"What do you want?"
"Let me in, Nicky."
I rolled my eyes and moved away from my front door. There was no point in closing it. Vinnie would just go through it. As soon as I was in the middle of my living room, I spun around and crossed my arms, pinning my angry gaze on him.
Vinnie was dressed in his usual black Armani suit...crisp white dress shirt open at the collar, pressed slacks, suit jacket hiding the gun in a shoulder holster. He had another one hidden in his ankle high boots.
To say he looked hot was the understatement of the millennia. He was sex on two legs, and I wanted to lick him.
Damn it.
"You get that I am not going to do this with you, don't you?"
"Nicky—"
"No!" I shouted as all the anger and hurt I'd been feeling for the last week welled up inside of me. "You made your choice, Vinnie. I'm done."
I'd been on the verge of tears since the moment I heard Vinnie was engaged to get married to some woman his grandfather had picked out for him.
"The hell you are!" Vinnie shouted right back to me. "You belong to me. You will always belong to me."
"I used to belong to you, but you gave me away."
"I did not give you away."
"Fine, you decided you didn't want me anymore and tossed me away. Same damn thing."
It was hard looking at him, knowing that he didn't want me as much as I wanted him. I had been stupid. So stupid. I had made him the center of my world...and he had not.
To Vinnie, I was a toy to be taken off the shelf occasionally and played with. I was not the love of his life.
Too bad he was mine.
"You need to go," I whispered, wanting him to leave before the tears flooding my eyes spilled down my cheeks. I didn't need that humiliation on top of all the rest.
"This is still my apartment, Nicky."
I refused to acknowledge how much those words hurt. Yes, Vinnie paid for the apartment, but he didn't need to remind me I was a kept whore who only had a roof over my head because I warmed his bed.
I really had been stupid.
I walked over and grabbed my jacket, pulling it on, and then made sure I had my wallet in my pocket. Pretty sure I was going to need it. I thought about taking my cell phone, but Vinnie paid for that, too.
I picked up the house keys and stared at them for a moment before tossing them at Vinnie. They hit him in the middle of his chest before falling to the floor.
"It's all yours, Mr. Borelli. Hope you can get your deposit back."
I walked out the door and slid between the two bodyguards standing right outside before they could stop me. I heard Vinnie shouting my name, ordering me to come back, but I just kept on walking. When I heard the squeal of tires behind me, I started running and I didn't stop.
I probably should have packed my belongings before leaving, but once again, almost everything I had had been paid for by Vinnie, from my apartment right down to the clothes on my back and the food on my table.
I had thought there was something special between me and Vinnie, but he had proved that theory wrong when he tossed me away like yesterday's trash when he agreed to marry the woman his family had picked out for him.
I would never hold a special place in his heart. I would always be a booty call for him, his side piece while he built a family with some woman I didn't even know the name of. I would never be anything more than his whore.
I wanted to smack myself for even thinking there could be something special between us or that what we had would last a lifetime.
I should have known better.
Vinnie was a caporegime in the Borelli crime family, and I was his dirty little secret. He could never acknowledge me in public and he certainly couldn't marry me or even live with me on a fulltime basis. People didn't do "gay" in the mafia.
It was a death sentence.
When I slipped in the snow and almost kissed the pavement, I slowed down and started walking at a normal pace. I had probably looked like a crazy person running down the sidewalk the way I was.
I slid my hands into the pockets of my jacket, wishing I had thought to grab my gloves. They were fur lined and very nice, but they were yet one more thing that Vinnie had bought for me.
I stopped suddenly right there in the middle of the sidewalk and let out a laugh that for sure made me seem crazy. I had nothing. I'd spent the last two years living off of Vinnie, and with the exception of a small box of personal items shoved in the back of my closet, I had nothing that Vinnie hadn't provided for me.
I had just lost everything.
Well, maybe not.
I started down the sidewalk again, walking a little faster as I headed for the nearest ATM. Vinnie provided me with an allowance once a week, play money he called it, but we both knew what it was.
I had been a very well-paid whore.
If I was lucky, he hadn't cleared out my bank account. The last time I checked, there had been a little over three thousand dollars in there. If I could get to it fast enough, I might be able to pull it out.
It would keep me from sleeping on a park bench. Considering there was snow on the ground, I'd rather avoid that scene. That didn't mean I wasn't going to pay back every single penny of the three thousand dollars.
The apartment and everything he had provided for me before was on him. It had started out as a business deal. My body for him taking care of me. I'd been the stupid one to bring emotions into it.
Anything I took after I left had to be repaid. I might be a mafia man's whore, but I did have my pride. I would pay Vinnie back if it was the last thing I did.
I was lucky. I spotted a bank branch down the street. I walked directly to the ATM to check my balance. As soon as I saw the balance, tears sprang to my eyes.
It was all there.
I quickly walked into the bank and pulled everything out and then closed the account. I wouldn't need it anymore. Well, once I got a job, I would need one, but I wouldn't be using the same account. Vinnie had access to this one.
After putting the cash into my wallet, I pulled out the debit card and credit card Vinnie had given me. I smiled at the woman behind the counter. "Do you have a pair of scissors I can use?"
As soon as she handed the scissors to me, I cut up both cards into as many pieces as I could manage. I smiled again when I handed them back. "Do you have a garbage can?"
Her eyes were a little wide as she reached down and grabbed her garbage can. I took it and swept all the tiny pieces into the can and handed it back. "Thank you."
"Man troubles?"
I nodded. "Big time."
"You should have maxed out his card first."
I shook my head. "I just want it to be over."
I didn't want another thing from Vincenzo Borelli.
