Page 21 of With This Kiss
He grimaced. “Sorry. I’m just worried about you.”
I shook my head. “You don’t need to. I am my father’s daughter, after all.”
And if there was anything I had learned from being Davide Caparelli’s daughter, it was to be cautious.
I wished he had taught me to be fearless instead.
I took another big sip of the horrid coffee and stood up. “I should probably go.”
“Already? You just got here.”
“I’m sorry. I thought I was ready to go out and have fun. But I… I’m not there yet. I’m not ready to move on with my life without her.”
I know I was contradicting myself when I just told him I was going on a date… but if he caught on, he didn’t show it.
His shoulders sagged in disappointment. He looked like he wanted to say something, but thankfully, he kept his mouth shut.
He nodded instead.
I smiled, a small but genuine smile this time, and then walked out the door.
I got to my car and turned it on, waiting for it to heat up. I took in a deep breath, watching the snowfall until it hit my windshield and instantly melted, then grabbed my phone from my purse and opened the messaging app. Reign’s last text to me flashed in and out. I stared at the word “Hi”for so long, my vision blurred.
Shaking my head, I locked my phone and pulled out of the parking lot, heading straight for the bar, where I knew both my father and brother would be.
The bar was a brown,ugly building in one of the city’s worst neighborhoods.
It was the shape and color that made it ugly—and, more than anything else, an eyesore.
In this part of the state, the Caparelli Famiglia reigned over the territory, and most of the smaller gangs around knew not to touch it. I got out and walked inside the building. A big man stood outside the metal door, seemingly unaffected by the cold weather. He recognized me on sight and moved out of the way for me to enter.
Most of my dad’s men waved and smiled at me.
I looked around the ample space that had been used as a gathering for my father’s men, as well as where shady business deals were made.
I smiled back, though I knew better than to trust their smiles.
I wasn’t stupid.
They were only nice to me because they feared my dad and brother more than their need to revert to their natural state of cockiness and misogyny.
I trusted none of my father’s men, and I was sure they trusted me about as much as they liked me—not at all.It was a lonely way to live, I thought, with a hint of melancholy.
I shook my head. I wasn’t usually so… emotional.
I didn’t stop to talk to any of them.
I headed straight for the back, my hand touching the handle of the door before I thought better of it, and paused. I raised my hand and knocked. It didn’t take long for the door to open and my brother’s huge frame to fill the doorway.
He didn’t seem surprised to see me standing there, but he didn’t move out of the way either.
It could only mean one thing—he didn’t want me to see whatever was going on inside the room. I worked hard to keep the grimace off my face. I didn’t want to see what was going on behind the door either.
“What do you want?” he asked, not unkindly. But I wouldn’t say there was any warmth in his voice either.
“I want to talk to Dad.”
He didn’t respond right away. Then he grabbed my arm and led me away from the door, closing it behind him before I could really see inside. He led me to another room on the side. I went over to the couch and sat down while Caine moved over to the small makeshift bar in the corner and poured himself a drink.
