“What was that for?” Angelina asked.
“I just couldn’t help myself. You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” He loved the blush that stole up her cheeks. He helped her find her shorts, plucked her panties up as she swiftly dressed.
Further conversation was impossible to achieve when his firecracker of a sister exploded into the room. The two women regarded each other, and tears formed in their eyes. Being the smart man Lorenzo was, he knew when to leave, and nothing said it was time to go more than two crying women.
“I can’t believe that porchdick did that to you.” Gia’s face was red.
Angel tried to cover the bruise with her hand. “Well, I’m pretty sure he’s singing soprano now.”
They high fived, and Lorenzo was glad he hadn’t pissed either woman off that bad.
After he left Angel’s temporary residence, and, yes, that’s what he considered her accommodations, he stopped in to see her parents. He’d tried to bank down the violence before facing her father, but failed miserably.
“You will be good for mi Hermosa, si?”
Nodding his head, he shook Mr. Rugiero’s hand, shocked when the older man pulled him in for a hug. “I will do my very best.”
“You better do better than your best.” The older man slapped him on the back, before releasing him
By the time he left to head to his club he felt marginally better. After hearing the security measures Mr. Rugiero had put in place, he relaxed and made his own plans.
The forty-five minute drive from Fisher Island into Miami was a very productive one for him. He’d called his head of security and got him working on finding out all he could about Andrew Cage. His next call was to a private investigator he knew, who guaranteed he’d know something by the close of Lorenzo’s business day.
The outer surface of Club Inferno was the complete opposite of the inside. All gleaming white marble surface and black tinted windows, with a set of massive doors for the entrance, it made quite a statement. The wide double half-circle drive would be lined with some of the most expensive cars by ten o’clock, with a stream of people stretching around the corner. It was truly a statement of how prosperous their business was, and he hated the thought of having to cut his brother out if he didn’t change.
He shrugged his shoulders and parked his baby in the private garage located at the back. The entrance from the alley was a smaller version of the front. Only the extremely rich and famous used this door, but he wanted to make a statement as well. A sense of accomplishment always filled him when he entered the empty club, and today was no different, except it was clouded with concern for his woman.
How the hell could a five foot nothing woman get so far under his skin that the thought of losing her made him break out in a sweat? Lorenzo could understand why men hundreds of years ago kept their women away from other males. If he thought he could get away with it, he’d buy an island just for the two of them.
He could imagine his Angel standing in her ridiculously tall heels, glowering at him. She’d plant her fists on her tiny hips and stare him down until he relented. The next sixty or seventy years were going to be fun.
The smile was still firmly in place when he walked into his office and found his brother standing with his back to the door. He could see the tightening of the other man’s shoulders.
“Yo, Ando, what’s going on?”
“I know you gave me two weeks, but I need more. I’m fucked up, bro, and not in a good way,” his brother said without turning from the window.
To say Lorenzo was shocked speechless as Ando turned to face him, would be an understatement. His brother’s haggard appearance, like he hadn’t slept in days stopped him in his tracks. He had a couple days’ worth of facial hair on his too-thin face, and his clothes looked like they’d been slept in. Lorenzo took his brother’s appearance in, in one sweeping glance before Fernando faced the windows again.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” Ando asked
Watching his brother spin back around, Lorenzo still didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth only to close it again. “What’s going on?”
“You know what’s going on. I’ve been self-medicating myself for the past year or more, with alcohol and anything else that would dull the pain, but, until you threw me out, I thought I was doing okay. It wasn’t until I realized I had nowhere to go, nobody to turn to, that I realized the truth. I’ve become something I’m not proud of, and I know Melanie wouldn’t like me either.”
Ando’s voice cracked when he said his fiancée’s name, and Lorenzo hurt for him. Being the eldest, it had been his job to protect his siblings. But the only one who could fix Ando, was Ando himself.
Lorenzo walked further into the office. “What do you need me to do?”