Read Relentless: A Bad Boy Romance (Bertoli Crime Family #1) for Free Online Page B

me wrong, Adriana. The Don is a ruthless, cold-blooded man when it comes to business. He's not a man to trifle with. But he's also a man of honor, and he will make sure that only those who are guilty of great crimes get a visit by men like me when our guns are hot. Even when he had me visit the motorcycle club up north a few weeks ago, it was only to intimidate, not to kill. The shots fired were because they decided to get aggressive when I'd only come to pass on a fair warning.”
    I turned and watched the ocean and the waves come in. Maybe it was low tide, or maybe the waves on that part of the coast weren't all that large, but it was calming, and I reflected on it. The more I did, the more I realized it didn't matter to me. I still loved Uncle Carlo, and despite his put upon arrogance, I liked Daniel too, blood on their hands or not. I only had one more question. “How far would you go to protect me?”
    “I'd give up my life for you,” he said immediately, with an undertone in his voice that left me wondering if he was saying that because of his sense of honor to my uncle or something else. “But I won’t have to—not from a fifty-year-old professor.”
    I leaned against him, at ease. “All right then. Let's go back, and we can focus on getting me back to class. I can't exactly keep skipping out on it. Some of those teachers don't give a damn what happens in your life. An absence is an absence, and if you pick up enough of them, you fail the class.”
    Daniel grunted softly and jokingly elbowed me in the ribs. “Just give me their names, and I can pay them a visit.”
    I got up and dusted the sand off my shorts. “That’s not necessary, but thanks.”

    * * *
    F or the next week , I slowly worked my way back into things. Daniel was with me every day, from sunup until nine at night, when another one of Carlo's men would take over, staying awake in the living room while I slept. Still, Daniel’s presence was comforting. Saturday, he escorted me to Carlo's house, where I had a family dinner together with my mom.
    “So how has your return to your studies gone?” Mom asked. She’d been out of town in New Jersey but was back now, and we'd spent hours just talking. It was nice to catch up with my mother, since we'd only had the chance to exchange quick phone calls in the time after the attack.
    “The first day was rough, but by Thursday, I was able to get back to work decently enough. It helps to have Daniel there.” I took another bite of my lasagna and reminded myself to use the house gym afterward. Mom could afford to eat spaghetti or lasagna every day. She's a widow with a grown daughter and no interest in remarrying. She hadn't blown up or anything, but she wasn't a size eight anymore either. I was a single college student who enjoyed maintaining her figure and didn't have the genetics of an Ashley Graham to be size fourteen with the weight in all the right places. “And before you ask, Mom, Daniel's been a perfect gentleman.”
    “Really? I was worried he’d have his eyes on you too much to focus on anyone else,” Mom said. “But Carlo did vouch for him . . .”
    “When it’s about business, he’s as serious as it gets. He's a good man, like Uncle Carlo said.”
    “I'll mention it to him when he gets back into town. But still, like all good men, they are often nothing more than beasts under their skin. Be careful.”
    I nodded, if only to get her off the subject. We finished our dinner and I went upstairs to my old room. It was exactly as it had been the last time I stayed overnight. I found an old t-shirt and shorts and pulled them on, a little bit of nostalgia sweeping over me. Angela had gotten me the t-shirt, and I had to wipe away a tear as I thought about her. She'd been a good friend.
    I went down to the house gym, which was somewhat of an anomaly and a carryover from my father's days. Uncle Carlo wasn't the athletic type, having decided early on that he didn't need to focus on what were, in