Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
~NADIA~
I ’m fucking tired.
It’s late. Carmine and I left New York before the sun came up this morning, and we’ve been working hard all day.
Carmine’s still at the office with his brothers, but I bailed. I need to sleep. I have to get my mind off drugs and death for a few hours.
I need a break.
I fill the tub in the master bathroom of the beautiful Airbnb Carmine rented and add some bath salts to the water. Before I can strip down and sink in, my phone rings.
Why would Alex be calling me this late?
It’s midnight in Atlanta.
“Is Papa okay?” I ask in way of greeting.
“As far as I know,” he says. “Can’t a guy just call his sister to check in?”
“Not usually. No.” I lean my butt on the counter and stare at the water in the tub, wondering what he wants. “What’s up?”
“I’m wondering how you’re doing. Found anything yet?”
“Not really. We’re back in Denver.”
“Yes, I heard.”
My eyes narrow. “How?”
“We have eyes everywhere, Nadia. You know that. You’re still with Carmine.”
“Yes.”
“Are you still fucking him?”
I don’t even know this man anymore. When we were kids, we were close. I adored him. But the older he got, the colder he became.
“You realize you basically just called me a whore?”
“Answer the question, Nadia.”
“No, Alexander. I won’t. Because I’m a grown woman, on a job given to me by the boss, who doesn’t happen to be you. ”
“You’re such a bitch. Just tell me what’s going on there. Keep me in the damn loop. I can’t help if I don’t know what’s happening.”
“I don’t want or need any help from you,” I counter. “I never have before, and I definitely don’t need you now. Just keep your nose and your fingers out of this.”
“Nadia—”
I hang up before he can say more.
The water has grown cold, so I drain it and think about starting over. But I’m too tired, and I’ve lost interest.
Instead, I start the shower and get in, quickly washing the day away, and then step into leggings and a sweatshirt.
I stop by the kitchen and pour a glass of Cabernet, then scoop up my laptop and walk into the living room.
The sofa faces a wall of windows. It’s dark now, but during the day, you can see the mountains to the west.
Carmine has a thing for beautiful views.
I’ve just opened the laptop and started going through some unanswered emails when Carmine walks through the front door, also looking tired.
But my eyes zero in on the box in his right hand.
“Is that what I think it is?”
He sets the container on the kitchen island, tosses his keys next to it, and glances at me. “I thought you’d enjoy some donuts for breakfast.”
“I’d enjoy some donuts now .”
I laugh and launch off the sofa with renewed energy at the promise of sugar but stop short when I get a good look at Carmine.
“What’s wrong?”
He shakes his head and walks to the fridge, pulls out a bottle of beer I didn’t know we had, and takes a long pull from the bottle.
“Did something else happen?”
“No.” He swallows another sip and then sits on one of the stools. “It really shouldn’t be this hard. I feel like I’m on another wild goose chase, just missing the mark by an inch. It’s damn frustrating.”
“I know. But we’ll figure it out. People are loyal, but I’ve also found that they like to run their mouths. Someone will fuck up and say something they shouldn’t, and we’ll find them.”
“It’s odd for a family to target another and not be bold about it. To stand up and say, ‘ Yeah, motherfucker, I did this. And I’ll do it again.’ ”
“The mafia has arrogance down to a science,” I agree with a laugh.
“Well, they’re not copping to anything now.”
I open the box and immediately salivate at the sight of a maple bar. I grab for it like a kid starved to within an inch of her life.
“These are my favorite donuts in the city.” I wander over and sit on the couch, chewing happily. “Oh, by the way, we’re having dinner at Annika and Rich’s place tomorrow.”
“We are?” he asks.
“Yep. She called earlier. Your brothers are also invited.”
He nods and then wanders to me, leaning in to take a bite of my donut.
“Hey, get your own.”
“No.” He takes my hand, pulls me to my feet, and leads me to the bedroom. “Now, I want to taste you. You’re much more delicious than any donut.”
“Lead the way.”
Annika and Rich’s home in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver is beautiful. It’s an upscale area that professional sports players, celebrities, and the wealthy in general call home.
And I can see why. In addition to a nice golf course with a country club, there is excellent shopping, restaurants, and bars. If I lived in Denver, this is where I’d buy a house.
“Hi, you guys,” Annika says with a wide smile as she opens the front door and gestures for us to come inside. “I’m so excited to see you all.”
“You’re gorgeous,” I say as I lean in to kiss my cousin’s cheek. But when I pull back, I can see the tension around her gorgeous blue eyes. I narrow mine, but she shakes her head quickly, sending me a silent message that now isn’t the time for that conversation.
She greets Carmine and Shane, and when she reaches Rafe, she pauses. “Hi, Rafe.”
“Annika.” He kisses her cheek, as well, but the look he gives her is anything but friendly.
It’s intimate.
How did I miss that ?
“Come on in, everyone. Dinner’s almost ready. Ivie’s checking on it right now.”
“Ivie’s here?” Shane asks, his interests piqued.
“I thought it would be fun if she joined,” Annika replies as we all take seats around the large living room. The house is traditional, all of the rooms separate—no open-concept here.
But it’s beautifully decorated, and I know that Annika invested a lot of time making this house a home for Richard and her.
“Where’s your husband?” I ask, but before she can answer, the man does.
“Sorry, everyone,” Rich says as he hurries into the room from the back patio. “I had to take a call.”
Rich is tall, slender, and utterly boring.
I don’t know what Annika sees in him. Sure, he’s smart and comes from a good family, but he’s as dry as a corpse that’s been left out in the sun for a year.
I bet he only likes to fuck in the dark, under the covers, after a shower.
I wrinkle my nose at the thought and then smile when Rich turns his attention on me.
“Hello, Nadia.”
“Hi, Rich. Thanks for having us over for dinner.”
“Oh, it’s our pleasure. Annika should get to see her family from time to time.”
What the hell does that mean?
Before I can ask him, Ivie comes bustling out of the kitchen and almost falls on her face.
Poor Ivie. She’s such a klutz.
“Whoa,” she says with a laugh.
“Easy there.” Shane immediately jumps up to help her. He takes her hand, kisses it, and leads her over to the sofa.
“Oh, thanks. I’m good. Just clumsy. Annika and I decided to make lasagna with garlic bread and salad. It’s just about done.”
I notice Carmine and Rafe share a look.
There is so much happening here, all unspoken, and all I can do is watch in fascination. There’s trouble in paradise with my cousin and her husband. Shane wants to get into Ivie’s pants. And Rafe and Carmine clearly find it all comical.
This is the best entertainment I’ve had in years.
“I’m starved,” Annika says with a grin. “Let’s eat.”
“Not too much pasta for you, darling,” Rich says as he pats her shoulder. “Why don’t you stick with the salad?”
“Why don’t you let your wife eat whatever the fuck she wants since she’s a grown woman and everything?” I turn to Rich with a toothy, humorless smile.
It’s not returned.
And I give zero fucks.
He simply sits at the table, and we start passing around dishes, filling our plates as Annika pours the wine.
When she reaches Rafe’s glass, he shakes his head, and she moves on to the next.
But the glare Rafe aims at Rich would make most men piss their pants.
“How are things at the clinic?” I ask Ivie.
“Great,” she says with a nod. “We’re busier than ever right now.”
“What kind of clinic do you run?” Carmine asks.
“We have a medi-spa,” she replies easily. “We offer services from simple facials to botox to reconstructive surgery.”
“Plastic surgery?” Shane says.
“Sort of, yes,” Ivie says.
“There’s a lot of botox happening in this city,” Annika says with a wink. “And thank goodness.”
“I was thinking of coming in to see you,” I say, pointing to the crows’ feet around my eyes. “I have a few lines I’d like to take care of.”
“You don’t have wrinkles,” Carmine says, staring down at me in surprise.
“Yeah, I do.”
“I can fix you right up,” Annika assures me. “And I’d love to spend some time with you.”
“Can you fit her into your already busy schedule?” Rich asks, his voice hard.
What the fuck is up with him?
“I always have time for Nadia,” she replies. Her voice is just as hard as her husband’s. Rich’s jaw clenches.
Yeah, I’d say the honeymoon is over there.
And I definitely need to talk to her. Soon. Find out what in the hell is going on. Annika has always been my best friend. My confidante. Sure, I’ve been busy since the wedding, but that’s no excuse.
Whatever she’s going through, she won’t face it alone.
“Oh, my God, this is so good.” I bite into a piece of hot, crusty bread. “Seriously, A, you’re an amazing cook.”
“Ivie and I did it together,” she says with a smile and gazes longingly at the bread. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Here, try it.” I pass her the basket, and she shrugs, takes a piece, and then passes it back.
Rich isn’t happy. The dick. And that only makes me want to offer her another chunk.
I despise men who try to control their wives like this.
Carmine and Rafe chat about stocks, and I tune them out because it’s all Greek to me.
Shane flirts shamelessly with Ivie, making her blush like crazy, which I think is absolutely adorable. Ivie’s shy, a little clumsy—or a lot, depending on the day—and while she’s pretty, no one would call her a beauty queen. She’s the perfect epitome of the girl next door.
But she’s smart and funny, loyal, and also one of my best friends.
I turn my attention to Rich, who’s shoveling food into his mouth and doing his best to ignore his wife, who I see is drinking wine like a fish.
And Annika doesn’t drink.
I’m going to get to the bottom of this.
“I’m going to put more bread in the oven,” she says and stands from the table, pushing her way through the swinging door to the kitchen.
“I’ll go see if she needs help,” Rafe says and follows her.
Rich just rolls his eyes.
“I need to use the restroom. Is it just around the corner there, Rich?”
He nods and points to the hallway on the other side of the kitchen. There’s another entrance to the kitchen on that side, so I stop and lean against the wall, just out of sight, listening to the conversation happening within.
“I’ve got this,” Annika says.
“I can help. Jesus, A, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I can picture the fake smile on her beautiful face. “Everything’s great.”
“Bullshit.” Rafe lowers his voice now. “You look miserable.”
“I—” There’s no sound for a moment. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
“You never should have married that asshole,” Rafe says. “You know it should have been me.”
“And your father said no,” she reminds him, and I stumble back in surprise. Annika wanted to marry Rafe Martinelli? Why would Carlo say no? Our families aren’t enemies.
“Yeah, well, your uncle didn’t like the idea, either.”
Papa knew?
I scowl.
Why am I always the last to know about this stuff? And why didn’t Annika confide in me?
I know it’s not all about me, but it hurts my stupid feelings.
“Let’s get this out to the table.”
“Annika.”
“Rafe, I can’t do this. I’m a married woman whether I like it or not.”
“And I’d say that you don’t like it very much right now.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, yes, it does.”
“I’m not talking about this anymore.”
I walk around the corner in time to see Annika and Rafe coming out the other door, Rafe carrying the bread for the table.
I look at Rich. He doesn’t even raise his eyes from his plate.
I feel like I’ve just entered an alternate universe.
“Shane got Ivie’s number tonight,” I inform Carmine as he unlocks the door of the Airbnb.
“I saw,” he says and shakes his head. “I don’t get it.”
“Get what?”
“Nothing.”
“No, you started it. What, exactly, don’t you get?”
“Look, if I answer you, I’m going to sound like a huge asshole.”
I cross my arms over my chest, raise a brow, and wait.
Carmine sighs painfully, pushes his hand through his hair, and then shrugs. “Okay. I like her. She seems like a nice woman.”
“But?”
“But she’s just not Shane’s type.”
“And what type is that, exactly?”
“You know…”—he gestures to me, waving his hand up and down—“he usually goes for the supermodel types.”
“You do realize that even supermodels don’t look like that in real life, right?”
“You do,” he says without even thinking twice, and I have to blink at him.
Then I laugh.
“No, I don’t. I think you’re a little biased. Which is sweet. Ivie’s awesome. She’s funny and smart. And, yes, she’s pretty. Shane isn’t good enough for her. ”
“I told you I’d sound like a jackass.”
“Sometimes the person we fall in love with isn’t what we expect.”
“He’s not in love with her.”
“Not yet.” I kick off my shoes and walk over to the freezer, grabbing a tub of ice cream. “Something else happened tonight.”
“What’s that?”
“Did you see how unhappy Annika looked?”
“I saw that she and Rich are most likely fighting,” he says. “It doesn’t take a professional to see that. He’s a douche.”
“He didn’t used to be.” I shove a spoonful of Chunky Monkey into my mouth. “When they were dating, he was sweet. Laid-back. Even a little bit beta.”
“ Beta ? What the hell does that mean?”
“You know, not alpha. Not in your face, or the one to put his foot down about things.”
“So…soft.”
“A little.”
“I’m no beta.”
I laugh again and wipe ice cream off my chin. “No, you’re alpha all the way. I don’t like that things seem to be changing for her so soon after their wedding. She looked sad and scared. ”
“Do you think he hurts her?”
Carmine’s eyes darken. I know this is a sore spot for him.
And it’s something I respect.
“I don’t know.” It’s an honest answer. “But you can bet that I’m going to ask her. I didn’t like that he told her what she could and couldn’t eat.”
“I caught that,” Carmine says. “And he didn’t like your response.”
“How many fucks do you think I give about that?”
“Less than none.”
“You’d be right. Oh, and there was something else.”
He opens his mouth for a bite of my ice cream.
“I listened in on a conversation between Annika and Rafe in the kitchen.”
“Busy little thing, weren’t you?”
I ignore that and keep talking. “Did you know that your brother and Annika had a thing going? That they wanted to marry, but our fathers wouldn’t allow it?”
Carmine’s face blanks in surprise, and then he blinks rapidly.
“No fucking way.”
“I heard it with my own two ears.”
“He would have told me.”
“And I would have said that she would have told me . But here we are, neither of us in the loop, and I know what I heard in that kitchen. He said that it should have been him. And she reminded him that your father said no.”
Carmine swears under his breath. “Jesus. Why didn’t he say something?”
“I think it’s time I catch up with Annika for lunch. Just us girls. We have a lot of talking to do.”