43. Bianca
Bianca
“It looks…” Marco nods his head too quickly, his smile firmly in place. “Great.”
This tiramisu is better than my last one, but not by much. The dessert sags on one side and somehow managed to be both gooey and dry at the same time. I scowl. “Why can’t you just make it by yourself again?”
Marco kisses the top of my head. “Because if I do it for you all the time, you’ll never learn.”
“Right.” Dubious, I glance at my watch. “Sergio and the others will be here soon. We should get cleaned up.”
Marco shakes his head and lifts me up onto the edge of the counter. “I should clean up. You’re still recovering.”
It’s been several weeks since all of the chaos, and Marco still treats me like I’m fragile.
Besides some fading bruises and a couple of scars from the cattle prod on my back and arms, I’m pretty much healed, though I still have headaches from the concussion Aldo gave me and I had to have a dental implant for the tooth he knocked out.
The cut over my left eyebrow needed stitches, but I think the scar that bisects my brow is more befitting of the Argento’s newest capo anyway.
I watch Marco work in silence before voicing the question that’s plagued me all morning. “What are you going to do?”
He confined me to the house while he wrapped up loose ends with the Council and Contis, but that doesn’t mean I remained idle during my recovery.
Marco had swiped a ledger from the Library, a list of all the people the Council’s lent the Desert Tech MDRX bullpup rifle to.
The name of the real assassin who tried to kill Marco must be there, so Luca and I spent time investigating and checking off potential offenders.
Most of our research led to dead ends until we discovered that one of the people on the list owns a shell corporation with a familiar name.
At first, I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it, but we did a little more digging and learned that it was the same company that often funneled money to our family for jobs. Specifically, Uncle Enzo.
That lured me down another rabbit hole full of Conti financial records, and after I lined up the deposit dates, Marco realized the payments were issued around the same time Enzo kidnapped his brother Dante.
So, the same gun responsible for Giovanni’s and Enzo’s death was also lent to the same person who hired Enzo to torture Dante. I feel like we’re just scratching the surface of a massive conspiracy. One with Zanni and the Council right in the center.
“Not much I can do.” Marco sighs, setting the broom aside.
Coming over to me, he braces his hands on the counter on both sides of my body.
“We’re trying to put together a puzzle, and we don’t even have all of the pieces.
So, for now, we keep our heads down and stay the hell out of the Council’s way until we have more to go on. ”
I huff in admiration and lean forward to drape my arms around his shoulders. “You almost sound like you know what you’re doing.” I nip at his lower lip, and with a growl of mock offense, he sweeps me off the counter, spinning me until my feet touch the floor again.
The doorbell rings, cutting through my squealing and reminding me that I’m a grown woman and grown women don’t giggle and blush like schoolgirls. Clearing my throat, I push Marco’s hands away so that I can answer the door.
Sergio is the first to arrive, with Zo showing up soon after. Genevieve knocks on the door a few minutes later, looking nervous and unsure of her welcome, but I invite her in with a smile.
Marco told me how he used her to get under my skin, and I may or may not have thrown a knife at him in response.
He admitted that Gen only agreed to his shenanigans because they were close friends before Armani’s death, and I figured it was an opportune time for Marco to make amends after thrusting her into the middle of our drama.
Argento Manor is teeming with life and noise, with one exception.
Livia should be back by now. Last month, I arranged for her to come and live with Marco and me as soon as the Council left, and she’s been thriving ever since.
She even went out for a walk tonight with several bodyguards in tow while Marco and I fooled around in the kitchen.
But that was…some time ago.
As soon as the thought occurs to me, my phone rings. I hurry from where our guests mingle to answer.
I recognize that she’s in trouble from the breathless fear in her voice. “Bianca? Bianca, oh god! Ren…that man who works for Zanni…showed up out of nowhere. He’s trying to take me. I don’t know what to do!”
Ren.
The bottom falls out of my stomach. “What does he want with you? Livia, where the hell are the men I sent you out with?”
Marco appears at my side, and the laughter of our guests in the other room dies down.
Livia’s voice pitches up, and my heart constricts in my chest. She’s running.
I can hear it in the uneven panting of her breath “It’s the Council, Bianca.
The guards had to stand down. I think…I think one of them is dead.
” She chokes on a sob, and in the background, a tire squeals and a car honks aggressively.
“Livia, I’m coming to get you. Tell me where you are.” I’m already tearing through the house, toeing on my tennis shoes with Marco on my heels. “Livia, tell me!”
“He’s following me. Ren’s right behind me! He’s—”
The line goes dead, ushering in a deafening silence.
My pulse stutters, a frantic, irregular hammering that vibrates all the way to my fingertips.
We were foolish to mistake a temporary truce for absolute peace. The quiet is gone, replaced by the suffocating certainty that the Council’s stranglehold on our family has just strengthened beyond our breaking point.
The End
To be continued…