13. Old Friends
13
OLD FRIENDS
TYLER
After picking up my kids from their family’s house, I took them home, and was just about to get Evan settled in his bedroom with his favorite show on his TV. However, the minute we walked into the house, he was magically fine. He and Jackson high-fived and Naya giggled behind my back, but I saw their reflections in the breakfast nook mirror.
They explained that their aunt’s house was boring. Evan took one for the team, playing sick so they could leave early. I was secretly a little impressed. At the same time, I wasn’t happy they were manipulating their aunt and uncle. Then again, who was I to judge? My entire family was full of manipulation.
Jenna stopped by to drop something off just as Ian called me to come to the warehouse for a meeting. She offered to take the kids with her, feed them lunch, let them swim, then take them up to work in the evening. Reluctantly, I agreed. I hadn’t seen them in a couple of days and missed them. I promised we’d order pizza and watch a movie tomorrow night which didn’t faze them in the slightest. They loved going anywhere with my sister.
When I got to the warehouses, Ian told me to come into Hofstein. It was where he’d had some men preparing it for the fight that would finally happen. We’d not touched the Fitzgerald Warehouse next door since Luke annihilated Dante Mascoli.
The Rovati brothers were present with a strange girl I’d never seen before. She was quiet, leaning on the side of the square, boxing ring and picking her nails. Her long, dark brown hair obscured her face. She didn’t so much as look up at me when I entered. Nico and Ice Man were leaning against one of the walls near the newly installed bathrooms, chatting amongst themselves. And Ian, was waiting for me with a scowl on his face, commenting about how long it took me to arrive.
We waited and waited. Finally, Luke showed up. He rounded the corner into the main room with Giovanna at his side. I wasn’t expecting her and did my best not to react. We weren’t in the presence of just the family, and whatever reason we were here, it was business.
She looked adorably sweet and innocent in her dark denim, cut off shorts, white lace tank top, and white work boots. I wanted to drag her into the office by her bright, loose Dutch braids, bend her over Ian’s desk, and fuck her pussy raw. She was irresistible, and I craved her. I got ready to greet her with a curt nod and hello, but she homed in on the girl, her eyes swelling.
“YOU FUCKING CUNT!” she screamed, charging at the girl before Luke could grab her.
“What the fuck?!” Ian barked just as the girl drew her fists up.
“Oh shit,” the girl replied when Giovanna dove at her, striking her twice before Luke and Luca Rovati could pull them apart. She got in a swing, jabbing Giovanna in the jaw. She stumbled back, clutching her face, as the girl snarled back at her.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Ian spat, trying to make sense of it.
The Rovati brothers exchanged confused glances, their eyebrows furrowing in concern as they surrounded the girl in protection mode. I wanted to do the same to Giovanna, but I didn’t want to make Ian mad after last night. She glimpsed me in anger, though it didn’t appear directed at me.
“Gia,” Ian repeated calmly, “what the fuck is going on?”
Cupping her jaw from the blow, her face contorted into fury again before she addressed Ian directly. “She hurt Luca.”
“She didn’t hurt me,” Luca replied.
Giovanna flickered her gaze. “Not you, my brother, Luca.”
“Oh.” He crossed his arms.
“What’d she do?” Emilio asked before anyone else could speak.
Giovanna glared at him, which surprised me, considering he was known for his temper when anyone so much as looked at him wrong. She might not have wanted to disappoint my family, but she didn’t have an ounce of fear inside her.
“Luke,” Ian offered a nod at him, “let her go.” He shifted his gaze to her. “Stand down, am I clear?”
Giovanna replied with a nod as he turned to the brothers. “Let Nadia go, and you better not touch Gia,” he warned her.
They withdrew from her, and she rolled her eyes, popping her hip with her hand on it. “Whatever.”
Giovanni, looming tall and broad over the girl, scowled down at her. He laid a hand on her shoulder, leaning forward close to her ear. “What did we discuss on the way? Save it for the ring.”
“Wait,” I said, lifting a hand, unaware of what was going on. “What do you mean?” Taking a step closer to Giovanna, I was ready to protect her from any harm about to come her way. No one told me anything about the girls fighting.
“He means that we should keep our personal issues out of the warehouse,” the girl named Nadia sneered at me in pure mockery, “and focus on the fight.”
Fucking bitch . I opened my mouth to speak, but Giovanna spat at her, “Don’t you dare speak to him!”
Proud of her sudden possessiveness, I did my best to stifle a smile and remind myself that we were in a hostile situation. Still, I wanted to throw her over my shoulder and leave the room.
She glanced at me and then Luke before settling her gaze on Ian. “Mr. Knight, with all due respect, what the fuck is Nadia doing here?”
Frustrated, Ian sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. “Well, I had no idea you and her had any bad blood between you. The point of today was to come together with our friends and discuss a way to take back control of the families and restore peace.” He furrowed his brow. “Since we’ve now got an issue with the Russians too.”
She looked up at me before fisting her hands on her hips, her lips balling tightly in irritation.
“I got a call that the Russians are planning something to still try to get you to go back with them, and a couple of stray Mussolini’s popped up again, so it was my intention,” he pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and inhaling through his words, “that you and Nadia stage a fight. I don’t think the Mussolini’s will be a threat after everything but I’m not taking chances right now.”
Giovanna glared at Nadia, her jaw tightening. “Staging won’t be necessary. I’m going to fucking kill this bitch the minute I’m turned loose on her skanky ass.”
“You’re one to talk, whor?—”
“Enough!” Ian roared before bringing his voice back to a normal level. “I don’t know the extent of what happened, and I don’t give a shit, but I need us to all be peaceful for the time being.” Trust , he mouthed at Giovanna.
She bobbed her head. “Okay. I guess I can work together on this.”
“God,” Nadia snorted, “you’ve gone soft.”
Giovanna charged her, but Nadia drew her fist back, bringing it across her cheek. Giovanna struck her twice in a row then swept her leg out, pulling Nadia’s feet out from under her. She fell, cracking her head on the cement. Giovanna put the bottom of her boot on Nadia’s cheek.
“Gia,” I muttered, and she snapped her gaze to mine. I didn’t think for a second she’d back off, but I knew Ian’s limits, and any second now, he was going to lose his shit.
She glared down at Nadia, reluctantly removing her shoe. “Don’t forget who my family is or what I’m capable of, and we won’t have another problem.”
Nadia licked the blood on the corner of her lip, staring up at her with a sneer.
“Nadia,” Giovanni growled, “are we going to have a problem getting along?”
Giovanna scoffed. “We don’t have to get along to accomplish whatever this is.” She took a step back, folding her arms in front of her as she met his gaze. “We just have to get through this without killing each other.”
“I never wanted to kill you!” Nadia spat. “I loved your br?—”
“Fuck y?—”
“Shut up! For fuck’s sake, SHUT UP!” Ian dropped the cigarette to the floor and twisted his shoe on it. “Neither one of you speak again until you’re told to. You’re both going to do as I say and you’re not going to do anything else because any small fuck up could cost both our families everything.” He pointed back and forth between the Rovati’s and us. Glimpsing me, he pressed his lips into a thin line before he continued; a great hint I wouldn’t like what he said. “We need to hype the fight between you two among the communities, not the public. I’m going to involve some of our allies, as is Gio. We’re going to have them bring in fighters of all kinds to draw in the crowd. Chance is getting some of his friends together too.”
Taking out a cigarette from the pack in his inside jacket pocket, he lit another. I did the same. I was waiting for the one thing that would set me off.
He glimpsed me once again before he delivered the blow that would cause me to snap. “My main fight will be with Gia and one of the Russian guys.”
Mouth agape, I immediately dropped my cigarette in shock. “The fuck it is!” I snapped before I could stop myself.
Brows raised, Ian jerked his head back, staring at me. “Excuse me?”
“Gia’s not fighting a dude. Fuck that shit! Let her beat the last breath out of this girl right here?—”
“Hey!” Nadia gasped.
“—but there’s no way in hell she’s fighting a guy!”
Ian took several wide strides toward me, coming to a stop in front of me. “You’re not the fucking boss. She will do as I say.” He clenched his jaw. “And so will you.”
Standing taller, I gnawed the inside of my cheek, glaring deep into his hateful eyes. “You’re my brother-in-law before anything else and I won’t allow her to?—”
“ Allow me?!” Giovanna finally snapped and we turned toward her, a small smirk on Ian’s lips. “You have zero power over me, Tyler. If he wants me to fight a fucking grizzly bear, I’m going to do it. I trust him and his reasoning for whatever this is. I’m not fucking scared. I’m not a fucking helpless little girl. I’ll do whatever it takes to save your family from whatever is coming.”
Still amused, Ian twisted back to me. “You heard her.”
“You did that on purpose,” I hissed. “You wanted me to push her.”
He winked. “Like I said, you’re not the boss.”
“Or the asshole you’ve turned in to,” I muttered so only he could hear me.
He did a double take at me with an almost painful expression before he shifted his attention back to the girls. “I don’t care if you girls get along or not, but you will practice day and night to choreograph the perfect fight. For this to work, I need Gia to win and advance to the final fight.”
Nadia rolled her eyes. “Okay.”
Giovanna nodded proudly, then glared at me.
“I’ll go over the business side of it all with the guys,” Ian continued, “but all you girls need to worry about is neither of you getting seriously hurt. I only need there to be a little blood from both of you to make this believable.”
They exchanged a mutual, satisfied glance, both appearing to be somewhat happy to hurt one another. I shot a displeased look at Luke, but he subtly shook his head.
“Ty,” Ian said from the Luxe office doorway.
I lifted my eyes but didn’t verbally respond. Sighing, he entered the office, closing the door behind him. He plopped down on the chair in front of the desk, crossing his ankle over his knee. Restlessly, he waited while I finished fanning through a contract to make sure all signatures were accounted for.
“Are you going to talk?” I asked as I stopped scanning the last page and set it aside.
“I was trying to be respectful and let you finish.”
I snorted, tossing the ink pen in the middle of the desk, then folded my arms on the surface. “ Now you want to respect me?”
“I had to do what I had to do.”
“You’re going to get her killed, Ian.”
He shook his head. “You know me better than that. I know she’s tougher than you’re giving her credit for.”
“I don’t give a shit!” I spat. “Would you let Jenna fight?”
He bobbed his head back and forth with a playful frown. “No, but Jenna’s not trained like Gia is.”
“Just because Gia’s trained in whatever martial arts doesn’t mean you can just use her for your own business dealings like that.”
“Will you hear me out as to why?”
Wow . Ian never asked for permission to do anything. He just did it. And those around him accepted it. In the last couple of years, he’d become severely impatient and controlling about everything business related, even when it involved the family. Those we loved and cared about had been used as bait. Now he wanted to involve Giovanna.
In the end, he was my brother, and I’d always have his back, whether I understood his reason or not. I dipped my head. He leaned forward, taking my pack of cigarettes and the lighter off the desk and lit one then tossed the lighter toward me. I caught it then lit one of my own as he slouched back in the chair more casually than when he was in proper business mode.
He inhaled a deep drag, blowing the smooth, grey cloud toward the ceiling. “She can fight. I have faith in her.”
“Which is whyyy?”
“Which is why,” he nodded, “I plan to make a deal with Ekaterina. She can’t resist a bet. Her entire family’s obsessed with gambling. Giovanna wins,” he said, taking another puff of the cigarette, “she stays here.”
Jaw clenched, I crossed my arms. “And if she loses?”
He stood, tapping two fingers on the desk. “Let’s hope she wins.”
I knew she was tough, but I wasn’t willing to gamble on her life like that. She hated it there. They controlled her, and he was playing a dangerous game of roulette with her life. My intention was to keep things only physical with her to protect her, but there was no point now. She was in the crossfire either way. Maybe giving us a chance wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he interjected my thoughts.
Flickering my gaze toward him, I realized I’d been staring through him. Lifting the cigarette to my lips, I breathed it in. “I doubt that.”
“You’re weighing the option of just making shit official with you guys and?—”
Three knocks at the door interrupted him. Narrowing my gaze on his, I snuffed my cigarette out in the ashtray on the desk.
“Come in!” he called back over his shoulder with a knowing grin.
The door pushed open, and Giovanna poked her head in. Ignoring me, she made eye contact with him. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“It’s okay,” Ian replied, a sly smile still painted on his lips. “Can we speak privately later?”
“Sure,” she beamed. “Am I okay to dump my things in here before I go to the rooms?”
Ian nodded and she stepped in.
“The rooms? Um, we had an agreem?—”
“Yes. Tyler, the rooms.” Her pleasantries faded as she dropped her belongings on a black accent table against the wall, then turned toward the door.
“Gia.” I scowled.
She whirled around. “Oh, did you have a problem with that too? Am I not allowed to show my tits and cunt to paying customers anymore either?”
“On that note,” Ian glanced back and forth between us, “I’m going to leave you guys to work out whatever this shit is, and we’ll catch up in a bit.”
Both of us ignored him while we glared at one another. I didn’t understand what her problem was. Maybe she was upset with me after the warehouse because I didn’t text her or pick her up for work.
Ian let himself out quietly, shutting the door. Giovanna nibbled the inside of her bottom lip. Pushing back from the desk, I rounded it, coming to a stop in front of her. Fists clenched at my sides, I stared deep into her eyes. We had an agreement. She knew the rules we’d set in place. Why didn’t she care? I thought she’d be the first to speak, to explain her little fucking attitude, but she didn’t bother.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I finally asked.
“The better question is,” she countered, “when the fuck did you think you claimed ownership over me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“At the warehouse?”
Confused, I tilted my head, and my brow creased.
“God,” she huffed, “you weren’t allowing me to fight the Russian dude.”
My eyes widened at the realization. “You’re mad about me wanting to protect you?”
“No!” she snapped. “I’m upset that you spoke up for me. I don’t need anyone to protect me. I spent my entire life having my father and his men try to control everything before Kat did.”
“I—”
“I’m not done!” she spat. “When Luca was sixteen, my dad paid him a thousand dollars to beat the shit out of a fourteen-year-old boy who yanked my hair in the hallway at school. I made the mistake of telling my fam about it. That boy never came back to school.”
I sighed.
“When I was in high school, my dad had two bodyguards come with me to school. Two! Do you know how embarrassing it is to have men in black suits following you around everywhere like you’re the president’s daughter? I felt like I couldn’t breathe.” Her eyes appeared to be watering, but I knew her well enough to know she wasn’t about to cry. “I know my dad loved me, and that was his way of showing it. But I can handle myself. I don’t need you to protect me, and I definitely can’t be suffocated by you too.”
“Gia,” it was all I could utter. I didn’t mean to act like her father. I cared. Fuck . She was searching my eyes for an apology, but I couldn’t. “I won’t apologize for caring about your well-being. I’ll always protect you and you have to be okay with it even if we’re not a couple, but I’ve been thinking about things, and I want to give?—”
She let out a breathless laugh, but she was anything but happy. “Well, until you learn to respect my need to live my own life, I don’t want any part of whatever we had. I can’t do this any longer. You might be amazing in every damn way, but no man’s dick will ever have a hold on me again.”
“Again?! Whose dick had a hold on you?” Though it wasn’t the time, I felt a pang of jealousy that another man’s cock had a grasp on her and mine didn’t. As if she could read my mind, she sneered.
“Fuck off, Tyler.” She grabbed her belongings and stormed toward the door.
“Where are you going?”
She whirled around. “I’m still a professional, and Luke is still my boss. I’ll be in Euphoria tonight. I want nothing to do with Luxe tonight. I’m sure Victoria will be thrilled your dick is back on the market.”
Stepping out, she shut the door behind her, leaving me standing there stunned. I had no idea I’d strike a nerve that hard. It was the last thing I wanted. Damnit . I took a step to go after her.
KNOCK. KNOCK.
Running my fingers through my hair, I checked my appearance in the wall mirror before answering. “Yeah? Come in.”
The door pushed open, and Roxy stuck her head in. “Leo needs you in the… bar.” She took a step in. “Are you okay? You look like someone just?—”
“I’m great,” I rumbled as I marched by her toward the bar.