Page 4 of Plucking His Daisy

“A charity auction? She’s done that kind of thing before,” there’s a hopeful note in my voice I know has no place there.

“No,” she sighs, “she’s auctioning off herself. One night with her.” I can hear her swallow hard over the line before she adds in a whisper, “Her virginity.”

I roar, “What? No.”

I squeeze my phone so tight that the screen cracks in my hand and I don’t think as I throw it across my apartment to hit the wall and shatter. I’m out the door so fast I barely close it behind me. I don’t know or care if I lock it behind me.

The moment I slide into my car, I know I should steady myself, but I don’t. I can’t. I drive like I’m in a high-speed chase across three counties with the police on my tail. Anything to get to her. Anything to stop this.

Can I stop it?

I don’t even know when it is.

“Fuck,” I bark out as I hit my steering wheel. I mutter, “I should have asked more questions.”

Now I don’t have my phone. It’s an easy problem to solve. I have a few burners in my car, but I’ll have to replace my phone tomorrow. I should call Lily and get more information, but first I need to get to Daisy.

I need to make sure she’s okay. I need to make sure she’s not doing this right now.

How can I stop her? How can I stop this?

When I pull up to Elio’s house, I’m hauling ass out of my car and to the front door. I should knock, it would be the polite thing to do, but my manners flew out the door the moment Lily dropped a bomb on me. It’s not like Elio has ever stood on formalities when it comes to me anyway. He now lives in the house his father occupied, the same one he grew up in along with his siblings, along with me.

I’ve known all the corners and secrets in this house for as long as I can remember. So, when I open the door and stomp in like a bear on a rampage, I don’t even pause. I can’t. Not now.

My footsteps reverberate through the space, announcing to anyone that one pissed off man is on the premises. Tazio comes rushing from the back into the foyer but stops when he sees me. That’s for the best.

His eyes and voice are wary, “What’s going on, Lorenzo? Are you okay?”

“No,” I grunt, “I’m not okay.”

I don’t give more information and he doesn’t ask for it. We’re not in the business to ask a lot of questions and it’s always worked for us. Secrets are meant to be secrets; problems are meant to be eliminated.

How the fuck am I going to get out of this?

Should I say something to Tazio about Daisy’s plans? His sister, Hyacinth is Daisy’s best friend. Could Daisy have roped her into this crazy plan as well? Is it my place to drop that bomb?

Lily didn’t mention Hyacinth being involved, so I keep my mouth shut. Now that my brain isn’t caught up completely in rage, it’s clear the information probably came from Hy in the first place. She wouldn’t have informed Lily if she was involved.

I press my lips together and stomp through the house, giving Tazio a nod as I pass him. I head to the den in the back, which is where Daisy is probably watching television, considering I can hear the whine of some uptight socialite on some reality show. I don’t get there though.

“Zo,” I hear Elio call out for me from his office when I walk past it without even looking in to see where my oldest friend is.

“Fuck,” I mutter and turn back and enter the room, trying to keep my face neutral and my fuming internal instead of broadcasting it.

It’s a damn good thing that I’ve learned how to conceal my emotions. It’s something you have to learn early when you’re in the life I am. There was never another path for me other than the one I’m on. I was destined to be the right hand to Elio. I was destined to be entangled with the Agosti family.

It was more than just growing up in the right neighborhood or making friends. It’s in my blood. I know it. It’s one of the many reasons I was never going to taint Daisy with my bullshit.

A question bubbles up from the pit of my subconscious. If I’ve been so good at hiding my emotions, why did Lily call me to tell me about Daisy instead of telling Constantino or Elio?

I brush it aside when Elio gives me a small smile and asks, “What’s going on? I didn’t think I’d see you tonight. I figured you’d be out with some hot blonde.”

I cringe internally. He hasn’t noticed that I haven’t been out with a woman in a year. He hasn’t connected the dots between my preference for blondes with curvy bodies and his sister.

It’s a good thing, but the reminder of the truth of it makes me want to curl up in a ball and never see the light of day again. I can’t do that, so I straighten my spine instead.

“It was boring at my place,” I shrug casually as the lie slips from my lips.

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