Chapter 5: Lorenzo

"Moron?" I ask with a feeling of amusement. No one has ever dared to call me a moron, and if she's one of Cody's many hookups, then I won't be very happy about it.

Something about her screams 'Mine' without actually screaming the words out.

"She got you there," Cody says as he pats my shoulder on a chuckle.

I hadn't even introduced myself to her when she hurried out of the cafe with a fucking salute my way. Turning around, I'm face-to-face with 13 grown men laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, keep fucking laughing," I grow as I take my seat next to Dante, who only nudges me harder.

"Is she going to be a problem?" I ask Cody as everyone else falls silent.

"Who?"

"Your fucking hookup," I snap, losing the will to live right now.

"That woman that just left? Isabella?"

Isabella.

Now I know her name, I feel like it's going to be imprinted in my brain for a while.

"Yes, you moron" and when all my men burst out laughing, I realised her term for calling Me the moron and I've just referred to one of my men as one.

What. The. Fuck.

"Nah. She's no problem; she's only here for a few days, I think. Isabelle's isn't my hookup. That would be weird considering she's my cousin."

"Cousin?" I ask. Now sounding like an idiot.

"Yes. She's my cousin. She lost her mom last month and has finally started her job. She didn't get out of bed for almost 2 weeks after she passed. She uses sarcasm and humour as her coping mechanisms," he says with a sad look on his face and all of a sudden my heart beats faster.

"Please don't tell me you fancy my cousin?" Cody asks with shit-eating forming on his face. I so wish I could pull my nicely neat pocketed weapon from my holster and rearrange his face.

Wishes. Wishes.

"Fuck off," I mutter as I stand up from my seat and make my way to the door.

Walking outside, my men at a distance behind me I find her standing in one of the booths on the corner looking at handmade Jewellery. Not noticing my presence, I stand next to her and see what she's looking at. It's an ankle bracelet but it looks tiny.

Then again, she is tiny.

"It would look good on you," I say just above her head.

"Hmm" is all she gives back so I make the formal introductions instead.

"Not sorry about staring at you. But the Lorenzo. Lorenzo Moretti"

"Okay. Isabella." She says with a grin. And holy f*ck balls if she couldn't get any more beautiful.

"You've heard of me?" I ask, trying to see if she has. But her face still stays the same.

"Nope. But...I'll give you credit where credit is due."

"And that means what?"

"You may be a big man here and you may be well respected but I'm not some prize possession you can ogle at until I drop everything I'm doing to please your every whim. Cody may be you're... whatever you are and I don't care but I'm not him so... it was good meeting you... Lorenzo," she draws my name out so f*ck*ng hot that I can't wait to see the firecracker again. "But I'm off so I hope you enjoy your day," she says as she pats my chest with her tiny hands and walks away.

Make a mental note to find out everything about her.

Pulling out my phone I get some basic information before turning to my men and ordering us back to the casino's office to start a business. I'll also grab every ounce of information about Isabella that I can.

"She won't fall for your charms," Cody says as he stands next to me and checks the surroundings. I trust everything he says and I have always respected each and every one of my men but something about this woman makes me feel off.

I see the attraction to her and I feel the attraction but I haven't a clue what her story is so I speak the only things I can.

"Tell me everything about her."

But his face hardens and I see the anger and what looks like pain there which only makes me more determined to find out what I want.

"Boss. I would but I can't"

"You can or I'll just find out what you're hiding other ways" he says and he knows I mean a PI or even Dante and Farrar who are both brilliant with hacking and computers and getting information no one else can get.

"Alright. But before I tell you this I need a drink." He says with a muttered F*ck on his way to the bar.

15 minutes later, we are seated in my office with 6 of my trusted men, Dante, Luca, Cody, Roman, Elliot and Maximo when Cody starts talking.

"Isabella is of Spanish origin but what she doesn't know and what her mother ran from was her father. Her father is... Alexei Novikova" A fair few intakes of breaths can be heard but no one mutters a single word.

"He beat the sh*t out of Isabella when she was only 18 months old and her mother uprooted her to Malaga in Spain, she was sheltered in the life that was supposed to be hers but she knew nothing of it. When Andrea found out that Alexei knew of their whereabouts, she moved to Los Angeles. We all lived in Malaga but then I moved here and my mom, dad and sister stayed there while I sent money to them each month. Isabella is a proud woman and if she found out that you knew what I'm about to tell you... I'm as good as dead"

"You have my word that I won't tell her you told me"

I can tell this is paining him and I'm shocked as sh*t to realise Novikov has a daughter. A fighter who knows nothing of him.

"Izzy started college shortly after they moved here and within the first 2 years she was doing really well, she enjoyed her classes and she had a roommate who got on well with her but one of her friends...Jodi persuaded her to go to a party where Isabella was drugged and assaulted"

"How?" I ask. The feeling of anger at someone hurting her even though I know nothing of her makes me even more pissed off.

"Sexually. She filed a police report, and they took photos of her condition, markings, bruising, and the drug tests that were taken as well and the court brushed it off. The guy who did it, his father is on the board. She eventually moved out of her dorms and back in with her mother, lost most access to social media because of the abuse she got and was physically beaten by his friends in retaliation. Dean summers"

He speaks of the name with such venom I know I'll need to pay this b*st*rd a visit.

"He got away with hurting her?" I ask but my voice betrays the calm and collected way I was going for.

"He did. He eventually moved out of the college because he claimed he was a target of abuse which was bollox. But when I told you that she won't go for you boss, it wasn't because I didn't want her to or because I knew you had a taste in being with women it's because-"

"Because she's been so hurt and her trust in men is non-existent. She doesn't trust a soul" I speak over the words I knew he would say.

"Correct. I haven't a clue how she's survived all of this, but she has, which is why she uses such things to cope with. Her mother was her best friend and her rock, and to lose her, she lost some of herself that day too. She isn't broken; she has such. Feisty persona on her, but she also hates to be treated with such pity. Believe me, my balls have seen it and felt it," he says, grabbing hold of himself as if remembering the pain.

"What did you do?" I ask, trying not to smirk.

"I tried comforting her and putting her. She heeled me in the balls and gave me a black eye," he says with a grin.

"Jesus," my hand scrubs over my beard as if wanting to see her in a fighting action but not exactly wanting to be on the foot of the action. If Cody who is 6'2," has been on that end, then I don't exactly want my balls to be in her way when I'm 6'4" and bulkier than some of my men.

"She doesn't accept handouts. She moved into this absolute sh*t hole back in LA and when we tried to get her to move out of it, she simply shrugged and ignored what me and my sister had to say. "

Once we have everything under control for the casino and the gambling idiot who owed us $33,593, I head out with Isabella Moreno's number and text her.

It's past 8 o'clock, so she shouldn't be working. That's what I'm hoping for anyway.

Me: It's Lorenzo; are you busy?

After driving down the strip and standing outside her hotel room, I get her response right away.

Isabella: If I say yes, will you leave me alone?

Me: Course

Isabella: Then yes, I'm really busy.

Smirking to myself, I wait patiently until I can't hold on anymore and I knock on her door.

She opens it quite quickly but doesn't check who's there as she walks back into her room in nothing but a bathrobe.

"You always answer your door like that?"

She spins around and I'm face to face with her wet hair, no make-up, chilled-out look.