One Night Stand (The Complete Story) (11 page)

Two hours later, we decided to take a short break. I walked back to my room, and stared at the phone again.
I don’t have to speak with him. I could just listen to the message and ignore it if he tries to convince me of anything else ridiculous.
I reached out tentatively and picked up the phone, pressing the green button on the screen.

“Emma, this is Detective Mike Russo. I need to speak with you urgently. Please call me back immediately. You are in danger. Our informants tell us that there is a mob war about to break out any day now. You need to get out and get away from Lorenzo Romano before it is too late. If you don’t listen, you could end up just like his mother. Don’t believe whatever Lorenzo told you about her. There is more to the story than you know, and I think you need to hear the truth immediately. Call me.”

I dropped the phone onto my desk.
Fuck.
Everything was finally going well.
I shouldn’t have listened to that message
. But I couldn’t ignore it.
Could Lorenzo have lied to me about his mother? Why would he do that?

I knew I had to make a choice about Lorenzo. I needed to decide if I could trust him or not. He was the father of my unborn child and he was now in my life, whether or not he lied to me. But I needed to hear both sides of the story, and then I could decide. I couldn’t go to dinner with his family on Sunday before knowing for sure.

I picked up the phone again and pressed the call button.

“Hello? Detective Russo? This is Emma Waterhouse…”

PART 5:

Belonging

“Emma? I’m so glad you called back. I wasn’t sure you would. Can you come down to the station immediately? I would prefer to talk to you in person.”

Detective Russo’s voice sounded relieved. Maybe he was right to believe that I was too far in with Lorenzo now to want to know the truth.

I was pregnant with his child. Even a mob war couldn’t change that fact. I reluctantly agreed to meet Detective Russo in half and hour and quickly hung up the phone. I felt lost and afraid. Some nagging part of me felt like I was betraying Lorenzo by even agreeing to stop by the police station again and listen to whatever the detective was about to tell me about Lorenzo’s mother’s death and whatever was going on with his father. But I owed it to myself, and to my unborn child to find out the truth so we could stay safe.

I sighed. I might as well find out the truth now, before I met Lorenzo’s whole family on Sunday. I quickly brushed my long dark hair up into a bun and grabbed my purse. My roommates, Ava and Riley, were sitting on the couch, painting their toenails while going over notes for our upcoming exams.

“You want to join the study party?” Riley called out, waving a bottle of pale pink nail polish in my direction. “We are going to make cookies later while we go over the Economics notes.”

“Sorry,” I replied with a pout. “Maybe I can join you guys later for the cookies and Economics part though. I have to go back to the police station to talk to that detective.”

“You mean that one who tried to convince you Lorenzo was a cheating bastard, even when he wasn’t? What does he want with you?” Ava whipped her head towards me, making her red curls go flying across her cheeks.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “That one. He just said there was something important about Lorenzo’s dead mom and a mob war and…I don’t know. This whole thing sounds ridiculous, but better safe than sorry at this point, right?”

“Right!” Riley responded, waving her finger at Ava. “We want our lovely pregnant roommate to be safe and not assassinated by the mob or anything like that.”

“Right,” Ava agreed reluctantly. She was definitely Team Lorenzo.

“It shouldn’t take too long. I’ll be back to do more studying soon.”

I rushed out of the apartment and headed down the busy city streets to the station where I had first met Detective Mike Russo only weeks ago. Somehow, it felt like so much longer ago than that. So much had happened since my first night with Lorenzo. Even thinking about that night still made me blush. I had fallen for him right away, and even then I had known that trying to pretend it was just a one-night stand was useless. One night with Lorenzo would never have been enough.

“I’m here to see Detective Mike Russo,” I told the woman at the front desk when I finally reached the station. “I believe he is expecting me.”

“Emma Waterhouse?”

I nodded.

“He told me to take you right back to his office. Please follow me.”

I followed her down the narrow hallways to Detective Russo’s office. As soon as he saw me, he smiled and stood up. I was struck once again by just how handsome and young he looked. I might have even had a small crush on him, if it weren’t for Lorenzo. Next to Lorenzo, even attractive men looked ordinary.

“Emma! Come in and have a seat,” he said, waving his hand across his desk. “Thank you Jeanine,” he added with a nod toward the woman. She smiled coyly at him before turning to walk back towards the front. I tried my best not to raise my eyebrows at her obvious flirtation.

“So, what is so important that you had to have me come talk to you in person?” I asked finally, as Detective Russo sat back down across from me and pushed some papers to the side.

“Emma, I know that you’ve been seeing Lorenzo again. And that is your own choice. But we’ve gotten some intel that things have been heating up between the Romano family and the Russians. I thought you deserved to hear the truth of what happened to Lorenzo’s mother.”

“Lorenzo already told me that she was killed by the Russians.”

Detective Russo shook his head. “It is more than that, Emma. Lorenzo’s mother never wanted to be involved in any of the family’s criminal dealings. But Giovanni Romano didn’t care. He got her involved in the drug trade and gambling deals he was making, against her wishes. He used her as a pawn, assurance that he would keep his promises to the Russians. Things went south and the Russians killed her for revenge.”

“Poor Lorenzo,” I whispered, my hand flying to my mouth. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for him to know that his own father was at least partially responsible for his mother’s death.

“Poor Lorenzo?” Detective Russo repeated. “No, Emma. Lorenzo is no different than the rest of his family. If you don’t get away from him, the same thing that happened to his mother will happen to you.”

“So you are saying that if I don’t stop seeing Lorenzo, I will die?” I asked, staring straight back at him. “Those are my only choices?”

“No, there is one more option,” Detective Russo added softly, reaching his hand out and placing it on mine. “You can help us take down the Romano family once and for all. You can get information from Lorenzo to help put them all in jail.”

I yanked my hand away. “I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can.” He leaned forward. “Emma…” Before I could react, he gripped my face in his hands and pressed his lips against mine. It was only a brief second, but my body recoiled from his kiss. I pulled my face free and leaned backwards, wiping my lips on the back of my hand.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded.

“I thought you wanted it,” he replied pitifully.

I shook my head. “I don’t. I’m with Lorenzo. I’m pregnant with his baby. Please leave me the hell alone.”

I was angry now. I could feel the frustration of the last few weeks boiling up inside me. I had thought that Detective Russo was just looking out for me, but all he really wanted to do was take advantage of me like a creep.

He laughed. “Well, then you are really and truly fucked, Emma. I thought you were a nice girl. A smart girl. I thought I could help you. Obviously I was wrong.”

“Obviously,” I spat back, before jumping out of my chair and storming out of his office. I marched out the door to the station, where I finally stopped to catch my breath and collect my thoughts.

I needed to see Lorenzo. I pulled out my phone and called him.

“Emma! How are you?” he asked in the deep, smooth voice that never failed to get me aroused.

“I need to see you,” I replied, my voice shaking audibly.

“What’s wrong?” he sounded alarmed.

“No, I’m okay. I just really need to see you and talk to you for a few minutes, if you can get away.”

“Of course! Where are you?”

“Outside the police station.”

He paused. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Do you want to wait at the pizza place across the street?”

I agreed and made my way across the street after we hung up.  The restaurant was small, but clean and mostly empty. I ordered myself a slice of pizza while I waited. Those pregnancy cravings were starting to hit me hard.

I was devouring the last bite of the deliciously cheesy, doughy slice when Lorenzo walked in.

“Are you sure you are alright?” he asked, sliding into the booth next to me.

I nodded, wiping the grease from my mouth with a paper napkin. “I’m fine. I just wanted to talk to you because this detective called me in again and he seems to have it out for you. He is the same one who showed me the pictures of you with those girls.”

Lorenzo looked relieved. “The cops are always looking for ways to mess with me and get to my family. Unfortunately, that is going to be a side effect being with me. You’ll learn to ignore them, but I’m sorry you have to go through that.”

“I know. I just – he said he had something important to tell me about a mob war and your mother, so I agreed to see him. He said things are heating up with the Russians and that was how your mother got killed. He basically told me that I was going to get killed.”

Lorenzo looked angry now. “No one is going to lay a finger on you. I promise you that, Emma. I will keep you safe, no matter what. One thing I’ve learned is that cops can be just as crooked as the criminals. I won’t let any part of my family’s business get in the way of our relationship or your safety. I’m keeping you and our baby safe.” He reached out and put his hand gently on my belly.

I smiled up at him. God, he sometime managed to look even hotter than usual now that he was acting all protective of me and our baby. “I know you will, Lorenzo. I definitely think Detective Russo had an ulterior motive, because he kissed me before I stormed out of there.”

Lorenzo’s face turned to rage. “He kissed you!? How dare he! Emma, I am going walk right over there and punch him now!” Lorenzo jumped up and I had to grab his hand to stop him.

“No! Lorenzo, it is alright. I told him to leave me alone and I’m not going to answer any more of his calls.”

Lorenzo still looked pissed, but he slid back onto the bench next to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Fine, but if this guy touches you again, I can’t promise I won’t make him pay. What was his name again?”

I smiled at him and leaned against his shoulder. I liked this overprotective side to Lorenzo. He was so strong and alpha that it was turning me on. My mind wandered to the way he had fucked me earlier on my desk. I thought about his thick cock sliding into me, stretching me open…

I shook my head to clear out the invasive dirty thoughts. “I would rather you stay out of trouble. But I’m pretty sure Detective Russo won’t be a problem anymore.”

“Russo? What was his first name?” Lorenzo had a strange look on his face now.

“Mike. Mike Russo.”

Now Lorenzo was grinning at me like he knew something I didn’t. I looked at him questioningly.

“Little Mikey! Mike Russo!”

“You know him?”

“Yeah, I knew him from the old neighborhood. We grew up together! Now I get what this is all about. He wants payback at me so he was trying to scare you away from me. I’m pretty damn sure there isn’t going to be any mob war, Emma. Mikey is just sour and wanted some revenge on me.”

“I don’t get it. Why would he want revenge?”

Lorenzo squeezed my hand and shook his head. “He thinks I stole his girlfriend back when we were younger. We were friends when we were boys and in high school he had this huge crush on this girl Veronica. He never got the nerve to ask her out and she wasn’t interested in him. So junior year, I dated her for a few months. We never really had anything special, but Mikey was convinced I stole his girl and he never forgave me for that. Apparently, even after all these years, he is still salty.”

“Wow.” I shook my head. “That is pretty damn petty for a detective.”

“Mikey always could hold a grudge. But he has no balls. I’m pretty sure he won’t take things any further than he has. And now he knows that you are all mine.” He pressed his lips to my forehead and pulled me close to him.

“I am yours,” I repeated. I liked the way the words sounded.

Lorenzo reached down and cupped my chin, tilting my face up to his. I closed my eyes as he gently pressed his soft, warm lips to mine. The kiss was chaste and sweet, but I could taste his desire. His kiss held the promise of something more. I wanted so badly to demand we take it to his apartment and fulfill that promise right away, but I had to study for exams and Lorenzo had to return to work.

“You still on for Sunday? He asked as he pulled away.

“I can’t wait for it. Have you told your family yet…about me, and my… pregnancy?”