Chapter 14
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Finch tried to send Gio and Hudson home after the others left on their mission, but they refused. “Fine,” Finch sighed in the end. “We can all wait together to hear the news.”
Hudson had half-expected to fall asleep sitting there on the sofa in Finch’s office, but they were all too nervous. The sun had come up outside, Hudson figured, but time was still on an endless loop there in Kismet.
“Ziggy sure was convincing,” Gio said suddenly. “When he swore on the life of his daughter, I mean.”
“I believed him,” Finch offered. He was slumped in the big chair, feet up on the desk, staring at his phone as though that would make the news come faster.
“Me, too,” Hudson said. He recognized sincerity when he saw it.
“But I guess he really was swearing on her life. He knew she’d be dead if he didn’t get out of there with the money like Brady wanted him to.
” He wanted to ask what was going to happen to Brady after he took them to his accomplices and Ziggy’s daughter, but he also didn’t really want to know the answer.
“So, you two,” Finch said, flicking a finger between them where they sat on the couch, not snuggling up, but their thighs definitely pressed together. “You finally got your shit together? Gio’s been thirsty for you for months, Hudson.”
Gio made a noise that could be accurately described as spluttering. Hudson gave a delighted grin and looked at Gio. “Really?”
“Really,” Finch confirmed. “That’s why he kept asking to be rostered on as my guard. He begged to switch with Teo Vitali tonight. I told him okay, so long as he finally asked you out.”
Gio looked almost like he was blushing, his olive skin going slightly pink across the nose, but then he shrugged. “Well, yeah. ’S’true. No need to deny it. I think me and Hudson are, uh. You know.”
“You haven’t asked me out,” Hudson said boldly. “He hasn’t actually asked me out,” he said again to Finch. “Not officially.”
“Is that so?” Finch asked, giving Gio a mock glare. “I think you’d better remedy that right away.”
“Oh, my God,” Gio mumbled into his hands, but when he looked up, he couldn’t hide his smile. “Fine. Hudson Taylor, can I take you out to dinner sometime?”
“Yes,” Hudson said at once, because he knew Finch was only teasing, but he also knew that sometimes teasing could get out of hand.
“That was easy,” Finch said. “See?” His phone started to buzz, and he answered it.
Hudson leaned in to Gio while Finch was talking. “And will you come home with me after this so we can pick up where we left off in private?”
“Oh, hell yes, Blondie,” Gio said, eyes lighting up.
“It’s done,” Finch said in relief. “Ziggy’s daughter is safe.
” He said nothing about the others involved, for which Hudson was grateful.
It was the Morelli way to keep information only for those who really needed it, and Hudson really, really didn’t need to know what had happened to Brady and his idiot friends.
“They’re on the way back now. Once they’re here, you two can go on your merry way. And Happy New Year, by the way.”
“Happy New Year,” they chorused back.
“You sure you live this way?” Gio asked as the cab turned down Central Park West.
“Yeah.” Hudson smiled across at him, feeling shy again. “You still sure you want to…?”
Gio’s head rolled back against the seat. “You kidding me, Blondie? You just saved my life back there. I’m all hopped up on near-death-experience vibes.”
Hudson scoffed. “Yeah, right.”
“Yeah,” Gio said, taking his hand. “Right.” He looked sincere. “I’m serious. You gotta stop trash-talking yourself like that.”
See? Connie’s voice said smugly in Hudson’s head. I told you so.
He squeezed Gio’s fingers. “Here we are,” he said, as the cab pulled up to the curb.
Gio’s face when he looked up at the brownstone would have been worth taking a picture of, if Hudson were the type to photograph everything he saw.
Instead he took a mental snapshot, grinning at Gio when he looked back to Hudson.
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?”
“It’s not exactly my place,” Hudson admitted on the way up the front steps. “The Boss’s brother and his wife took me in after Connie. I’m looking after it now.”
Gio pulled a face. “You sure they’d want me to…” He flapped a hand. Hudson unlocked the front door and stepped inside to disarm the alarm.
“They told me to treat it like my own,” he said. “Besides, you heard what the Boss said. I’m family. So come on in.”
Hudson had a whole lot of feverish expectations about what he wanted to do to Gio once they got into bed together—not to mention what Gio might do to him—but as soon as they lay down, he passed out. Mid-kiss, even, which had never happened before, and had definitely not been in his plans.
He woke late afternoon and rose carefully off the bed, trying not to disturb Gio.
The cold winter light made him look even more beautiful lying there on the white sheets, black hair stark against the pale pillow, full lips parted slightly.
Hudson crept off to shower and resisted the temptation to rub one out while there, reminding himself that a real, live Gio Carlucci was in his bed, and seemed to be pretty into Hudson for some reason.
Because you’re smart and cute, Connie said firmly.
Under the water, his eyes stung with tears.
“I really miss you,” he mumbled into the water.
He felt it as a background pain every day.
Connie had been with him since the womb.
Even when she was off chasing mobsters in NYC, she’d never gone a day without texting Hudson, telling him to get his ass out of New Jersey and over to the City.
And then Connie was gone.
Their parents had always been assholes to both of them, but to Connie especially, so Hudson had always understood what drove her to act the way she did.
Connie had only ever wanted to be loved for who she was and protected within a family.
She thought she’d found both with the Morellis, although she’d become uncomfortably aware that not everyone in the Family was happy to have her there.
But now and then she’d text Hudson to tell him how kind Finch D’Amato had been to her, that she thought Luca was funny even when he didn’t mean to be, that she’d made friends with Celia D’Amato, that Tino had promised her he would step back from work, take her away so they could be together without the constant worries.
The night everything changed, she had texted Hudson about how much she’d enjoyed dinner with the D’Amato husbands. Hudson hoped that even in her last moments she knew that the D’Amatos had been doing their best for her.
And that Hudson had, too.
When he came back out to the bedroom, Gio was awake on the bed, staring out the window in wonder at the snowy tops of trees in Central Park.
He rolled over in bed to smile at Hudson, eyes dropping to the towel around his waist. “So what’s the bathroom like, a whole spa set up with fifteen jets and slaves to pour the water over you? ”
Hudson grinned back. “Not quite. But not far off. Why don’t you go see for yourself?”
“I will,” Gio said, rolling out of bed. “But you, you get back in that bed and don’t move till I’m back.”
After one shouted, “Holy shit!” when he walked into the attached bathroom, Gio was fast in the shower, fast enough so that Hudson didn’t have time to get nervous again.
Gio swaggered back out completely nude and gave his now-familiar smirk when Hudson’s mouth dropped open. “Okay, Blondie,” he said, crawling onto the bed. “Let’s see what you got.”