Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
15
Marcus
I was more than an hour early for my meeting with Romy, since I’d been worried about finding the pavilion in such a massive park. I’d read it was on a manmade lake though, and that turned out to be easy enough to find.
The lake’s parking lot was adjacent to a boat house that rented paddle boats and canoes by the hour. It was probably vibrant and bustling in the summer, but on this foggy Monday morning in early February, it was empty and a bit depressing.
After I pocketed my keys, I started walking. Eventually, I rounded a bend and my destination came into view. It was actually really striking, with its red supports and jade green tile roof.
I crossed a bridge leading to an island in the middle of the lake, and then I went inside the pavilion to get a closer look. It was basically an ornate, open-air gazebo in a Chinese architectural style. There was a built-in table and stools in the center of it, with benches around the inside perimeter. I took a seat on a bench, but after just a few seconds, I got up and started pacing.
I was worried about how Romy would feel about this location. He’d wanted to meet in public, but this barely qualified. Would it make him uncomfortable to be alone with me like this, after I’d shattered his trust? Maybe the best thing to do would be to go back and meet him at the boat house. It was closed and no one was there either, but it didn’t feel as isolated as this did.
Just as I started to leave, I spotted him coming up the path to the pavilion. He was almost as early as I was.
“I know this probably isn’t what you had in mind,” I said, as I gestured at our surroundings. “So, if you’d rather meet somewhere else—”
“It’s fine.”
He wasn’t afraid of me. Thank god. Anything else I could work with, but that…that would have been devastating.
Romy strode past me into the pavilion, took a seat on the stone table, and rested his feet on one of the stools. Since he was facing the open doorway, there was no place for me to sit—not without making him pivot around to face me. It was a total power move on his part, and I had mad respect for it.
He pinned me with a sharp stare and said, “Tell me you didn’t kidnap my brother or wreck my mom’s bar. I know what you said on the phone, but I need you to look me in the eye and swear your men weren’t carrying out your orders.”
I held his gaze steadily. “I swear on my life I didn’t know they were going to do either of those things. I was furious when I found out, and I fired every last one of them.” I took a breath and made myself add, “I’m still responsible, though.”
“In what way?”
“I’m the one who declared war on your brother in the first place. If my troops ran amok when my back was turned, it’s still on me. It shows I wasn’t strong enough as a leader, and I failed to keep them in line. They should have been so afraid of me that they didn’t even take a shit without asking permission.”
“It makes a huge difference to me, though. I didn’t understand how you could do either of those things, and it turns out you didn’t. It’s going to make a difference to Adriano, too, and—”
“No, it won’t. Like me, he’ll understand that what was done in my name is my responsibility.”
Romy watched me for a few moments before asking, “Should I call you Marcus or Mario?”
“My real name is Marcus Greene. The other is one of several aliases I’ve used over the years. For the record, I had every intention of telling you about Mario Greco. I was just waiting for the right time.”
“The right time? You had an entire week!”
“I know, but I didn’t want to tell you while we were in San Diego.”
His voice rose. “When did you plan to tell me, on our five-year wedding anniversary?”
That took both of us by surprise. He obviously hadn’t meant to paint a picture of our happily ever after, but there it was.
“I guess I was going to tell you when we got back to Las Vegas, not that I had any of this planned out,” I said. “That was true right from the start. I never planned on meeting you that night at your mom’s bar, and I sure as hell never planned on being wildly attracted to you. When I agreed to go to the coast, I was picturing a couple of days fucking each other’s brains out in a hotel room before going our separate ways.”
“But that’s not what happened.”