Page 130 of The Mob: Shio Cuppacio
Get my brother rich.
Health and wellness.
Stay on top of my mob shit.
Keep Hobo alive.
Get through the meeting with Ines Ledesma.
House a random.
Find the true reason Solana is here.
Figure out if Solana is supposed to be my wife, again.
Find a wife that isn’t Solana.
Chapter 24
Solana Damita Ledesma
You can do it, Solana. You can do it, Solana. You can do it, Solana.
Repeating those five words over in my head had been the distraction I needed from the burn of my calf muscles. I’d been pacing for hours in this closet. I was sure that when I looked down, I’d see track marks from my feet being pushed into the wooden floorboards. I’d come in here a few hours ago after a much-needed cold shower and was triggered by what had been left on the closet island. I needed to get my shit together. I needed to get my head in the game. My fiancée had come into town, and now, Shio…
Shio.
We’d kissed. Shio and I had kissed last night, and it caught me off guard. I didn’t know what to do besides sit there and let him take the lead. The way he sucked on my lips and then my tongue had ignited flames throughout my body. I’d never felt the way he made my body feel. If he could do all that just by kissing, I naturally wondered what he’d do with his other body parts. However, when I swallowed my fear and approached Shio late last night, asking for a life with him, he had rejected me. I understood his reasoningI was a woman sired by my father andpromised to another man. He was a member of an American mob where he had a Don to answer to.
Shio made it clear that his actions at the club were still true, along with his promise that Felipe would never touch me again, and I believed him. I didn’t know what was more frightening: the fact that I believed Shio or facing my father’s wrath once he learned of what had occurred. Ines had promised the Rodríguezes Cartel a daughter, and he would stop at nothing to make sure they got one. My father was unpredictable, and I’d seen what he’d done to the rest of our family for the sake of street politics. Nothing stood in the way of what he wanted, and I was no exception.
My eyes moved to the island that housed the last perfume I’d used, along with the earrings and the purse I wore to the club. Shio had given me so much in such a short time. The closet wasn’t full since it was large in size, but for a stranger he didn’t know that was supposed to be visiting temporarily, he ensured I had more than I needed. Shio was a man of class. Nothing in his home was cheap, and he made sure I wore nothing cheap while in his home.
He was a unique man. He was the man little girls dreamed of. He was a protector, a believer in God, family-oriented, wealthy, anddominante(dominant) in every way. He’d proven to be the ultimate alpha, a boss. Although he had the backing of the Rinaldi Mob and his family, he still commanded respect as his own person. That’s why I had to do right.
Sé fuerte, Solana.(Be strong, Solana.)
I had to get my act together so I could stand beside him with a clear mind when things hit the fan with the Ledesma and Rodríguezes Cartels.
My mind was a mixture of hope and fear. Although Shio had said we could not be intimate, I still had hope for my future now that I’d seen what was possible. But the newfound hope haddoubled the normal fear that lived within me. Most of my life, I’d known I was expendable to my father. He held me closer to his heart than the rest of my siblings, but being the only girl meant I was the most valuable to him. I had no hope in Mexico. Hope was as foreign to me as America had been the past three weeks. I knew what my fate was and had come to terms with it before I’d stepped foot in Jagoda Bay, Tennessee.
Shio and the American mob wives had come along and given me hope. I’d never once felt like I could be freed from the arranged marriage until I was put in the presence of that man. I’d never felt like life could be lived carefree and luxuriously before meeting those gorgeous women who gave me the best night of my life yesterday. A real man had shown me so much in less than a month’s time, and I would be forever grateful for him introducing me to his world.
So, even though I knew Shio would give it everything he had to protect me, even though he couldn’t love me, that scared me. I didn’t want my hope in what my life could be to get him killed. I’d surrender in a heartbeat before I let anyone harm him over me.
Looking at the closet island, I turned away, continuing my steps to prevent me from doing what I really wanted to do.
Clink. Clack.
Bang.
Boom.
Clank.
Gasping, I nearly leapt across the closet as the sound of something hitting the wall startled me. Icy fear twisted around my heart, and my stomach clenched tight. Shio wasn’t here. I hadn’t slept in today and went to find him, but when I noticed that the gym, his office, and bedroom were empty, I came back into the bedroom thinking he’d left to put some space between us. He always knocked on the door when he left and when hearrived back at the house, so I either had been dead asleep when he left, or he hadn’t notified me. Whatever that noise was, it wasn’t him. An intruder had entered his home, and I knew exactly who it was: Felipe.
Looking around the closet, I eyed my weapons of choice. There was nothing but heels, purses, jewelry, perfume, clothing, hangers, and evidence of last night’s sins. Panic was rioting within me. I wasn’t going down without a fight. If I were going to turn myself over to the Rodríguezes, it would be on my terms, and after I had my closure with the man who had come into my life like a drill sergeant but now felt like an angel.
