Tempted and Taken, page 23
“Your aunt Berta owes me a great deal of money,” Matt forced himself to say.
“It was me,” Liza whispered with so much anguish, Matt turned to her before he could stop himself. Her pain always called to him, always made him seek to end it, which was ridiculous because in this instance, he was the one hurting her.
Jesus. The look in her eyes. He’d put that there. He’d done that.
“What was you?” he forced himself to ask, uncertain if he wanted to hear her answer.
“I told you Aunt Berta owned half of Moretti Brothers. I told you how well the company was doing.”
She had. And at the time, Matt had lain there next to her, wondering what it would be like to be a part of such a huge, loving family. The pride and love in her voice as she talked about how amazing her aunt and cousins were had glowed so brightly, he’d longed to have someone shine that kind of light on him…just once.
Now she was interpreting that conversation differently, viewing him as the panther lying in wait.
He’d told her he was a user, that he took what he needed from people then discarded them, but he refused to let her assume the blame for any of this. She didn’t do a damn thing wrong. “I didn’t need to be told that, Liza. A simple Google search would have revealed the same.”
Matt started to turn back to Tony and Luca, but Liza stepped next to him, took his hand in hers. Her hand was ice cold, her expression steeped in grief and fear. He’d always hated seeing resignation in her eyes, but this…this was a thousand times worse.
“Did your dad do this?” she asked.
Matt shook his head in disbelief. Even after everything she just heard him say, she was still looking for another explanation. One that would cast him in a better light. He pointed to the marker, tapped his finger on his name. “I bought the marker with my own money. My dad had nothing to do with this, nor did Russo Enterprises. I found a useful Moretti, one whose weakness offered me a way to take your family down. I exploited it.”
Liza stared at him, searching hard for something he couldn’t show her. If this was where his list of sins ended…maybe. Maybe he could apologize for his actions, find a way to earn her forgiveness. But this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Finally, something in her expression broke. There wasn’t a sign of the happiness and joy he’d witnessed in Hawaii, or even last night when she’d lain next to him in his bed. Now, there was nothing but a deep sadness he was helpless to take away.
“We can’t pay that debt,” she said softly.
“It’s not your debt.”
His words struck a chord, and he saw a flash of that fire he admired so.
“We’re a family,” she asserted. “It is our debt.” Unfortunately, the spark of temper sputtered out too quickly, replaced by confusion. “I just…you have to help me, Matt. Have to explain this to me. Why? Why are you doing this? After everything…” Her voice faltered, clueing him in that she still hadn’t revealed their affair to her family.
“I told you who I was, Liza. I never lied about it.”
“This isn’t who you are,” she insisted.
Matt’s ability to hold it together crumbled as she stood there, determined to see the best in him. “This is exactly who I am! Open your eyes and look at me.” He reached for her upper arms, gripping them. From the corner of his eye, he saw Tony and Luca both take a step toward him, but Liza shook her head, waved them off. “Really look at me!”
Liza’s gaze never wavered. “I am.”
He released her instantly, her words a punch to the gut, as she looked at him with that fucking misplaced hope in her eyes.
How? How could she still look at him like…like he was worthy of anything more than disdain?
Turning to his desk, he opened the top desk drawer. After Patricia’s visit, he’d retrieved the original marker from the safe in his office. He flipped open the file, aware that all three Morettis were watching, that they saw what he had in his hands.
“This is the original marker. What you have is just a copy.” Matt stared at Tony, pushing down the rush of emotions rising to the surface, each one capable of shredding him to pieces.
He took a steadying breath, then turned to Liza. “You want to settle the debt?” he asked woodenly.
She didn’t respond immediately. His clever girl was too astute not to understand that what he was offering would come with a catch.
Finally, she nodded, just once.
He handed her the marker. “Accept that this is me, agree to walk away, and you can tear that up.”
“Walk away?” she whispered, her hands trembling slightly as she held the paper.
“From me. From us.”
He didn’t bother to look at Tony and Luca. He could feel their shock without having to see it.
“No.”
He’d expected that response, had been prepared for it. “Then pay me the money.”
Matt forced himself to look at her, to see the tears glistening in her eyes. They were his punishment, his to bear.
“Matt.”
“Decide quickly, Liza, because this offer isn’t going to last much longer.” He was going for cold, but he feared his words sounded too desperate to pull it off.
“Tell me why,” she demanded.
Matt wanted to refuse, but even now he could tell she was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, searching for something that might excuse all of this.
“I…can’t. We should never have started this, should never have let things go so far. I’m not the man you think I am. This marker is just the beginning of my sins.”
Liza frowned. “You have more ways to hurt my family?”
He shook his head. “No. This is the only threat to the Morettis.”
“Then tell me the rest and let me decide.”
She was fierce and beautiful and so goddamned courageous. But what she didn’t understand was that not all sins could be forgiven.
Besides, how could he ask her to forgive something for which he couldn’t forgive himself?
Matt clenched his teeth and did what needed to be done. “No. Make your decision. Tear it up and walk away. Or…”
“Or?” she prodded.
“I’ll take your family for everything. Destroy them.”
“You wouldn’t.” She was right. He wouldn’t, but he hated that for the first time, she didn’t look or sound very sure of that.
Which meant it was time to finish this once and for all. He raised one cruel eyebrow, his expression the very definition of a dare. “Are you willing to risk your family’s livelihood on that assumption?”
She reached up to wipe away a tear and before he could think better of it, he took a small step closer, lowered his voice. “It’s better for everyone if we make a clean break.”
“Everyone,” she repeated angrily. “The everyone in this scenario is just you and me, and this isn’t better for me.” She sniffled, blinking back her tears. He knew she despised crying in front of people, and he hated that he’d provoked her to it.
Until that moment, he’d thought he was going to make it through to the other side. He could see the finish line. It was just there…only a few steps away.
But then Liza closed the distance between them, tilted her face up to his, and swung the death blow. “Please don’t do this. I love you, Matt.”
Matt felt all the blood drain from his face.
Love.
She loved him.
He knew that, felt it every time he held her. Because he felt it too.
Love.
He was in love with her…which was why he had to let her go.
Liza stared at him for several long minutes, waiting for his reply. Waiting for something he wanted to give her but couldn’t. Because his love would destroy her, just as surely as hers was killing him.
His continued silence worked more effectively than any harsh words.
Liza took a step away from him. “So you’re the everyone in the scenario,” she said at last, her voice devoid of emotion. “Got it.”
She lifted the paper, tearing it in half. It might as well have been Matt’s heart in her hands. The tears she’d been valiantly fighting finally defeated her, flowing down her cheeks.
“Goodbye, Matt,” she whispered, turning and walking out of the office. Matt could only assume it was shock and concern that had Tony and Luca following her without saying another word.
The second the door closed behind them, Matt sank down onto his desk chair, numbness and exhaustion claiming him quickly.
She loved him.
He’d lost her. Lost them both.
The constant drip-drip-drip of water.
Dark red blood congealed on the snowy-white tiles.
The blue-tinged skin of a lifeless arm.
“No! No! No!”
“How could she do this to me?!”
Look deeper.
Matt bowed his head in his hands and did something he hadn’t done since he was a young boy.
He cried.
Chapter Eighteen
“What the fuck was that?” Tony said the second the elevator doors closed behind them.
“Tony,” Luca said warningly.
Numbness sank in so deep, Liza felt as if she was suffocating, even though she felt the same way Tony did.
Because what the fuck was that?
“Liza,” Tony pressed.
“Please, Tony.” She was barely keeping it together. If she could just make it back to her apartment, she could fall apart completely, but she refused to do that here in front of them.
Luca placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. She and Luca had grown closer this past year—two of the last men standing in what had been their gang of single friends/family. With the exception of Luca and Joey, everyone else was shacked up and working on their happily ever afters. This morning, Liza had woken up thinking she might be switching to that club from the lonely hearts one.
She should have known better.
Regardless, it felt like she owed her cousins an explanation. After all, she hadn’t given them any warning that the status quo between her and Matt had changed from enemies to lovers. “I… We…” she started. She couldn’t speak the words, her tremulous control hanging on by a thread. “Matt…” Her voice broke the second she said his name.
“Shit,” Tony murmured, his voice calmer. “I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.” He reached out and gave her a hug. Liza tried to let that compassion bolster her. And it sort of worked until he released her, his gaze zeroed in on her own. “Can you explain to us what just happened in there?”
Liza took a deep breath, then gave them as much as she could say, aware her voice was small, tight. “I’ve been seeing Matt off and on for two months…actually a little more.” That wasn’t exactly true, but in her mind, the one-night stand after the gala and the New Year’s Eve kiss had started to count, the moment they’d become a monogamous couple.
“Jesus Christ, Liza,” Tony breathed, shaking his head as if she’d admitted to committing some heinous crime.
His reaction, though muted for him—considering how deep his disdain ran for Matt—helped, because if there was one thing Liza could do in her sleep, it was go toe-to-toe with her overprotective, opinionated relatives.
Bruno, Elio, and Aldo—the world’s greatest brothers—put her through her paces when they were younger, and she’d put a lot of time and effort into breaking their bad habits of intimidating her dates or expressing very strong views whenever she went out with someone they didn’t approve of.
Obviously, she’d done a better job breaking her brothers’ spirits than Layla had done with her big brothers, Tony, Luca, Gio, and Joey. Liza was beginning to understand why her cousin had moved to Baltimore.
“Don’t start with me, Tony Moretti,” she said hotly, trying to pick a fight, anger a preferable emotion to the excruciating anguish currently short-circuiting every internal system she had. The idea of curling into a fetal position in the corner of this elevator held a definite appeal.
Unfortunately, Tony wasn’t picking up what she was throwing down, his response too calm, too conciliatory. “I won’t start because that was…”
He didn’t finish that thought, so she did it for him.
“Horrible.”
Tony didn’t nod, though she could tell he agreed. “You’re gonna have to give me a minute to let this soak in, let me get used to it, sweetheart. You kind of sprung that on us out of nowhere. You and Matt.” The last sentence was muttered more to himself than to her.
His comment killed her weak-willed attempt at anger, and she sniffled, fighting hard not to cry again. “There’s nothing to get used to,” she said thickly.
“I don’t know about that,” Luca disagreed.
“You were in there,” she said, blinking when her vision blurred with tears. “It’s pretty fucking awful when you tell someone you love them for the first time, only to realize they don’t feel the same.”
Luca and Tony exchanged a look, then glanced back at her with matching bewildered expressions.
“You’re kidding, right?” Luca asked incredulously.
Tony rubbed the back of his neck, and she could tell he took no pleasure in what he said next. “Liza. That man is so fucking in love with you, he can’t see straight.”
Liza shook her head. “He…” She replayed the scene in the office, trying to see what her cousins apparently had. She’d been so blinded by her anger, her confusion, her sadness, it was a wonder she’d managed to speak at all.
“He broke things off,” she finally said.
“He canceled the debt,” Luca pointed out. “That was a fuck-ton of money, and he just let you tear up the marker.”
“If that’s true, then why…” Her voice broke and she hated it. “Why did he break up with me? I thought… We were…” She struggled to catch her breath, but her throat completely closed up until talking simply wasn’t possible. In the end, she just shook her head, turning away from them as much as she could so she could bat away a few stray tears.
“He’s fighting it hard, and men like Matt Russo always go down swinging,” Tony said, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Take it from me. I was one of those guys. Took me way too long to admit Jess and Rhys were my future.”
“That guy’s obviously got some bad shit rattling around in his head,” Luca added. “I don’t think what happened in there has anything to do with you. It felt less like he didn’t want you and more like he was trying to save you.”
“From what?” she asked.
Luca lifted one shoulder casually. “From him.”
“What if I don’t want to be saved?” she asked, wiping the tears sliding down her cheeks with the back of her hand.
Luca leaned closer. “Are you questioning that?”
“Do you think the stress of this marker caused Uncle Renzo’s heart attack?”
Tony and Luca exchanged a glance. She expected Luca to respond, so she was surprised when Tony did. “Honestly, I don’t. I mean…it might have been a contributing factor, but Uncle Renzo’s diet consisted of red meat, homemade pasta, wine, and whiskey. Add in the pack a day of cigarettes and lack of exercise…”
“He didn’t exactly live a healthy lifestyle, Liza,” Luca agreed.
Liza knew all of that, but hearing Tony say it, even after everything that had happened upstairs, helped. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
The doors to the elevator slid open when they reached the lobby, but Luca held his arm out, keeping her and Tony inside.
“We’re gonna ask for help.” When the doors closed once more, Luca hit the button to another floor.
While Matt’s office was on one of the top floors, Russo Enterprises’ IT department was on the third floor, so it only took them a second to backtrack.
Twenty minutes later, Gage walked into the IT department, glancing around the room in surprise when he saw her, Tony, and Luca standing with Penny, Toby, and Rich.
Penny had called her husband, asking him to come to IT, though she hadn’t told him why. Mainly because she didn’t know why. Liza had asked if she could wait to explain their presence at Russo Enterprises until Gage got there. She wasn’t sure she had it in her to recount what had just happened, twice.
Gage frowned. “Shit. Did I forget someone’s birthday?”
Penny shook her head.
“Is it my birthday?” he asked with a grin.
Liza used to wonder if Gage had been dropped at the wrong house by the stork because his easygoing nature and great sense of humor were so different from that of his brothers.
Then she’d gotten to know Matt better, and she realized he shared the same quick wit, the same amazing laugh.
“Not your birthday,” Penny said with a laugh.
Gage looked around the room. “Anyone want to give me a hint?”
Liza stepped forward. “How do I get your brother to admit he’s in love with me?”
Gage frowned. “I didn’t think you and Conor knew each other that well.”
“Oh,” Penny breathed, her eyes wide. Clearly, she understood what her husband did not.
“Not Conor,” Liza clarified. “Matt.”
Gage burst out with a loud laugh—one that died quickly when no one else joined in. Gage looked over at his wife.
“Is it April Fools?” he asked, though his previous joking attitude was gone. He looked confused, while Penny just looked concerned.
Penny shook her head, and Gage turned his attention back to Liza. “Matt’s in love with you?”
Liza wanted to nod, wanted to believe that was true. Luca and Tony were convinced, but her heart—still shattered from what just went down—couldn’t give him a definitive answer.
Luca, bless him, answered for her. “He is.”
“Damn,” Gage whispered. “That’s…” He studied Liza’s face, and she knew she was doing a shit job hiding her outright devastation. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”
Liza repeated what she’d told Tony and Luca in the elevator. How she and Matt had engaged in an affair before the holidays and that it had picked up steam when they were in Hawaii together. She tried to tell him about the debt, but there was no way she could speak the words without falling apart.
