to do is flick his obsidian gaze in my direction or trail his fingers over me, and I fold like a house of cards, eager to do whatever he wants.
Well, not this time.
“Bella-”
Brows drawn together, I repeat in a sharper tone, “I’m not leaving.”
He watches me for a long moment and then shrugs. In a soft voice, he admits, “I don’t want you to hear this.”
“I’m staying.”
Pulling me into the protective shelter of his arms, he holds me close. I can’t imagine what he could possibly have to say to Dominic that needs to be kept from me.
Matteo turns, glaring at Dominic from where we stand on the staircase. “Did you think I would leave the welfare of my woman up to the police?” His gaze turns lethal. My heart stutters at the vicious gleam in it. “That I wouldn’t use every damn resource I had at my disposal?”
Uncertainty flashes across Dominic’s face. My mind scrambles to understand what Matteo is alluding to.
Why is he bringing up yesterday’s accident?
Matteo chuckles when Dominic remains silent. It’s an ugly, harsh sound that grates against my ears. It sends a cold frisson of discomfort skating down my spine. A dangerous rage lurks under Matteo’s thick coat of ice. I don’t understand why it’s directed at Dominic, though. My heartbeat kicks up as I wait for Matteo to continue. I realize as dread washes over me that there must be more.
“Rest assured, Grimaldi, I’m just as concerned about Grace’s welfare as you claim to be. Which is why I made sure she had protection whenever she left the building. No one is going to hurt my woman.” Eyes blazing, his voice turns deadly. Another shiver races over my spine. “You’ll be pleased to know that we found the driver who tried to hit her.”
Dominic folds his arms across his chest. Again, his expression falters for a second. If I didn’t know him so well, I probably would have missed it.
“That’s wonderful news,” he says evenly. “Is the bastard in police custody?”
Matteo’s lips slowly twist into a chilling smile. “No. I took care of the interrogation myself. There was no reason to involve the police in this matter.”
My eyes drop to the hand resting against my shoulder. Drawing in a sharp breath, I notice the bruised and bloody knuckles.
“It didn’t take much coercing to extract a confession. Within fifteen minutes he was begging for his life, ready to spill every transgression his own mother had committed.”
Unimpressed, Dominic mutters, “A beaten man will say just about anything to save himself.
“Yes,” Matteo muses, “that is so true. Although I have to say, most men, once they grasp the severity of the situation they find themselves in, have no compunction about ratting out whoever paid them to commit a crime.” He flashes another menacing smile at Dominic. “Trust me, it didn’t take much encouragement before this particular man was eager to hand over whatever details I asked for. Even though he never met with the man who paid him to scare some woman by almost striking her on a busy street, he knew details that only someone close to her could provide.” Matteo pauses before adding in a silky voice, “He was given her schedule in advance so that he would know where to find her at different times of the week.”
Stunned into silence, my eyes stay riveted to Dominic’s face.
No.
The picture Matteo is painting isn’t possible.
Dominic would never do something so awful. He loves me. We’re family. Why would he want to hurt me? A whimper of pain escapes my lips. My godfather takes a step toward me and Matteo lets loose a vicious growl.
“You touch her ever again, and I’ll kill you myself, Grimaldi. Do you understand me?”
Dominic’s fists clench at his sides. “You can’t do that! You have no right to keep Gracie from me!”
Matteo’s barely leashed anger continues to bubble beneath the surface. I’ve never seen him like this. His demeanor should frighten me, but it doesn’t. He’s done everything in his power to protect me, even when I didn’t want it.
His deep voice cracks like thunder, and I wince. “You paid a man to scare her! For all you know, something could have gone wrong and she could have died!”
A wave of dizziness crashes over me. I shake my head to clear it and whisper, “Why would you do something like that?”
What Matteo has accused Dominic of is true. I see it in his eyes and in the stricken look on his face.
“Gracie, please. Just listen-”
Matteo cuts Dominic off. “Tell her the rest, or I will.” He waits a beat and adds harshly, “You’ve had me investigated? Just know that I returned the favor.”
Dominic pales. Whatever Mateo has discovered is worse than Dominic hiring someone to scare me with an attempted hit-and-run.
How is that possible?
How is any of this possible?
“Tell her!” Matteo’s voice whips out, cracking the charged air. “Or I will! Either way, she’s going to find out what a bastard you truly are.”
The man I’ve known my entire life, the one I trusted above all others, deflates. His shoulders sag as if the weight of the world has been dumped on them. Moistening his lips, he clears his voice and admits, “I’m broke, Gracie.” His eyes beseechingly stare at me. “It’s all gone.”
“Finish it,” Matteo snaps.
I rip my eyes away from Dominic to the man holding me. His face looks as if it has been carved from granite. No mercy will be given. Whatever Matteo dug up in the darkness will now be dragged into the light of day.
“I’ve had to dip into your inheritance to pay the bills.”
My brows pinch together in confusion. “What?”
He clears his throat again. “I’ve been borrowing from your accounts. It was-”
Matteo cuts him off. “He has siphoned three million dollars from your trust fund, Grace. It’s gone.”
“It’s not gone. I was going to pay her back!” Dominic plows a hand through his hair giving it a wild, disheveled look. A panicked note I’ve never heard before creeps into his voice. “I needed to get everything under control. You have to believe me! I was just borrowing it. You wouldn’t have ever known it was missing,” he rambles.
Brimming with disbelief, I shake my head as his excuses roll around in my mind like marbles. “I don’t understand how you could pay someone to hurt me.” I thought Dominic loved me. He was my father’s best friend. He’s known me since infancy. He was there while I grew up. And then when the unthinkable happened.
How could he pay someone to hit me with a car?
I feel as though I’m being repeatedly stabbed in the heart with a butcher knife. I can’t breathe without pain filling every recess of my body.
“He was only supposed to scare you, Gracie. He assured me that you wouldn’t get hurt.” Desperation floods Dominic’s eyes. He looks like he’s about to become unhinged. For the first time, I feel as if I don’t know this man at all. “You have to believe me! I love you! I would never do anything to hurt you!”
Tears threaten as I shake my head. “But I was hurt. Whoever you hired jumped the curb. He could have killed me.”
Dominic looks devastated by my words.
Matteo’s deep voice cuts through the thick air. “You wanted her to think that it happened because of me.” His words are razor-sharp. “Because my family is dangerous, right? You were hoping she would break off our relationship and come running back to you.�
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Dominic snarls, “You’re nothing but a criminal! A mobster! The scum of society!”
“And yet, you’re the one who paid some low-life, petty criminal that you represented a few years ago to hurt the woman you were supposed to protect. You gave him all her information so that he would be able to track her down.” Matteo tilts his head and asks, “And what if he’d gotten ideas of his own into his head, hmm? What if he’d decided that he was going to throw in a few things free of charge?”
Dominic blanches.
Once I realize what Matteo is alluding to, fresh nausea swirls in my already upset stomach. So much more could have happened.
What the hell had Dominic been thinking?
“He almost hit me,” I whisper hoarsely as bits and pieces from yesterday morning flicker through my mind like a picture show. “If I hadn’t jumped out of the way, he would have run me over.” More hot, angry tears prick my eyes. “You did this because you didn’t want me with Matteo?”
“He wanted you for himself. He wanted total control over your inheritance. Your godfather owes quite a bit of money,” Matteo says.
“No! That’s not true. I love you, Gracie!” Dominic holds up his hands. “Yes, the money would have made life easier, but I’ve always loved you. We’re family. Just you and me. Remember? It’s been that way for the last two years. I’ve taken care of everything. I’ve been there during the most difficult period of your life. That has to mean something, doesn’t it? I know what I’ve done is wrong, but it was the only way to get you to open your eyes and see how dangerous the Valentinis can be! They’re criminals! Part of the mafia! You can’t be with a lowlife like him.”
Tears streak down my cheeks. Dominic’s right, I couldn’t have gotten through the last two years without him. “All Matteo has done is protect me while you stole from me.” My voice grows and gains strength. “And then you hired someone to scare me into leaving him.”
“Gracie, please try to understand-”
Not willing to hear any more excuses, I swipe at the errant tears. “I understand perfectly.” My mind is struggling to keep up with everything that has happened within the last twenty-four hours. As all the pieces fall neatly into place, another thought occurs to me. “We didn’t sleep together last night, did we?”
Shifting from one foot to another, Dominic’s eyes stay locked on mine. “No.”
Relief sweeps through me. I give voice to the suspicions that have nagged me ever since waking in his bed. “You drugged me.”
I may have a glass or two of wine every so often, but I rarely drink enough to get intoxicated. And certainly not enough to pass out. It made no sense that I wouldn’t be able to remember going to bed last night. Or anything else he claimed that happened.
“You’d had such a difficult day. It was just a little something to help you relax. That’s all.”
Oh my God…
Matteo’s fingers bite into my arms as he hauls me closer. I wince. He’s holding on to his temper by a ragged thread. I feel it in his taut posture. Every muscle is whipcord tight. I don’t want him to unleash his fury because it would be deadly.
Staring into his eyes, I whisper pleadingly, “Please, take me home.” It feels like my entire world is crumbling around me. First, I lost my parents and now I’m losing Dominic. He was like a second father to me. I thought I could trust him implicitly.
I was wrong.
Dominic rushes forward as Matteo leads me down the staircase.
“Gracie, please! You have to listen to me! I did all this for you! For us! So we could be together!” His voice grows shriller with each word. “You never gave us a chance! Your parents wouldn’t want you with some scumbag mafia prince!”
Something snaps in me.
I’m tired of him using my parents against me every single chance he gets. Constantly manipulating me with their memory. How did I not see it sooner? I’d thought he wanted to remember them like I did, to keep their memory alive, but that wasn’t the case. They were nothing more than a tool to keep me in line.
Throwing off Matteo’s arms, I fly toward Dominic and pound on his chest in a blind rage with my scraped-up hands. “Stop talking about them! Don’t you dare speak of them again!” Fresh tears pour down my cheeks. “How could you have ever loved them if you were able to steal from their legacy and hurt me like this?”
“No,” he cries, “that’s not true! I loved them. You know I did! Your father was like a brother to me.”
I’m crying so hard now that I can barely see or speak. “No! You stole my money, you tried running me down, you drugged me, and then you lied about us sleeping together! You couldn’t possibly have loved them or me!” Sucking in a shaky breath, I expel it slowly from my lungs in a feeble attempt to get ahold of myself. I need to finish this. “You’ve been lying to me this entire time. I never want to see you again.”
He begins to cry. If I didn’t feel so dead inside, the sight of Dominic with tears running down his face would break me. “Gracie, please. I’m sorry for everything. I… I should have been up front with you about what was going on with my finances. You have to know how much I love you.”
I step away from him, swiping at more tears. Matteo stands silently a few feet behind me. He’s there if I need him, but he’s willing to let me fight my own battles. He’s willing to let me say my piece without whisking me away and taking care of everything for me.
“Gracie… please. Just give yourself a few days to calm down. Maybe then we can sit and talk. I’m sorry, it was never supposed to be like this.”
“No.” Once I walk out that door, I’ll never see him again. He needs to understand that. “We’re done, Dominic. I want what’s left of my inheritance released to me immediately. If the paperwork isn’t delivered by tomorrow morning, I’ll go to the police and press charges for embezzlement, the hit-and-run, and drugging me.”
He pales, but doesn’t say a word.
There are no more arguments.
Matteo’s hands settle on my shoulders. “Let me take you home, bella.”
Knowing this will be the last time I see him, my eyes lock on Dominic’s forlorn blue ones for a moment before I turn my back on him. Fresh air slides across my tear-stained cheeks when I step outside. Victor is there, holding open the door as I climb into the limo. Matteo slides in after me. Once the vehicle pulls out of the circular drive, I look out the back window to find Dominic standing in the open doorway.
The enormity of what has transpired slams into me once more, and I burst into noisy sobs. Matteo pulls me as close to him as possible, gathering me into his arms.
“Please don’t cry. You’re safe now. Everything will be okay, I promise.”
His softly spoken reassurances do little to alleviate the burning ache in my heart.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
With my eyes closed, I sit between Matteo’s long, muscular legs as he gently rubs a sudsy washcloth over my back. Ironically, I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck after what happened with Dominic earlier.
I’m emotionally drained.
I’m more broken and battered on the inside than on the outside.
Matteo has been at my side ever since storming into Dominic’s house. He’s taken care of me, treating me with kid gloves as if I’ve been crafted from glass and are infinitely precious.
I was uncertain as to what the future held for us last night. I wasn’t sure if I could accept his family being involved with the mafia. Or Matteo being part of it. But after everything I’ve been through in the last forty-eight hours, I’ve realized that none of it matters.
Not because I’m alone in the world and someone is better than no one. It has everything to do with how much this man cares for me. And how much I care for him. The irrepressible chemistry that exists between us.
It’s undeniable.
Magnetic.
Impossible to resist.
I doubt I could walk away from Matteo even if I wanted to.
He breaks into my pensiv
e thoughts by pressing a kiss against my shoulder blade, his warm breath ghosting over me as he lingers. Delicious shivers dance across my flesh.
“I’m sorry about Dominic,” he says softly.
The entire situation continues to baffle me. I still can’t wrap my mind around everything my godfather set in motion.
“He did care about you, Grace. Still does.”
My chest tightens. But I’m tired of tears. I refuse to release the little buggers. I force out a laugh, but it’s a weak attempt and one that’s full of sadness. “Well, he has a strange way of showing it.”
Matteo says in a low voice, “If I hadn’t been involved, I doubt Dominic would have hired someone to scare you. I think us being together is what pushed him over the edge.”
Swiveling my head so our eyes can meet, I growl, “Don’t you dare make excuses for him. He didn’t have to do any of it.” Hot licks of anger bubble up inside me. “I could have been hurt far worse than I was.” I don’t add killed. But we both know it’s the truth.
Matteo’s voice softens. “I know, bella. It makes me sick inside to think about it.” He lays another kiss against the nape of my neck.
“He was quite willing to pin the blame on you and your family,” I remind him. Matteo is all too aware of what Dominic tried accusing him of. It doesn’t escape me that without Matteo’s involvement, I might not have ever found out that Dominic had been stealing from me.
“That was never going to happen. I wasn’t going to rest until I knew who tried hurting you.”
“Thank you for that.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” A hard glint enters his dark eyes as they hold mine. “I told you before that I take care of what’s mine.”
I smile as desire sparks to life and burns in the bottom of my belly. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m yours?”
He snorts. It’s the cutest sound imaginable. “Was there ever any doubt?”
I shrug, suddenly feeling shy. “Just making sure.”
We’ve never sat down and had a big heart-to-heart about our feelings. That’s why his next words take me by surprise.
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