Vera Romano has not had any family since she was 13. She makes sure to keep as many people as possible at arms length, apart from her two roommates/best friends.
Vera is the best street racer in the mafia. Although Vera has her feet in the water, s...
I stir in bed, reaching out for Santi. My hand meets an empty bed.
I crack my eyes open, rubbing the sleep out of them. I sit up in the bed, l look around the room, verifying Santiago isn't here anymore. I don't hear the shower running either.
I get out of the bed, catching a glimpse of Santiago's sweatshirt that swallows me. It smells like him and it's warm like him.
I tiptoe carefully out his room and walk down the hallway to the stairs. I enter the living room first. I take in the furniture and chandelier that I didn't notice yesterday because of everything that happened.
His house is gorgeous. He has simple grey furniture, a patterned rug, and the chandelier twinkles when you move.
I've never really considered it mine. It's just always felt like it was someone else's.
My heart suddenly squeezes as I remember Santi's words from last night. Why doesn't he feel like it's his?
My thoughts are interrupted by a voice. Santiago's voice that is throwing out every profanity in the book. I follow his voice which leads me to the kitchen.
Santiago is running his hand under the faucet, hunched over in pain. There's something on the stove that once seemed to be a pancake but is now just a black solid, I go and take it off the stove before going to Santi.
"If I may be bold enough to guess, I'd say you've never cooked a day in your life." A rich chuckle breaks from his chest as he turns off the faucet.
"Your inference would be correct. I have a cook, but I let her off early for the holidays." I smile as I go over to the extremely burnt pancakes and scrape them into the trash.
"What if I didn't even like pancakes?" Santiago turns toward me and watches as I move around the kitchen, straightening up, tidying.
"Who said they were for you?" I train my eyes on his calling his bluff. If he wanted breakfast for himself he would've just gone out to get it. I can tell from the amount of takeout bags in his garbage.
"Fine, I took a shot in the dark. Clearly didn't go as planned. I would like to go have breakfast with you but I'm needed at work."
I nod as I go back to stand in front of Santiago. "Well, I'm not needed anywhere. Maybe I could come with you for a little." I look down at my feet, slightly scared he'll say no. I can't figure out why.
"Sure, if you want. It's nothing but paperwork." I bite back a smile. Why in the hell am I smiling? It's not that serious.
"Ok, let me go get changed." He scrunches his brows as I start my way to the stairs.
"Where are you going to get clothes from?" I smirk as I continue up the stairs.
"Your closet."
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I make my way down the stairs to see Santiago in a grey button up with black jeans on. He looks good. Like illegally good.
He looks up as he hears me coming down. I look baggy, after all he is like huge and I'm definitely not. I got the smallest thing in his closet and even then I had to roll it a couple times.
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"How do we like?" I do a spin showing off the outfit.
"I love." He flashes me a quick smile. I reciprocate it and we get into his car then head to his office.
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I walk into Santiago's building while he's still saying I tried to kill him from my driving. I don't always drive that fast, I only drive fast when I'm in races or practicing, but the look on his face is so worth it.
As I look around his office I feel incredibly underdressed. There's a large waiting room that is buzzing but all of a sudden goes quiet.
I look around trying to see why everyone has basically stopped mid-sentence or ran away. My question is answered when I feel Santiago has wrapped an arm around my waist.
He has a emotionless look on his face. A look I've never seen before. If I was on the other side of it I'd want to run away too.
"What's my schedule for today?" Santiago asks the woman at the front desk. His tone is steel.
"You have a meeting at 10 and the Miller industry paperwork due at 8pm." The woman's eyes slide over to me and I see a flash of disgust. Her eyes look me up and down, obviously thinking I don't belong, which I technically don't, but she's just being plain rude.
"Who is this, might I ask?" I see a vein in Santiago's jaw bulge. "None of your concern." His statement comes out as venom and I honestly love it.
The women ducks her head in fear, maybe shame but I doubt she'd be the type. Santiago leads me to an elevator taking me to the top floor.
I step off the elevator doing a full 360. His office is top to bottom stocked full of books. At the least 1000. Then his desk is in the middle and the wall behind his desk is just windows.
So clean I feel like I might be able to go through them. The view from the window is beautiful. You can see almost the whole city. I continue staring until I become aware of Santiago staring at me.
I don't understand why he looks at me so much. Why he looks at me like that. So intensely? No, something else. I just can't explain it.
Before I can ask his door flies open, a woman strides in wearing a skin tight white dress that I feel will burst or flash me if she makes a wrong move.
She's tall, blonde, with green eyes. She's gorgeous, like model gorgeous. She struts over to Santiago and throws her arms around his neck, trying to shove his face in her breasts.
"Tiago, baby why haven't you called me. I missed you and him." She darts her eyes down to his crotch as a sickening smirk sprawls across her face.
Her body is flush against his and he's just standing there. I shift making the women's attention snap over to me.
"Uh, can you leave? I'm having a private moment with my boyfriend." Boyfriend hits me like a ton of bricks. Boyfriend?
I stand there, I want to look at him, I want to see what he's going to do, but I can't. I won't let myself. I harden my jaw, drain the emotion from my eyes and leave.
I take the elevator, reach the bottom floor, walk through the lobby, and out the doors of his building.
////////// AN: OH MY GOSH!! Thank you guys so much for 2000 reads. I appreciate it so much and I'm so thankful. I love y'all 🫶🏾
