“Then let’s hope her luck holds out for one more.”
A knot of tension blooms between my shoulder blades. “I was really hoping for a little more reassurance than that.”
Cannon shoves his phone in his pocket and turns to look at me. “GTR isn’t stupid enough to hurt her. And don’t take this the wrong way ...” He pauses to glance out at the street and the wailing fire engine that flies by before meeting my gaze again. “But there’s no way he’s going to throw away a chance at leading the Rossetti family on a piece of ass like Randi.”
“What do you mean?” Indignation rises up in me on Randi’s behalf, and a chill from the cool air sweeping by us raises goose bumps on my arms.
“Because she’s not the same kind of woman you are.”
My jaw drops as I try to make sense of what he’s saying. “What ... what do you mean?”
“Randi’s one-night material. That’s it. He’ll get what he wants tonight and move on.”
“Then what kind of woman does that make me?” I ask as a shiver works through me.
Cannon yanks one arm and then the other out of his suit jacket. He drapes it over my shoulders. “The kind wars are fought over.”
His words wrap around me with more warmth than the jacket, and I know it’s dangerous.
While I’m gaping at him, Cannon turns away as the Bentley rolls to a stop in front of the bar. He threads his fingers through mine and pulls me toward the back door.
“Come on. We have a stop to make, and then you and I are going to talk.”
34
Cannon
Ishouldn’t have said it. Any of it.Fuck.I shouldn’t have even been at Lambo’s tonight, because GTR shouldn’t have been there either. But we’re all getting fucked up over this woman who has me more off-kilter than anyone I’ve ever met.
More than anything, I wish I could talk to Creighton about her. I watched him get knocked on his ass by a little powerhouse of a woman who stole his heart before he even realized he had one.
I was so fucking smug and superior about it too. I couldn’t figure out why he’d want to disrupt his perfectly ordered life to chase Holly all over the country and make their marriage work. Now I’m starting to get an inkling of why he was willing to drop everything that had always mattered and shift his priorities to accommodate whatever made her happy.
My situation is nothing like his, I remind myself. Creighton is a billionaire who could have anyone and pull any string to make things work. He didn’t know he was the bastard son of a mob boss until he was in his thirties, and once he found out, he didn’t care. His relationship with Dom hasn’t overshadowed everything in his entire life. He wasn’t raised on treachery the likes of which only someone who grew up around the family could understand.
But he’s one of the only people on this earth who could possibly have advice for me in this situation ... and he still won’t take my calls.
“Where are we going?” Drew asks, and I put Creighton out of my mind. It’s not a problem I can fix right now.
“A friend’s—where you’ll stay in the car.”
“Why?” she asks, her dark brown eyes inquisitive.
I wish she’d quit wearing those contacts.Not something I’m willing to say in front of Warren, though, because then it would get back to Dom and he’d have way too many questions about it.
“Because there are certain things you don’t need to see.”
Twenty minutes later, we pull up in front of a nondescript brownstone, and I hop out of the car. Ducking my head back inside, I look at Drew.
“I’ll be five minutes. Maybe ten. Don’t go anywhere.”
Her face takes on a mulish expression, but she nods. I glance at Warren, and he smiles.
“We’ll be right here, Boss. Take your time.”
A feeling of foreboding creeps around the collar of my shirt, but I push it down and jog across the street with the paper coffee cup in hand.
I can practically feel Drew’s gaze on my back as I take the steps that lead to the basement unit and knock on the door.