Chapter 26 #2
“I beg to differ.” Dante smiled, then ran his fingers down her bare arm.
He loosened her grip on a small Smith the other was where she entertained clients.
My escort knocked, then walked inside alone.
A second later the door flew open, and Maria appeared.
Her brown eyes, muddied by blue-colored contacts, scanned my face, then dropped to my chest and lower.
Skillfully bleached hair was pinned up, some curls spilling over her bare shoulders and onto rounded breasts, pushed into mountains of flesh by a lace corset.
“Luca,” she breathed and then she flew at me.
I braced myself for the impact and her legs rounding my waist, pressing her shoulders away as soon as she settled. “A favore, Maria.”
She released her hold and found her feet. Her grin fell, and she smoothed her hands over the boned lingerie, barely holding her assets together. “Vieni dentro.”
We stepped inside her room as the other girl snuck out, shutting the door with a soft click.
A queen bed occupied one wall; pink ruffles and all things feminine filled the mattress and every inch of the space that belonged to Maria.
The complete opposite aesthetic to the dark wood and giant California king monolith standing center stage in the other chamber. I was familiar with both.
“It’s been too long, mio amico,” she said to my back.
I stuffed my hands in my pockets and pivoted on my heel while she slid an arm through a silk robe. “How’s everything?”
Her laugh was rough. She grabbed a cigarette from a side table, lit it with the butt dangling from her pouty magenta mouth.
It bobbed in between her words. “Living my best life, you know. I like it here.” She inhaled, blew a stream of smoke, then smiled.
“I’ve got regulars who treat me good, and I’m making a living.
Even got a few dollars stashed away for retirement. ”
Two fingers pinched the cigarette, and she dropped her hand, keeping it behind her as she prowled toward me. Silk slipped from her shoulder, exposing a sharp collarbone and olive skin. She stopped before we could touch. “But you’re not here to add to my bank account.”
“I’m not.”
“A shame that. Your cock makes me come for days. Seriously, talent like yours doesn’t visit often.”
I bit back a smirk, and the fact that I buried myself inside her while thinking about another woman. The truth wouldn’t endear her to my cause or Vivienne. “And Tony?”
The light left her eyes. She clung to that cigarette as if it were a lifeline to her lips and lungs. She sucked in a long breath. Her exhale was longer. Then she regarded me through the haze. “Worth whatever my penance and your favor. You only need to ask.”
“It involves Carlos.”
Her gaze flicked to the adjoining suite, staying there during another pull on the smoke. “Are you going to kill him?”
“No,” I said, regretting it even as I retrieved a small pill from the inside pocket of my suit coat. It was a gift from Doc Straus and the only plan I had that didn’t involve a bullet. “You’re going to add this to his drink.”
“What is it?”
“Something to loosen him up.”
“And then what?”
“We’re going to have a nice conversation. Nothing for you to worry about. He won’t remember anything after you suck his dick and he passes out. In a couple of hours, he’ll wake up with a hangover and a smile.”
“That’s it?”
I stripped out of my jacket, laying it on the edge of her frilly spread. Then I rolled a sleeve to my elbow. As I worked on the other, I caught her gaze. “That’s it. After tonight, you’re paid in full.”
“Are you sure?” She stubbed out the butt and sauntered another step closer. “My end of the bargain seems paltry in comparison. Tony, six feet under, is worth a lifetime of fucks. I’ll even do all the work.”
My heart caught a strange beat, but not because of Maria. Because of a woman who was mine but couldn’t really ever belong to me. Not when her father had the right to choose her husband, and definitely because it wouldn’t be me.
“Whoa.” Maria broke through my thoughts. “I didn’t see that coming. Luca Mancini with feelings.”
A lamp in the corner lit up, saving me from a reply. The silent notification alerted us that the suite was fully occupied. Maria held up her palm, and I dropped the white pill in the center.
“He likes whisky neat,” she said almost to herself.
“It’ll dissolve before you hand him the glass.”
“Okay.” She turned and stopped at the door, bracing her hand on the knob. “I don’t think I ever thanked you properly. Grazie, Luca, for your kindness and for believing in me when no one else would. I’ll do this as my favor, but I’ll always owe you my life.”
With that, she slid through the door. Five minutes later, it opened a fraction, and it was my turn to mix with Carlos Angelini.
?
DAWN CRACKED THE horizon as the Lamborghini rolled through the front gate. Vigo was an early riser, but he had a morning routine that couldn’t be interrupted. I paced his office, staring at the Persian rug where Vivienne’s blood still splattered the intricate pattern.
“Calm the fuck down. Wearing a hole in the carpet won’t do you any favors,” Dante chided, but he was in a similar state. His bow tie had long been torn from his collar, and his hair was gripped in his fist. “It’s not enough.”
“It’s enough,” I argued with my heart in my throat and Vivi’s future in my hand. “It has to be.”
“A fucking video. You think a fucking video of Carlos on his back is going to persuade the king?”
He scoffed. I nodded.
“The words, Dante. His intent and what he would do with her. I should’ve put a bullet in his head, and with the capo’s blessing, I’ll see him on a slow, painful journey to hell.” If Vivi knew the truth, she’d change her mind and put the bullet in his brain herself.
“Who exactly will meet his maker on this day?”
Dante and I spun to find Vigo at the double doors, a knob in each hand.
He was trim, dressed in his usual tailored slacks and black button-down, and in control as he motioned in a maid who poured coffee, set out his breakfast, and the New York Times newspaper while he waited.
She bowed, leaving the three of us alone.
I stepped forward. “Carlos Angelini, with your permission, of course.”
He sat back and steepled his fingers, staring at me with a cool air of indifference. “It’s interesting that the man I endeavor to call son is on Luca Mancini’s hit list.”
“With all due respect, he’s not a good match.”
His eyes turned cold enough to burn. “For Vivienne?”
“For the Cabellos,” I lied, “my loyalty is to you, to this family, and to the safety and success of the business.”
“Continue.” He shook out the paper to read the headlines. “And make it worth my time.”
I moved forward, retrieving my cell and loading the video Dante ridiculed. After keying it up, I set the phone next to the toast.
“Piascere. Last night.” I pointed to the date and hit Play.
The room was familiar to everyone here. We’d all had the woman, so he would recognize the décor. Maria’s voice and Carlos, who was unmistakable, lying in the center of the bed with the empty whisky snifter beside his palm.
“Vigo Cabello—the weak bastard. First chance, and he’s dead.
” Carlos’s rich baritone broke through the speakers, vibrating the phone against the plate.
“He’ll pay with his own blood for the death of my father.
There is no peace, not between his family and mine.
There is my vengeance and his pain. I’ll take his daughter.
I’ll take the filthy whore and use her until she sings his secrets and begs for a bullet in her brain.
She’s a gift, a fucking reward for my men to sample and rip apart until we know how to breach his fortress and shred him limb for limb. ”
The asshole continued his rant. It was too easy.
In the military, we used sodium thiopental during interrogations.
The substance wasn’t a sanctioned drug, but when you needed quick answers, it was a go-to the med staff always had handy.
So did Doc Straus, and I knew it after we reminisced about the good old days while Vivienne was unconscious.
The king couldn’t deny the obvious, and I said it out loud to drive the point home. “Carlos is not seeking an alliance.”
Vigo picked up his mug and sipped coffee with a nonchalance that lit my blood on fire.
“What would you have me do? Mia figlia is a headache I’m tired of managing.
My tactics, albeit seen as aggressive to some—” He blinked to Dante, then back at me.
“—are a last-ditch attempt to gain her loyalty and learn what information her mother passed on to her in death. In my eyes, she’s as much of a risk as Carlos.
A risk I cannot ignore with so much at stake. ”
“She’s young and misguided,” Dante insisted. “If there was someone else.” The weight of his stare seared into my skin, willing me to speak. “Someone who could gain her trust and tie her to the business.”
“I’m not willing to endanger the rest of the family for her contempt. Today she is either an asset or she is nothing.” Vigo waved as if ordering the trash to the roadside.
Just the idea of Vivienne’s lifeless eyes, melted frost in a sea of ivory, turned my stomach.
For so long, I’d thought of her as a problem easily ignored, but I had never considered her death.
That didn’t become a possibility until that day at the mission.
The sheer panic surging through my veins when news of the shooting broke confirmed something deeper was involved—an intense hunger only satisfied by one woman.
Having her in the ways I’d dreamed of for years would ruin my plans, five years of work, and everything I’d accomplished.
Or—breaching the Cosa Nostra’s inner circle would just come from a very different vow.
I’d have what I wanted and be exactly what she already hated—a reason to stay.
And a chance to live.
“Vivienne will have her choice. Death or marriage to one of our own. Someone who is willing to manipulate her and bring me the secrets she’s hiding.” Vigo’s gaze swung to mine. “Tell me, Luca, do you know of such a man?”