“I’m just . . .”
His gaze dipped to the vee of my red dress, which showed a hint of cleavage, and I had to admit my breasts looked pretty damn good in this thing. The way his tongue traced the seam of his mouth like he was dying to taste me had me wondering if he even realized what he was doing.
“Maria.” He shook his head as if trying to focus. “What’s wrong?” His attention landed on my phone in my other hand. “Did Thomas say or do something that upset you?”
“He said he heard about the attack, but I don’t see how he could’ve found out.”
His gaze narrowed as if he’d just put together some puzzle in his mind.
“What is it?”
“It was him,” Enzo hissed. “He’s the one who sent those men to try and rough me up this morning. The attack had nothing to do with Bianca.” He let his words sink in before adding, “Only it was his bad luck he sent the Sicilian fucking mafia to my house.”
SEVENTEEN
Enzo
“Before you jump to conclusions and call Ryan, because you know he’ll lose his mind, why don’t we wait until you talk to your mom’s cousin.”
From behind the driver’s wheel, I looked over at the woman attempting to be my voice of reason amid my chaotic thoughts, all ending in savagely destroying the man responsible for endangering Maria and Natalia this morning. “Yeah? Then text your sister and ask her if she or Ryan told anyone what went down. That’s the only way anything could get back to Thomas, especially with him being out of town this morning. If their answer is no, then case closed.”
“Maybe he stopped by my building when he came home and someone there told him about what happened?”
“We didn’t report it to the police. No one else lives on our floor. No one else would know,” I quickly reminded her.
“Fine, I’ll message Natalia,” she shot back like a challenge and quickly worked her fingers over her phone. And her shoulders fell when a response came back.
I didn’t need to see the message to know the answer. “I should’ve considered this sooner.” I slammed the heel of my hand against the wheel before making a sharp turn. Sheets of rain hammered the streets, and the storm hadn’t been in the mood to let up as I’d driven to Long Island.
I’d already grabbed my new phone from the store, and we were only a few minutes away from my parents’ place in Oyster Bay Cove.
“Thomas was pissed at our exchange yesterday,” I went on, “and he knew I’d be home at that hour. With Chiara safely away with him, he chose today for his payback. He wanted my hands broken so I couldn’t cook. Couldn’t touch you.”
“We still don’t know for certain.” Her soothing tone failed to relieve the tension coiling tight in my body. “How would Thomas know anyone in the mafia? He manages people’s money.”
“He has shady clients who have connections. I can see him reaching out to some fucker he golfs with for a recommendation.”
“How do you know about his clients? Who says they’re shady?” She let go of her phone to slam her arms over her chest, and was she defending that asshole? Or just trying to keep me from losing the last bit of sanity I had left?
I was so angry right now, all I wanted to do was pull over and shove her dress up to see if she wasn’t wearing panties as I’d ordered and fuck her right there. But fucking the anger out of the both of us would accomplish nothing. I’d still be pissed because I hated her ex, and the fact she could’ve been hurt because of him only had my veins burning. And secondly, Maria deserved better than our first time in a car because I’d become unhinged.
I stopped at the red light and twisted in my seat to better face my fireball. Her cheeks were flushed, and her lips taunted me, begging to be kissed.
“You do realize there’s no chance in hell I wouldn’t run a thorough background check on Thomas while you were married, right?” I finally spoke, willing my dick to go down and with Thomas’s name on my tongue, I assumed it’d help ease the pressure there. “Do you think I’d let you stay with a man I didn’t deem safe?”
Her lips parted, but she didn’t gift me with her soft words or her sass.
“So yes, based on the fact he knew what happened this morning, it has to be Thomas who sent the wrong fucking people to my apartment and not someone connected to Bianca’s murder.” I’d been so angry about Bianca’s death and the fact Maria had been in danger I could barely see straight. And this woman distracted me to no end, that was abundantly clear.
“I just can’t imagine Thomas would do this. It’s so out of character for him.”
“Men do crazy things for the women they love. And he messed up and lost the best thing to ever happen to him. Hell, he lost his mind when he saw me at your place,” I explained as calmly as possible, needing to dial down my pulse before we faced my parents.
“That doesn’t mean he loves me.” Her shoulders slumped, and the honking behind me had me pulling through the green light.
“And if he does? Does it matter?” I had no clue why I asked that. Jealousy again? What the fuck? My heart and brain were rarely in sync, but they were on the same page when it came to her.
“You of all people know the answer to that already.”
I didn’t look her way, but I knew she was rolling her eyes at my stupid question, and I deserved it.
“But by checking on me, he just made himself look guilty. Why would he do that?”
Fair point. But I had my theories. “He hoped you wouldn’t be at my place at seven in the morning when they attacked. And when he heard you were, he was more than likely worried he nearly got you killed. That’s probably why he really came home early. He wants you back, Maria. He never wanted the divorce.”
“Even if he didn’t cheat, our marriage wouldn’t have survived, not with . . .”
With me in your life?
“I don’t know. I guess it’s all possible,” she said in a flat tone that time. “Shady clients. Cheating. I guess you never really know a person.”
Why’d that last part sting so much?
Before I could smother her with more reasons why I believed Thomas was a world-class dick, she continued. “If Thomas is responsible, it’s obviously bad, but it also means we’re not in danger.”
We were potentially still in danger with the cleaner on the loose, but I didn’t want to scare her about that right now. One issue at a time.
“There’s no ‘if’ it was Thomas. I know you don’t want to think that about him because he’s still the father of your child, and you’re worried what this means I’ll do to him, but—”
“Or Ryan,” she whispered, concerned how her brother-in-law would react to the news as well, and I knew he’d be out for blood.
“Listen,” I said on a sigh, trying to be gentle with her when my every instinct wanted to unleash the monster inside me and torture Thomas for what he was putting her through with such a stupid move as to come after me. “This was my mother’s cousin’s way of smoking out the name. He made sure the message was sent out that the job went sideways. And now Giovanni can follow that text trail. It’ll probably lead to a middleman, Thomas’s client, and then it’ll lead to Thomas.”
She unlocked her arms and went for her phone. “Then I should tell Natalia she’s safe,” she said, finally accepting the truth. “I don’t want her unnecessarily worrying.”
“Call them. Speakerphone, though. I need to talk to Ryan to prevent him from going to jail.”
“And leaving Chiara with only one parent.”
I bit back my desire to say, I’ll be her father, and remained quiet as she phoned Natalia.
“Hey, I assume Ryan’s attached to your hip since this morning. Can you put me on speaker?” Maria asked once Natalia answered. “You’re on speaker as well,” she added, and I knew that was to ensure Natalia didn’t say anything she wouldn’t want me to hear.