“I can understand that you are upset,” Anthony spoke to his niece, fighting to keep his temper under control. He wasn’t usually a man to tip toe lightly, but given that Emerson was in a place where she was only now learning that her life and her family history was not what she had believed for twenty-two years, he was maintaining his patience. “You have every right to be angry at me, and I take full responsibility for what has happened. I will be responsible for making sure that Tobia pays for what he has done. But you need to remember, you are not the only one who has lost someone.”
Emerson took in a sharp breath, and her hand went straight to her heart. The way the muscles in her throat moved as she swallowed and the flush across her cheeks had me clenching my fists to keep my hands from reaching out to her. Her beauty drew me in, her sharp mouth and her ability to hold strong and stand up and have her say, it all pulled me in. It made me want more, to see more of this side of her.
She wasn’t as weak as she thought she was. Emerson may have had her dreams and aspirations crushed by a father who couldn’t see his daughter’s potential, but there was a fighter underneath the obedient child he’d raised. I was going to find it and pull it out because when she lifted her chin and steeled her eyes, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
“I lost my wife,” Anthony continued when Emerson didn’t reply. “A woman I loved more than life itself, and who never did a single thing to hurt a soul. My children lost their mother, my sons missed out on a women’s touch to soften them, and my daughter missed out on the woman who should have taught her all the things a mother could teach their daughter.”
I hung my head.
Anthony didn’t open up often. Many thought he was a heartless human being, who cared about nothing but money, and only had children in order to carry on the DePalma legacy. But the simple fact was he loved his children, more than anything else in this world. He was the first to encourage them to get an education, to make something of themselves if they felt like this wasn’t the lifestyle that they wanted to lead. Above all else, he wanted them to be happy.
“Why didn’t you walk away?” Emerson asked finally, her eyes bloodshot and her nose red. “If it caused you so much pain… then why do you continue to stay and put the people you care about in danger?”
Anthony adjusted his suit, pulling on his cufflinks. “Because there’s more to this than just me and my family. It’s not always about power or notoriety. It’s about being a voice for those who are unable to speak for themselves.”
Emerson’s brows pulled in together, and I could tell she was confused by his answer.
“One day soon, you’ll understand,” Anthony said before turning to me. “She’s all yours.”
I didn’t miss the subtle undertone to his voice and the sharp look in his eyes. It was a warning, one that I needed to remind myself of every time I was in Emerson’s presence. There was a pull between us, and I knew we could both feel it. Like two magnets being drawn together, it was going to be hard to fight something that felt so fucking powerful.
Sophie was gone.
Emerson was a DePalma, and Anthony would do whatever the hell he had to in order to protect her and keep her life intact. Even if that meant keeping her from me.
The threat was there, I heard it loud and clear.
I admired Anthony for his dedication and loyalty to his family and his bloodline. And when push came to shove, his blood I was not.
“Wait,” Emerson said, stepping forward. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re going to go back to New York with Angelo,” Anthony answered simply. I could tell he was already done with this conversation. He’d had his say, and had let Emerson have hers, taking the hits that she delivered with her words. But he was ready to move on.
We had cleaning up to do. The media was on our ass. We’d had to stall all of our businesses for now, which meant not only losing money but possibly pissing off a lot of other buyers and sellers. Anthony needed to focus, and so did I.
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Emerson protested, her eyes moving between her uncle and me.
“No, you need a fucking bodyguard,” I replied, ready to teach Emerson and her sexy, smart mouth exactly who ran things around here.
Me.
“Have you not put all the pieces together yet, Bella?” I asked sarcastically. “Tobia is still roaming around out there. He’s not done yet, not by fucking far.”
A shudder ran through her body and goosebumps appeared on her beautiful smooth milky skin.
Anthony was already heading for the door, two men following closely behind him when Emerson spoke up again. “And what if I say no? What if I don’t want to go?”
Anthony froze, his fingers on the button of his suit jacket, his head shaking back and forth as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Right now, you have absolutely no choice in the matter. I refuse to lose another member of my family to them, and Angelo is under instruction to do whatever he needs to do in order to make that happen.”
I took a menacing step forward, part of me hoping that she would open that pretty little mouth one more time and give me an excuse to make her perfectly round ass a nice shade of red.
She managed to hold her chin high and her mouth fucking shut until her uncle walked out the door without another word. At least she was smart enough to know that Anthony didn’t mess around with the details and that there was no bargaining with a man who would so quickly cut you off at the knees if he was questioned.
What it came down to was respect.
Anthony had earned his a long time ago. He wasn’t handed his position simply because it was owed to him. He wasn’t owed anything, and if his father had felt that he wasn’t capable of running the family business, it would have been given to someone else. It was as simple as that.
Anthony had worked his way up from the bottom, just like the rest of us. He’d paid his dues and earned the loyalty of his men, and the people of the city that many men in his position could fight their entire lives for.
“Your stuff is already in the car,” I said, finally breaking the silence within the room. “Let’s get going.”
“I don’t want to do this,” Emerson replied simply, her body still frozen to the spot. I could see the fear in her eyes, mixed with confusion and shock.
I moved forward, placing my hand on the small of her back and applying a small amount of pressure. “Noted. But at this point, you don’t have a choice, Bella. We leave you here, Tobia could come back, and like Anthony said, losing another member of this family is not going to happen. If I have to chain you to a bed in my apartment until Tobia is taken care of…” I dipped my head, my lips brushing her ear. “… then that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
Her body tensed and she spun around to face me, her eyes like that of a laser, burning a hole through my body. Her lips fell open, but she was mistaken if she thought I was going to let her and her smart mouth talk back to me while both mine and Anthony’s men were still in the room with us.
“Think before you speak,” I snapped in a hushed tone, causing her to still. “When we are in private, you can tell me exactly what you think of me. Yell. Scream. I don’t give a fuck. But when there are others around us, you’re gonna learn to show me the respect that I deserve.”
She pursed her lips for a moment, but I could tell that she wasn’t about to let me get away with speaking to her like a small child.
“Respect is a two-way street,” she whispered with a slight growl in her tone.
“When you’re with me, everything is one way… my fucking way,” I shot back with a devilish smirk pulling at the corner of my mouth. “Now, we have a plane to catch. So hustle that pretty little ass out the door before I take my hand to it.”
Her body was shaking, and at that point, I couldn’t tell whether it was out of anger or due to the fact that Anthony had hit the nail on the head when he had noted that she wasn’t looking after herself. I could tell that she wanted to be strong, she wanted to yell and scream at anyone who would listen and blame us all for Sophie’s death. And to be honest, she had every right, and it would probably make her feel a lot better.
But it could wait.
She was hurting, and I could understand that, but we weren’t the enemy here, and deep down in her gut she knew that.
I was trying to keep her alive.
No, scratch that… I wanted to make her feel alive.
No more mopping, no more feeling sorry for herself and living inside her own little pity party. That in itself was a one way trip to hell, and she was going to learn quickly that that shit would not fly with me.
She needed something to live for, and I knew exactly what it was.
Revenge.
Sweet, sweet revenge.