Page 54 of Possessive Mafia Vows

“He isn’t at his clinic. His assistant claims that he’s busy with family matters.”

She shakes her head vehemently, and I feel her slipping away. “Maybe he wanted a break from being followed too.”

“No, Sienna, that isn’t what this is all about.”

“What is it all about then? You can’t keep dropping cryptic hints without telling me what the fuck is going on. You don’t like each other, I get it. But you can’t go around forcing innocent men to skip town and then shift all the blame onto them.”

“Sienna, he isn’t innocent. He isn’t the person you think he is.”

“Go on then.” All traces of weariness have gone from her voice. “What has he done that’s so bad?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Well, be sure to come and tell me when you find out. Or maybe just ask Seamus to knock on the door and recount the message on your behalf.”

“Sienna, please listen to me. I don’t want to leave you in Queens, but my family believes that you’ll be safe there. They?—”

“Your family? So, what, you all sat around a boardroom table and decided that I can’t look after myself? That I’m a gullible artist who doesn’t recognize a con man when he asks me on a date?”

“No, it isn’t like that.”

“Was Victoria invited to this meeting? Did she agree with me staying with my father? Because that sure as shit wasn’t how it sounded the last time I spoke to her. Or does she have to go along with the family decision?”

Her cheeks are growing flushed. I don’t know how but whenever we’re together, the conversation always spirals out of control. But I do know that it always revolves around Nick Morris. Every goddamned time.

“No, Sienna. Victoria doesn’t know about any of this.” I stand up. “But I do know that she would want me to protect you, and that’s what I intend to do.”

I walk back through the gallery, and she doesn’t follow me. It takes every ounce of my self-control not to turn around, run back to her, and take her home with me.

But I don’t.

When Sienna Walker comes to me, I want it to be on her terms.

Until then, I will do everything in my power to keep her safe. Even if it means following her backwards and forwards to Queens myself.

13

SIENNA

I spendthe rest of the day painting, transferring all my niggling insecurities onto the canvas where I can make better sense of them.

I don’t message Nick. If the information given to Kyle is correct, and he’s dealing with family matters, he won’t want to be disturbed. I intend to take advantage of his silence by shutting him out of my mind completely.

Him and Kyle.

I was almost ready to take Kyle up on the generous offer of using an executive suite at the Wraith temporarily.

Almost.

Until he dropped his bombshell about the family conference in which I was the main topic of conversation. Does he have any idea how it feels to know that people are talking about your life as if they’re the ones in control? Or is being in control such an intrinsic part of his life that he can’t see it from my point of view?

I block my father from my thoughts too.

But when I’m cleaning my paintbrushes at the end of the day—one of my favorite jobs as it’s so therapeutic—the uneasiness creeps back in.

Kyle’s suggestion that my father felt guilty for leaving me alone in his apartment all night sounds feasible, but the niggling feeling like an itch behind my eyeballs is telling me he’s wrong. Guilt has never featured in my father’s vocabulary before, so why now? And if he felt bad about leaving me knowing that I was being followed, why did he go out at all?

No, the lure of the casino was greater than his daughter’s needs.

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