12. Remember to start a file with all her exes’ info
“You look rested,” my brother remarks when he enters the gym I set up on the property. We share this space, though his little house is a few miles away from my cottage. We vowed to never be away from each other when everything came crumbling down years ago.
I meet him here every morning, but he usually never talks to me during his set.
“And you’re talking.”
“Your wife has that effect on everyone around her.”
Last night, after I brought Giulia back home, Nico and I went back to Carmichael’s home. He squealed like a pig when we blindfolded him and took him to an isolated location so I could just beat the shit out of him. A broken nose was definitely not enough. I’d have killed him, but Nico convinced me to only break bones.
He’s so responsible, you’d almost think he isn’t the enforcer but the head behind our operations. Truth is, we both are.
Carmichael might suspect me, but he won’t have any evidence, and I’m monitoring him very closely.
Nico continues his pull-ups until his skin drips with sweat. The way he ties our night of mayhem back to Giulia means she’s seeping into everyone around her. She’s a fucking siren and everyone in her orbit wants to get close. Even my brother, who barely speaks.
Where I’ve taken an “everyone dies in the end” approach to life and don’t treat much with seriousness, my brother is the total opposite. He won’t talk unless what he has to say is important, weighing his words with care. He hasn’t been in a relationship in forever, if ever, because he wants that person to matter like the rest of our family.
My brother doesn’t do casual, so the fact that he mentions Giulia is a feat in itself.
I push through my routine, running five kilometres on the treadmill before pushing through burpees, handstand pushups, and ending with weighted squats.
I’m stretching when I can’t stand his silence anymore and ask Nico what has been on the tip of my tongue for the past hour. “What did she say to you?”
Nico just shrugs. “Nothing. She’s feisty, ready to fight at every turn.”
“Don’t I know it,” I mumble.
“She isn’t used to peace, even within her own family.”
I frown at that. Nothing she said or showed would make me think that. She’s very close with her cousin Alana. She seems to be the Mary fucking Poppins of the Morettis. Her brother seems to be a complicated issue, but they did text. Only her father hasn’t piped a word about her marriage.
“You think her own family doesn’t respect her?” I ask.
“I don’t know, fratello. She settles when she knows she doesn’t have to fight.”
That catches my attention. And flames nonsensical jealousy. Nico is nothing if not observant and he’s had more chances than I did at doing so. I want to be the one noticing everything about her, but here I am, relying on my best man to do the work for me. He values family above all else. For better or worse, Giulia is family now. Whether she wants it or not, she’ll have his loyalty. And mine.
“Care to elaborate,” I curtly demand.
His lips tip up like he knows something I don’t. “You’ll see.”
I click my tongue, annoyance waking my body up even as my muscles scream for a break. “I’m asking you.”
Nico swats his towel at me while passing on his way to the shower. “Watch her and you’ll see.”
That little shit is taking too much pleasure in keeping her secrets against me. Nico rarely smiles. Only murder and mayhem will get a lift of his lips and it rarely reaches his eyes like it does now.
Giulia’s up to something.
Fucker brings my blood to a boil and I exhaust myself on the bench until he comes out of the shower, working that violent energy out of me before I do something stupid like goad my little warrior into a fight I’m not sure I’ll win.
My mind has quieted down and I broach a more important topic.
“Taylor wants us to handle the dead body case quietly.” Nico nods, already willing to do what needs to be done to keep our town clean and my name out of the mud. “Problem is that we have no lead.”
Nico remains silent, but his eyes glaze over like he’s looking into every single person he’s ever met and considering them a suspect in the span of a few seconds. I wait until he establishes eye contact with me again.
“I want Addams’s house watched. Put Marco on the case. He’s smooth and won’t raise suspicions. Have you already bugged his home and office?” I ask.
Another nod and I pull at my roots because if Nico stays silent, it means he got nothing. Addams must have another way of communicating with his people. A way even I can’t find, and that sends a chill through my spine. No one can escape me without proper backing from instances of power high above me. And in this life, there aren’t that many.
For now, no one has claimed anything regarding the murder. The police are keeping it under wrap and nothing has spilled to the media. I’m not even sure if anyone outside of Lewis, Taylor and Nico are aware.
I need to inform Giulia. If she’s jumping into something dangerous without knowing, the consequences could be catastrophic. She’s the little goddess of knowledge, Hermes reincarnate, but even as a mafia princess, I can’t blindside her by just being too prideful and not giving her all I have. She’ll work better if she has all the information, I just know it.
I find her cross-legged on the sofa with her laptop, a furrow of concentration on her brow. The single-minded focus on this woman makes me want to stay silent and just watch her work. I shake myself out of it before I become addicted to anything related to her.
“Come with me,” I demand, and walk to my office.
“I’m not your dog, O baullo!”
The insult makes me smile because it’s really cute and inefficient since she follows. I noticed she responds well to orders, even as she likes to pretend she doesn’t. A brat if I ever saw one.
I move to my desk and lift the picture of the corpse from the manilla envelope the chief of police gave me. When I hand it to her, the blood seems to leave Giulia’s body, her face paling to an unhealthy level. My lips purse and my hand moves of its own accord, rubbing her arm.
She knows the person in the picture. I tilt my head to the side and wait for her to talk. She’s visibly distressed and I’m unsure how to help her. When she looks up at me, it’s the first time since Alana’s abduction that a flash of fear appears in the green of her eyes before she masks it behind rage.
“Why do you have a picture of Xan’s corpse on your desk? Are you murdering all my exes? Oh my God, Andrea, you fucking psycho!”
“Of course not. Even though I hate the idea of anyone else touching what’s mine, sweetheart, this”—I point at the picture—“isn’t my doing.”
Her shoulders drop, and she lets out a heavy breath.
“Fuck. They were so sweet. Is this why the Chief of Police wanted to talk to you at the fundraiser?”
“Yes. Him and Lewis think that with my life of crime, it’s linked to me. They don’t know they’re your ex. I didn’t even know until five seconds ago, it’s not like I keep a record of them.” Remember to start one. “But when they do, they’ll jump to the same conclusion you just did. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they can even get evidence.”
I had the scene wiped out last night when I learned where the body had been found and my contact at the station will erase any trace if that ever happens.
“Tell me you didn’t,” she asks, frantic.
“Didn’t what?”
“Tell me you were not as stupid as to wipe a murder scene clean?”
I don’t answer because of fucking course I did.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She throws her hands up and lets them fall on her thighs with a smack. “Are you even in the mafia? It’s like rule number one or some shit.”
“Rule number one is don’t get caught, sweetheart. And relax, every fucking man at the West Hill police is on my payroll. Xan wasn’t even killed in West Hill. Their body was moved.”
“Are you fucking telling me that not only do we need to find dirt on your opponent, but also make sure he’s not putting a murder on your shoulders in order to win?”
“Seems like it.”
“Jesus, Andrea.” She shakes her head, and her annoyance is so endearing I want to kiss her again. “Let me guess: so far, you couldn’t link Addams to Xan’s death.”
I remain silent, and she starts pacing. She’s full of energy when she goes on strategy mode and watching her is like my new favourite show.
“Okay, okay. From what we know of Addams, he’s too fucking clean to actually be clean. Tell me what you got on Xan’s murder. Maybe Addams isn’t even involved.”
“Strangulation. Killed around two am in an unknown location the day of the fundraiser and dumped and found behind a shop on Mulberry Street in the financial district.”
“That’s strange. It’s where I went shopping with Nico that first day.”
My nostrils flare, and my pulse kicks up, adrenaline and rage rushing through my bloodstream. Not only is someone trying to pin a murder on me, but they’re involving my wife. Nothing else matters but making sure she’s fucking safe.
I get up and stride to her, taking her face in my hands and pressing my forehead to hers. The connection shakes me to my core. I have to close my eyes because if I look at her, I’ll lock her up in my basement like a neanderthal, and for a free spirit like her, it’d be worse than death.
“Anyone can threaten me. But when they threaten what’s mine, they’ll get a reckoning they won’t come out of alive. Doesn’t matter who. Do you understand?”
Silence greets me, and I open my eyes and straighten up to look at her.
“Do you understand?” I repeat.
“Yes.”
My eyes dip to her lips. We’re a breath away and my heart pumps faster at the perspective of my lips on hers again. I already pushed her enough last night. I want to have her again, but I want her willing. She’ll have to come to me.
I let her go and leave the room without looking back.