Page 62 of His Tesoro

“I guess you have to get some benefit out of being married,” Romeo muttered.

I swung my head towards my second-in-command, who immediately realized his mistake. He raised his hands in front of him in a placating gesture.

“I don’t mean anything against your wife, fratello.”

“This is not the day to fucking test me,” I said. “Get this cleaned up so we can fucking go.”

I rubbed at my chest even though I knew the strange tightness wouldn’t dissipate until I was back with Sofiya. One of my soldiers had betrayed me. A vital shipment of weapons was gone. Arben was making me look like a fool. But what I was angriest about was that it had pulled me away from my wife. I wouldn’t get to see her get up this morning, looking all messy and rumpled. And for that, the Albanians needed to die.

35

SOFIYA

“What do you want, Angelo?” I peered at the pastry case, mouth watering at all the different cakes. This was one of the most popular bakeries in the city, and I wanted to try everything for inspiration.

“I don’t need anything, bella.”

I glanced up at Angelo. He was crowding my chair, his eyes flitting around the busy shop.

“Of course you do. If I don’t spend a lot of money, Matteo will yell at me.”

Angelo snorted. “As if the Boss would yell at you.” He glanced at the case. “Just get me whatever you think will be best, not that it will be better than your baking.”

My cheeks flushed at the compliment. “What if we just get one of everything?” It was excessive, extravagant, but I wanted to try it all. And we were supporting a small business.

“Good plan, Mrs. Rossi,” Angelo said with a grin. Then his eyes returned to the door where two businessmen were entering. “But maybe we should take them back to the apartment.”

“Is something wrong?”

“No,” he said quickly.

“Convincing.”

Matteo had been gone when I woke this morning. When I asked Angelo where he was, he had just muttered something about the Don needing to check on something upstate, but it was clear he was on edge.

“What’s going on?”

Angelo’s eyes flitted around the cafe. “Not here. Let’s just get the things and go.”

The tattooed girl at the counter’s eyes grew wide as I asked her for one of everything, but I managed to stop my hand from trembling when I tapped my credit card. It was more than I’d ever spent, and I hoped Matteo had been serious when he said he wanted me to spend his money.

“We might need to make two trips to the car.” I eyed the growing tower of pastry boxes.

Angelo grunted, his stance still tense. When the boxes were ready, he helped stack them on my lap and hung a bag from the handle of my chair.

“See, this is the perk of the wheelchair,” I said, earning me a small smile from Angelo.

Noodle subtly nosed the boxes, and I gave him a stern look. He quickly sat back, eyes filled with the adorable yet slightly heartbreaking remorse only a dog can manage. His expression quickly changed to a happy pant as I pet him on the head and gave him a treat.

“Let’s go,” Angelo said gruffly.

The tension radiating from his body set me on edge, and I was ready to be back home in the apartment with Matteo anyway. It was getting harder to be away from him. Our day yesterday had been perfect. He still showed little outward affection, but cracks were appearing in his usually impervious shield. I wanted to see what more I could get from him.

I followed Angelo out of the bakery, calling a “thank you” over my shoulder to the girl at the counter.

Before I could maneuver around everyone on the sidewalk, a curse tore from Angelo’s lips. “Fuck!”

My heart leapt to my throat as his hand grabbed the back of my neck.

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