SURRENDER - Mafia Romance

• CHAPTER 10 •

I laid my head back in my chair and let out a long breath I was holding back the whole ride. Driving for six hours to get back to the mansion was exhausting. I closed my eyes not believing that I was finally back home after three nights of sleeping away from my house.

"What's wrong, Ace? Are you that tired?" Carmin giggled.

I closed my eyes and nodded.

"Let's go." I forced my body to get out of the car. I waved at her to walk before me. My eyes followed her heels as they created a rhythm before my eyes and her skirt that she used to catch my eyes did as she pleased.

"Amazing mansion," she spoke, pushing her hair behind her shoulder as her back still facing me.

"Yeah. It was Frank's choice."

She giggled and waited for me to open the door.

When I did, my eyes automatically connected with Talia's eyes and we both chose to not break the eye contact. But the longer it got the more irritated I got. She didn't react, she didn't warn the guys, she didn't say anything. It made me feel like my presence and my absence are the same to her.

I wasn't sure what was going on. They were sitting in the kitchen and around the counter which was why standing in front of the front door allowed me to see everything. The music was loud and the lights were dimmed. They were drinking, talking, and laughing. Talia was sitting down, across from Joe whose back was facing me.

"Guys!" I growled. My voice rang across the tall walls and the high ceiling, bringing all eyes on me, except Talia, she looks down at the game on the kitchen island in front of her.

"Ace!" Niko hurried to me followed by Luca. Luca tapped my shoulder and pointed at Carmin with his chin and Niko nodded. I closed my eyes and shook my head. They will always be the children of this house.

"Welcome back," Joe said.

"Welcome back, Ace." Romeo's deep voice groaned at me from the end of the room, "you won't introduce us to your friend?"

"I will explain everything after dinner," I stated.

"Oh! Been a while, man! Are we Friday today?"

I was going to correct him on who Carmin was but Talia's eyes looked up from behind her cards, scanning Carmin from head to toe so I stayed silent, letting her think what she wanted. I just wanted to enjoy a little moment of annoying her before everyone finds out who she really was.

Talia didn't look up at me again, she was focused on the card in her hands which made me notice the cards in Joe's hands too. They were playing cards. I took a deep breath to not make any stupid move in front of Carmin and shook my anger off.

"Luca, we need your amazing cooking to welcome our guest," I spoke loudly.

"Of course!" He got up and started gathering the stuff.

Carmin and I sat on the couches on the other end of the room. She was talking to me but all my attention was on Joe and Talia who were laughing and playing as a four years couple. It made me wonder what I missed. How can three days change so much?

Niko and Luca called us to the dining room. I guided Carmin to sit next to me where Talia usually would sit. But Carmin is a guest, I couldn't have thrown her in the middle of the boys. When Talia saw, she just directed herself to sit among the boys. Not seeing her get bothered or showing that she was even just surprised made me realize that maybe I didn't really care about Carmin. Maybe I just wanted to know what Talia would do. I wasn't at ease with the idea that she got closer to the boys. I wanted her to only come to me when she needed something.