Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 413(@200wpm)___ 330(@250wpm)___ 275(@300wpm)
Roman snorted. He could see that about Millie. He stumbled back, sitting on the arm of one of his chairs. Alex, the kids, driving them to school.
For the past two months, he’d been sniffing out all the traitors Phillip had garnered. Some of them were lowlife crooks. There were a few capos who’d been more than willing to accept Phillip as their boss for a price. It was his job to take care of them all. That was what he’d been doing today. Torturing. Killing.
He nearly had every single person who would have turned their back on his father.
Roman didn’t care about the death he caused. They had it coming, but when it came to Alex, she had his attention, always.
“How is she?” Roman asked.
“The bruises are all gone. She’s happy. She loves being a mommy to the kids.”
“And the kids?”
“Oh, they’re doing fine. They are part of a family now. Alex’s family.”
Roman gritted his teeth. He never cried, not for anyone. Crying only got more beatings, and he’d stopped getting them when he was a young boy.
Tears were for the weak. For the foolish.
“Do they ask about me?”
Antonio sighed. “I only saw them once, Roman. A couple asked after you. They wanted to know where you had gone.”
“What does Alex say?” Roman asked.
“She says you’re busy. That you’ve got a lot to deal with right now.”
“So she hasn’t told them I’m not coming back?”
“No, but you do need to sign the divorce papers.”
“I don’t need to do jack shit.”
“This isn’t good for you or for Alex, or for the kids, or for the bigger picture. Guys, are you not going to help?” Antonio asked, looking toward Marlo and Cash.
“I’d rather not get punched in the gut.”
“Pussies. Come on, Roman. You have to see sense.”
“Why do I?”
“You never wanted to be married to Alex in the first place. Even you said she was beneath you. She’s not from our world. An outsider. A loser.”
Roman grabbed Antonio’s lapels. “Don’t fucking call her that.”
“For fuck’s sake, Roman, make up your damn mind. You don’t want her, and now what? Do you not want to be the first man to have a divorce in the Greco line?”
“I don’t want to lose her.”
“Dude, she’s already lost.”
Roman glared at Antonio.
“Did you not think asking us to seduce her wouldn’t have an impact?” Antonio asked.
“She was never supposed to find out.”
“Roman,” Marlo said, standing up. “You need to think about why you don’t want to sign those divorce papers and why you didn’t want her to get an annulment.”
“War. I was protecting our families,” Roman said.
“Oh, cut the crap, Roman. I’m sick of all your bullshit. We all are,” Cash said, standing up as well. “Yes, there would have been disagreements between both sides, but we all know Lucas and Liam would have figured something out. They had already come together. They would’ve made it work. You didn’t want Alex to call quits because the real reason is you like her. You have always liked her.”
“No, I think he’s been in love with her,” Antonio said. “Even before the wedding, he stopped screwing around. You took your vows seriously, and let’s face it, you treated her like crap because you panicked. For the first time in your life, there was a woman you actually liked. Not a woman who was impressed by your money, or who you were, but a woman who cared about being real, and you were afraid.”
He glared at his friends.
“And that’s why you won’t sign the divorce papers,” Marlo said. “You’re in love with your wife, and if you sign them, you know you will lose her forever, because if you can see how great she is, you know other men will see it as well.”
“Don’t.”
He hadn’t been in love with Alex, not in the beginning. Roman wasn’t even sure that he liked her. She was different, opinionated, and she wasn’t trying to gain his attention. In fact, she never had been.
During their short engagement, Alex never reached out to him. Never sent her father to demand he take her out to lunch. She left him alone.
“I broke her heart and her trust,” Roman said.
“Last time I checked, both of them can be healed,” Cash said. “With the right words and actions.”
“I don’t know what to do.” He had never admitted that openly to anyone. It was a weakness, and he refused to be weak.
Roman didn’t even care if his friends were sharing a look between them.
“You don’t give up,” Antonio said.
“And you don’t let her forget that you do love her,” Marlo said.
“Oh, and I have it on good authority that if you actually tell a woman you love her, you might get a better chance of them listening,” Cash said. He held his hands up as if to ward off some evil. “I’ve said what I needed to. I’ve got to take a shower, and some of us actually need their dick sucked.”