Lonzo: Book 2 (Tycoon Series Book 2) (14 page)

“Amata—”
his voice said softly.
“Sei tutta la mia vita.”

She tried to respond…to tell him to stay away from her but her lips were too parched to move.

Had she just felt his lips kissing her forehead? Was it him clasping her hand? Was she dreaming or was this drug-induced hallucinations?

Definitely the latter, she thought as she drifted in and out of limbo.

“You! You foda! Filho da puta!”
he heard Bastian
cuss before he saw a meaty fist aiming for his face.

Lonzo only had a split-second to move his head. He swung his arm in retaliation at the marauding man.

He should have expected this less-than-amiable reaction from Jordana’s manager. Mel had tried to warn him when she called a few hours ago, after they arrived at Heathrow.

Mayhem erupted in the receiving area of Jordana’s room as Bastian went for him again. He was held off by Rocco, Mel and his own security detail.

“Get out of here before I kill you for what you did to my sister!” Bastian shouted.

He froze. Sister? Was the man drunk? That the fuck...?

“Long story. Trust me, Leandro’s family,” Mel explained after she saw his puzzled look. “Her only sibling.”

Bastian was like a bull roaring for a fight.

“Get out!” the man furiously told him.

Rocco tried to intervene.

“Guys…come on…we’re all adults here. Can we discuss this in a more civilized manner? Lonzo, can you please shelve the fighting stance? Thank you,” his bestfriend said dryly.

“I am not going anywhere,” he declared. Damn it, he won’t leave his woman’s side just because her brother said so.

Jordana’s brother went livid.

“Oh, yes you fucking will!” Bastian responded.

“I am not moving an inch unless she tells me to,” he replied firmly.

They were about to slug it out again when they heard Jordana’s weak voice…telling them to stop.

“Please…stop it! Leave us, Lonzo…” she said tiredly but succinctly.

He was rooted to the spot at what he heard.

“
Cara
—” he said, as he strode to reach her, but she turned her head away.

Unfamiliar pain ripped through him.

“You heard her, Vitale. She doesn’t want you here,” her brother stated.

He turned to Bastian. “You leave us! I want to talk to her without you harping like a girl in the background!”

Bastian looked like he was ready to trounce him but Mel held him off.

“Okay, Lonzo. You have five minutes. Dana, honey…we’ll be right outside, okay?” Mel pacified as she led Jordana’s brother out of the room. Rocco followed suit, leaving him alone with Jordana.

He only had five minutes. Five minutes to win back the mother of his child and convince her to forgive him.

“
Cara
…please look at me,” he pleaded quietly at her bedside.

Jordana turned to face him, her eyes hard with disdain. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told him in a hallow, cold voice. “I hate the sight of you.”

Her frigid tone made him wince.

“Jordana—” he beseeched as he tried to reach for her hand.

“No!” She jerked herself away from his reach and forced herself to sit on the bed.

He dropped his hand to his side.

He couldn’t blame her. He had repeatedly treated her like shit. He knew it wouldn’t be easy getting back in her good graces

“I can’t blame you,” he murmured. “I’m everything your brother accused me of. Everything I did and said was inexcusable.” He took a deep breath. “I was a prick. I hurt you deeply. I was a jealous, distrustful bastard. I never felt this way before and I was foolishly fighting myself.
Cara
, I was falling in love with you, too. But I was just too scared to admit it.”

He heard her loud gasp at what he just outpoured. His heart soared, hopeful.

“Don’t talk to me about love, Lonzo,” she told him contemptuously. “From the start, all you did was judge me. You never gave me a fair trial. You wanted to ruin me. But you went beyond that. You rejected my child. My beautiful, innocent baby!” she said furiously.

“I was thoughtless. I was so blinded by jealousy…but I realized that she’s mine. I was on my way back--” he tried to explain to her but she cut him off, laughing at him scornfully.

“I don’t give a shit, Vitale.”

He wanted to drop dead.

He deserved it for everything he did but damn, he didn’t expect it to hurt like this. Was this what people call heartbreak? They lied. The hurt was so great it didn’t just break his heart but his entire soul.

He would never love another woman the way he loved her.

“All I want is your forgiveness.”

She eyed him icily.

“A chance, Jordana. That’s all I ask,” he pleaded, casting away his pride. “A chance for us.”

“There is no ‘us’, Lonzo,” she answered dismissively. “There will never be because I will never, ever forgive you.”

“We have a child to consider! This is beyond you and me!”

She narrowed her eyes. “The baby’s mine. I will raise her alone!”

“You can’t just cut me out of Gianna’s life! She’s also my child!”

“She’s not yours! You rejected her, remember? My child is better off without a father than have a deceitful, faithless bastard like you around!” she spat at him as tears began to cascade down her face, which she hastily wiped away with the back of her hand.

Seeing her tears made him feel so ashamed. If he had any decency at all, he would leave now.

“Jordana—” he said in a broken, anguished voice. “I do love you and Gianna.”

“Don’t you talk about love! You don’t know the meaning of the word.”

He couldn’t speak. His heart constricted. He did this to her. He made her build an impenetrable wall. Walls so tall and thick, he won’t be able to scale it.

He sighed.

“I do now,” he said softly. “After I almost lost you forever.”

“I don’t want to hear it. Just go.”

“I just want a chance…a chance to show you, cara. To prove that I love you—” he said hoarsely.

He had gambled and won many battles in his life but he’d give up all of that just to have this one victory.

Jordana couldn’t believe what she was seeing and hearing.
Lonzo’s olive eyes were shimmering. Tears?! Impossible! Lonzo Vitale was powerful, ruthless and selfish to the core. He was merely toying with her, playing with her affections.

She recalled their time at the island, how he played his cruel mind games with her, making her hope and believe that they had something to look forward to.

No. She won’t fall prey to his selfish games again. She crossed her arms and drew her chin up.

“You want me to test this so-called love of yours? Very well… promise me one thing: you’ll never come near me or my child again.”

He looked like he just got punched in the gut. “Don’t do this to me, cara. I’ll do anything, Jordana. Anything but that.”

“Then prove it! Stay away from us!” she insisted.

He just continued to look at her face. Then without warning, he made a move for her, pulling her into his arms before lowering his head to kiss her. He kissed her so tenderly. And for a moment she almost got lost in the wistfulness of his kiss. She almost believed he meant to cherish and love her forever.

But she remembered the taunting words he uttered .

We didn’t make love. We had sex. Sex I paid for, remember?

It was enough to put a fresh blanket of ice around her heart again. She pushed him away savagely.

“Do not touch me. Ever.”

He stood back, his hands clenched at his sides. His usually vibrant green eyes were cloudy with…pain?

“Don’t ask me to stay away from Gianna.”

“She is not your child.”

He didn’t speak for a long time after that. Then he drew another deep breath.

“I’ll stay away from you. For now. But I’ll make you see, Jordana. One day I’ll make you realize that I meant every word I said,” he uttered dejectedly.

She steeled herself from feeling anything.

“Then you shall wait in vain, Vitale. That day will never come.”

He didn’t reply to that. He turned and slowly left the room. And out of her life.

As expected, the news of the latest unfolding drama
involving a supermodel, a billionaire and their secret love child created another media frenzy. Various publications had already tried to reach her or Leandro in the hopes of getting an exclusive. HELLO magazine offered a huge sum of money in exchange for the first pictures of Gianna, while O.K. magazine, said it would double its rival’s offer.

But Jordana was having none of it. She already asked Leandro and her lawyers to file an injunction against any members of the press - both the legitimate and the gutter kind, from publishing pictures of the baby or face law suits.

She thought that was the reason the media relented a bit. That was until she learned that even without her agreement, Lonzo installed his security team around the hospital.

She found out about it when Thio Fredo and Zia Maria mentioned it when they visited her. It left her extremely annoyed. She’d hire her own security personnel, she vowed.

She didn’t involve the two in her conflict with Lonzo. Especially Thio Fredo. The old man burst into tears the first time he saw and held Gianna.

“Now I can die,” he said.

“Oh, Fredo...stop being melodramatic! Old devils like you live to a hundred. You’ll be here for Gianna’s eighteenth birthday!” Zia commented. Like Thio Fredo, she was excited to hold Gianna, who slept like an angel all the time.

“Gianna’s very beautiful. I know you’re very proud of her,” the
contessa
graciously said when it was her turn to carry the child in her arms.

She couldn't help but smile every time she heard her name. She was so proud of her daughter. She decided not to change the baby’s name when she found out that Lonzo had chosen it. Actually, Mel persuaded her.

“Come on, hunbun…that would be the height of pettiness! Besides, the name suits the baby. She does look like a Gianna,” her friend insisted.

“I still intend to change her surname to mine,” she said stubbornly.

Mel threw her hands in the air when she heard this. “Honestly…I still maintain you’re being too harsh on Lonzo. You ought to give the man a chance or at least an opening. He looked really crestfallen when he left. Besides, whether you like it or not, he’s your baby daddy. “

But she made up her mind. She wouldn’t let him in her life and heart again. She was hell-bent on being a single mom

And if he filed for custody of Gianna, she would fight him to the bitter end. Yes, when push comes to shove, she could be one vindictive bitch.

Six months later

Lonzo was slumped on the living room couch of his
dimly-lit villa, drinking vodka straight from the bottle. Earlier, he had dismissed his staff, even his own security men. He wanted to be alone.

He held a printout of the report in one hand. It was the same supplementary report on Jordana that Titus Blackwell sent to him but had remained unopened in his inbox for months.

He finally got to read it after Jordana threw him out of her life.

Reading its contents made him sick to his stomach. Everything that absolved Jordana from any wrongdoing was in the report. Had he read it before following her to Rome a year ago, things would have ended differently and on a happier note.

He took another swig of vodka.

First, she wasn’t the one who sold the story to the press. It was his former lover, Natalia Agnelli…or more specifically, one of her minions. It was Natalya who paid one of the chambermaids at the hotel to make it look like Jordana was the one who sold him out.

And he, the ultimate fool bought it without question. He’d been so wrong about her.

He remembered confronting Natalya about the report and she laughed at his face.

“Hurts, does it?” she’d mocked. She relished telling him how she planned everything—that she was the one who orchestrated in getting him and Jordana drugged so they could be photographed in a compromising position. She admitted to arranging for the pictures to be printed by the tabloids.

“Now, we’re even,” she gloated.

The anger that he originally felt for the scorned woman died. Because before he met Jordana, he used women. He was a cold, calculating bastard. Now he understood what possessed Natalia to do it. He brought this upon himself.

“You’re right, Natalia...we’re even. But try it again and you’ll live to regret it,” was all he said before he turned away.

And now here he was, wallowing in shame and regret. He threw the report in disgust.