The Dons Siren

Chapter Eight

Sofia

I haven't seen Matteo around the club in a while. It's not like I was counting down the days or whatever because I'm not. But if I were to count the days, I would tell you it's been precisely thirteen days.

Thirteen days since I last saw this man. A man who had no right to occupy my thoughts, a man who resided in my mind like it was the only thing he knew how to do.

I thought of him more than I cared to admit, more than I would ever admit. I thought about those dark eyes that held warnings and dark promises.

Eyes that resembled stormy nights and hurricanes. Eyes that pierced through your very fucking soul whenever they landed on you.

I thought of his smile or a laugh that didn't belong to a man like him. It was too light, too joyful.

The last time I saw him was when he shot that man right in front of me as if he was nothing. As if killing a man was nothing to him. According to Alexis, it was nothing.

It was a casual day for a D'Angelo to just do whatever he wanted and kill whomever he pleased without consequences.

It turns out Matteo didn't just own this club but owned every club, restaurant, hotel, and building in Chicago. He wasn't just rich rich ; he was filthy fucking rich.

The ten-thousand dollar check he wired to me the day I bitched about him costing me money had me gasping for air. I still haven't touched it.

I refuse to let this man think he could buy me or even afford me. I don't care who he was or what he owned; I wasn't anybody's. I belonged to myself.

The ten-thousand dollar check aside, he had that man, Leonardo, give me a gift after my last set the other week.

A gift that I knew if I were to sell it, I'd never have to work a day in my life. It was real Ruby Diamond lingerie. A full-on encrusted bra and panties.

What was this man doing buying me lingerie? And the fact that he sent it with someone? I haven't worn it yet. I decided I would never wear it.

It's hidden in my safe back at the house. I wasn't going to call him because that would mean I care, and I don't. I really don't.

I couldn't just look for him in the club and hope that I would run into him because, like I said.

I don't care. I really don't care.

Alexis and I looked it up once we saw it. It was fifteen million dollars. Do you know what someone like me could do with fifteen million dollars?

Everything. A lot. It was a lot of fucking money.

I could stop working altogether and pay off my father's medical bills once and for all and my brother's student loans. I could buy my father a better place and a nicer car.

I'd never have to worry about my next paycheck or if I make enough tips dancing to stupid, pitiable men. I wouldn't ever have that pleasure, though.

I'd never allowed myself to rely on another person, especially a man like him. A man that was more menacing than the devil himself.

A man with no morals or conscience. A man that doesn't differentiate between right and wrong. A man who makes me breathless whenever he speaks to me.

A man who makes my pulse skip whenever he looks at me. A man who would protect me and kill everyone who would ever harm me.

Jesus, something like this shouldn't make me feel...special, hot, bothered.

Where the warning bells in my head should be were gone, replaced by the explicit image of this man trailing his gun over my body.