“As opposed to the Donovans?”
I shut my mouth. I don’t want to give any more away than I already have.
Lachlan presses his lips together. “Is there something you need?”
“We need you to deal with this,” Enzo hisses under his breath. “This and the attacks we have endured in your territory.”
“And we will.”
“Do. Before our alliance slips,” Enzo adds darkly.
I hold my tongue and watch him stride away. This isn’t what I expected. And I have a sinking feeling that this won't be the end of it.
CHAPTER19
Rose
The house is dead quiet.
I’ve always been used to silence. I was an only child. When my father would be away for work or mafia business, I’d occupy myself in my quiet room or curl up with my mother’s poetry books or one of her romance novels.
This silence is new. It leaves me in an unfamiliar house with nothing but my feelings and thoughts, all of which are spiraling around Aiden.
What the fuck is going on between us? Why can’t we seem to keep our hands off each other, even though we both claim to hate the other?
Determined to distract myself from my thoughts, I focus on something that feels less impossible to untangle than my complicated relationship with my soon-to-be husband.
Willow.
Whatever misplaced jealousy I felt toward her after the night of the gala is thankfully gone. Now that my head is on right, I feel a little guilty about even indulging that envious pang.
She seemed so lonely and lost in the massive room where the gala was held, and after hearing about how Dmitri has treated her, I want to help. To befriend her, if I can.
I know most of Aiden’s important things are hidden from me, but there’s a leather phone book on the desk in the library. I gingerly lift the cover and flip through, searching for the name I want. Two minutes later, I sit on the edge of a chair and listen to Willow’s phone ring.
She answers after a few beats. “Hello?”
“Hi. This is Rose,” I say before it occurs to me that she may not remember my name. I quickly add, “From the gala?”
“Oh.” She sounds surprised. “Hi. It’s nice to hear from you.”
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“No. Not at all.”
“Good. I, um, I just wanted to talk. I know this may seem strange, but I don’t have a lot of friends in Boston, and it felt like we might have some things in common.”
“Really?” Willow shuffles on the other end of the line, maybe taking a seat to get comfortable. “I… didn’t expect you to go out of your way like this.”
The poor woman sounds just as lonely as I feel. I wonder if she had friends before she married Dmitri, or if she moved to Boston without any connections and didn’t make any once she was here.
“It’s not out of my way,” I say firmly. “And I’d like to have a friend here. If you’d like to.”
“I would.”
I’m relieved that she sounds glad for the call, and it makes me feel like I made the right choice in reaching out to her.
Aiden seemed to feel bad for her too, so I can’t imagine he would be angry at me for reaching out and trying to become friends with her. Especially since, despite the clear animosity between them, he and Dmitri are both members of the Assembly. They’re supposed to be allies, even if it’s in name only, so I know I’m not violating any mafia rules by contacting her.
