Page 29 of The Strength Of A Woman

Things would deteriorate so fast that I couldn’t hire enough men fast enough to cover up for us as we’d look for an exit to save our lives.

“Tell her I’m not seeing her. That’s the end of it.”

Now Nona is involved?

“You heard him,” Cosimo mutters, and soon after, he ends the call.

Silence falls around the table as I ponder for a second.

“What seems to be the problem now?” he murmurs.

“It's more of the same, I suspect. She wants me to get her out of a sticky situation. It’s not like I’m crazy about what they want to do to her, but it’s not my place to fix things for her.”

His silence bears the edge of understanding; I’d like to believe.

Smoothly, I bring my eyes to him.

“So what would you like to do this evening?” he asks.

“We’re going out. Go get Vittoria. We’ll dine downtown. I’ll try to get some sleep first and then head over there.”

“Okay, Boss.”

His suit rustles as he slides his phone into his pocket.

“See you later,” he says as I pick up my glass of wine from the table and make a beeline for the terrace.

6

LEILANI

Present Moment

Undeterred,I walk toward him.

I came here to talk to him, and no one will stop me. Not his men. Not the woman he’s dining with.

Or the people staring at us, sensing that something is about to go down.

We meet midway, his men following his orders, staying back, the woman at the table watching us with curiosity, the occasional onlooker taking another sip of their drink or chewing on their food.

“What are you doing here, Leilani?” he asks gruffly, under his voice, his hand swiftly locked around my arm like a metal cuff, just as fast restraining me.

I gather it’s not a good place to fight him. I don’t want more eyes on us.

“I need to talk to you.”

His eyes move through the layers of my soul as he reads my stare.

I can’t take my eyes away from him.

He must’ve spent the day at the beach, or maybe he fell asleep on a quiet terrace in an old building.

His skin looks like roses dipped in warm toffee.

A pinch of red, a little caramel.

It enlivens his eyes even more. As if I needed the edge of his heated ice on me.