MATTEO (book 2)

11. MATTEO

Xena's stupid little stunt with Romeo made Romeo and I argue and fight. Ilaria holds the icepack to my nose. "You can fight, Matty, why did you let him hit you?"

"You can go, I'm fine." I take the ice pack off her, holding it up myself.

She gets up. "You're doing what I do." She wipes her cheeks.

"And what do you do?"

"You pretend you're fine but you destruct in other ways. I starved myself to get rid of what I was feeling and in recovery, instead of starving myself, I spent an excessive amount of time in the gym." She chokes on her words. "You drink to fill the void and because you can't drink, you're letting him take his anger out on you so you can feel something."

She's right.

"Go sleep, Ilaria."

She shakes her head. "You worry me sometimes, Matty. You carry on this way and you're going to end up killing yourself." Then she walks away

I clean up the rest of my injuries myself, then sleep. I wake up, shower and change, then I meet Xena downstairs.

I'm acting interested again.

She raises an eyebrow when she looks at me, "what happened to you?"

"You happened." I sit down, motioning for Leo to sit with us.

"The fuck did I do?"

"Open that pretty little mouth of yours to try and manipulate my brother." I pick up the drink she ordered, sipping on it. "Leo and I are going to go to different places to find Feng. I have a friend in the Triad that can help. I'll call you if we get anything-"

"Matteo, I am sorry." She looks me in the eyes.

"Uh oh, incoming." Leo gets up and sits beside her quickly, draping his arm across her shoulder.

I think she knew better than to push him off her.

I look at Xiuming's gang making their way over here. "Do me a favour, Xena. Shut the fuck up and let me handle this." I lean back, keeping my eyes on them.

His second, Liu, slams a plastic bag on the table. Xena jumps, but Leo steadies her.

"Fella's." I clear my throat, "what can I do for you?" I switch to Chinese.

"Where's Xiuming?"

"Don't know who that is." I smile.

"Your sister was seen with him last." He glares at Leo and Xena.

"My sisters a complex girl, maybe he didn't live up to her standards."

"Is that why his penis is here?" He pushes the bag toward me.

I bite back a smile. "Should ask that to her." I look behind him. Romeo and Ilaria sitting at the bar.

He won't approach her while Romeo is there.

"Where is he? I'll kill you." He grabs the fabric of my shirt.

I smile, "let go of me or i'm going to break your wrist."

He tightens his grip.

I stand up, twisting his wrist and pulling it off my clothing, then snapping it in half as I stand behind him.

One thing I'm glad I never got was the height from my Chinese background. They're all tiny. I'm 6"2 and tower over them, but they all still raised their guns on me.

I bend his wrist a little more and he grunts, but he doesn't scream. "I'll tell you where to find Xiuming if you tell me where to find Feng."

He tells his men to stand down and grunts again, "I can arrange a meeting."