Chapter 51 Angelo
Angelo
Kane is lucky he’s still breathing. He might be my best friend, but Chiara is mine. Yes, we once made an agreement to share the women we both liked, but that was years ago, and I don’t recall the small print mentioning wives.
Specifically my wife.
From the possessive way Kane’s arm hooks around Chiara’s waist, he believes our agreement is in force. Well, it’s fucking not.
“Chiara was upset,” he says calmly. “I was comforting her.” Is she crying over Luka? He barely said a word to me as he left the house. Not that I bothered asking him why he looked like someone had pissed in his fruit loops.
After the drama back at the gala, I assumed that was the reason for his shitty mood, but now, I’m not so sure.
The sadness in Chiara’s eyes suggests something else has gone off since they left the hotel. But what?
“Why’s she upset?” I direct my question at Kane because I know I won’t get a straight answer from my wife.
“She told Luka she planned to divorce your ass ASAP and then go as far away as possible.”
Kane sounds remarkably unfazed by the revelation, but I squeeze the glass still in my hand so hard it’s a wonder it doesn’t shatter.
The amusement on the bastard’s face makes it clear he’s enjoying my reaction.
It takes a lot of effort, but I rein in my anger.
There’s nothing to be gained from blowing up again.
Anger fuels anger, and Chiara does not need an excuse to lose her shit with me. I throw her a tight smile.
“Sorry, princess, but a divorce isn’t on the cards, not even if my wife cheats on me with my brother.” If looks could kill, I’d be dead.
“And if I fuck Kane too?” Her venomous glare turns sly. There’s a brief flicker of guilt in Kane’s eyes. Have I missed something? I’ve been too busy to check all the security footage from the last few nights. Clearly that’s a mistake if Chiara’s taunt is anything to go by.
“Have you been a bad girl, darling?” The minute the words slip out, sounding way more seductive than I intended, I regret them.
Heat flares in her eyes, and she bites her lush bottom lip.
My pants suddenly feel much too tight. Fuck, I need another drink before I do or say anything else guaranteed to land me in hot water.
As much as I want to fuck some manners and submission into my wife, I will not take advantage of her while her emotions are all over the place.
“I’m always bad, Angelo. You should know that by now.”
Kane chuckles, and I have to bite back a reluctant smile.
“Go to bed, Chiara,” I snap instead, grabbing the whiskey bottle and forgoing a glass this time. The whiskey burns like fire as it slides down my throat, but it helps to numb my senses. “I need you in the office tomorrow. I have a guy looking into the transactions you flagged as problematic.”
“Who?” Kane asks, his business head back in place.
“Milo, one of Kyril Orliov’s guys.”
“Kyril Orliov? Guys?” Chiara leans forward, interested.
“Russian mafia heir. Milo is another of his wife, Thea’s, husbands. There are five of them.” My lips curls. What kind of man agrees to share his wife with four other dudes? He’s a fucking idiot. Not that I’d say that to his face.
Orliov is not a man I want to piss off. He’s agreed to let Milo help me on this in return for a favor to be called in at a future time.
I would never have agreed except I’m at my wit’s end, and I don’t want to use the guy we normally call on because it would tip off my father, who’s already on my case.
“Wow, she has more than one guy?” Chiara smirks at Kane. There’s an undercurrent there I can’t identify, like I’ve missed an important part of the conversation. “I feel like I want to meet this Thea. She sounds cool as fuck.”
“Thea Orliov is a psycho,” Kane tells her. “You’d like her. She runs a PI agency specializing in honey trapping cheating spouses.”
“Oh my god, that’s freaking awesome! Yeah, I really wanna meet this woman.”
“Never going to happen,” I snarl, not liking the way her face falls before her usual mutinous expression returns.
Aside from my sister, Chiara has no friends, which makes me feel guilty, but until she starts acting like a dutiful mafia wife, I can’t give her the freedom she craves.
It’s too dangerous, especially with someone working against us.
Until I figure out what’s going on and who’s behind it, she’s not allowed out without me or Kane at her side. And that includes trips to the spa with Fina.
Although I doubt Fina will have the time to visit a spa for a while. Our latest problems now include an avalanche of bad press stories designed to paint our family as criminals. Not exactly a lie, but all the shit being posted online is affecting our hotel brand and hitting bookings.
“Be ready to leave at eight a.m. tomorrow.” It’s late, and I’m done talking. Thankfully, Kane’s released my wife. I try not to stare as she yawns and rubs her eyes.
Her dog climbs out of the bed I spent a small fortune on and trots over. She sniffs my pants leg and gives me a look that promises pain if I hurt her mistress.
Chiara sighs. “Coco, come and pee.” The dog trots after her as she leaves the kitchen, no doubt heading for the back terrace where her rat will pee all over my expensive plants and incur the wrath of the landscaping guy I pay to maintain the gardens.
“I better not find anything of interest when I review the security footage,” I growl at my friend once Chiara is out of earshot.
“You won’t,” he replies with a smirk, which tells me he’s already deleted whatever the cameras picked up. Then his smile fades. “We need to talk about Luka.”
I huff out an irritated sigh, not in the mood to deal with more shit. “Why? What’s he fucking done now?”
By the time Kane’s finishing telling me Luka’s story, I’m incandescent with rage and ready to murder the bitch who assaulted him as a teen. He was an adult by the time we realized he existed, but it was clear from the beginning he’d not had a happy childhood.
Thanks to my father cutting Luka’s mother off without a penny the moment she got clingy, but mercifully before he found out she was pregnant and he could do something about it, Luka grew up in poverty.
He’s made a decent life for himself now. He also has a significant allowance after Fina and I lobbied our father to guilt him into compensating Luka for not financially supporting him growing up.
But being raised by a depressed, poverty-stricken mother meant he was easy prey for a predator like the bitch who put her filthy hands on him.
“Do we have a full name?”
“No, but I can figure it out from the information I have,” Kane confirms.
“Good. Get her name and address, and I’ll take it from there.” I bet Luka isn’t the only kid that woman preyed on.
“Will do.” Kane picks up his keys and moves to leave.
“Oh, Kane?” He turns, eyebrows raised. “Yeah?”
“Keep your fucking hands off my wife.”
My best friend bares his teeth as he looks me straight in the eye.
“No.”
I sit at my desk seething. Kane made it clear last night he considered Chiara part of the deal we made years ago, when we were still young and dumb. I still remember that day with sparkling clarity.
Kane’s three years older than me, so by rights we shouldn’t have even been at the same frat party, but by then he’d begun working for my father.
Dad had sent him to the party with pills to sell, but mostly it was to keep tabs on the son of a rival, an idiot called Liam. Dad needed blackmail material and didn’t trust me to get the job done.
I remember walking into the kitchen in search of another drink, only to find my friend with his hand up my girlfriend’s skirt. I’d seen red. We ended up having a massive fight over her while Liam Finlay overdosed on MDMA in an upstairs bedroom.
Once I’d sobered up and the police had left, we talked and agreed that if we liked the same girl, we’d share. Not Becca, as I dumped her that same evening, but the next time I met a girl we both wanted, we didn’t fight about it.
But that was then. I have no intention of honoring the agreement now. Chiara is my wife, for better or worse. I don’t share my wife. Not when she’s the woman I’ve obsessed over for years.
The pen in my hand breaks in half, spilling ink everywhere as Cecelia comes rushing into my office.
“Federal agents are here!”
My mind races, but I force my expression to stay calm. I can’t afford to drop the ball.
“Do they have a warrant?”
“Yes.” Fuck. I wonder which asshole judge signed off on that. Clearly not Judge Peckham, as he’s on our payroll. It’s most likely Judge Callahan. The bastard hates my father and would love to see our family go down in flames.
“Stall them while I call our lawyer.” It’s about time Martin Rosen earned his fucking retainer.
Cecelia scurries off as I hit call on Martin’s personal cell.
“Martin,” I bark. From the sound of traffic, he’s on the move. “Get your expensive ass over here right the fuck now. The feds have shown up with a warrant.”
There’s a muffled curse. “I’m on my way. Don’t say a word.” I roll my eyes. How dumb does he think I am?
The line goes dead as a federal agent wearing a dark gray suit strolls into my office with a smug smile that says he thinks he has me by the balls.
“Agent Lincoln.” The man’s a snake. He’s been after our family for years, but there’s never been enough evidence of wrongdoing. “Care to explain why you’re upsetting my staff and ruining my day?”
“I’d love to.” He sits in the chair opposite my desk and relaxes, like he’s here for afternoon tea. “A little bird told us there are some irregularities in your accounts.”
“Vindictive gossip is not enough for a search warrant, so if this is a fishing exercise, you can get the fuck out.”
“No, it isn’t enough, but the evidence provided by my informant is enough to establish probable cause, so Judge Callahan was happy to sign the warrant.” I’d love to know who this so-called informant is, and how he got his hands on our financial records.
Unease trickles through my veins when I realize who’s had access to our accounts lately.
Was I foolish to trust Chiara?
While the authorities can’t compel her to testify against me, she could choose to work with the feds to bring me and my family down. But if she did, it wouldn’t only be me and my father in the firing line. Fina would be at risk, as would Luka.
If Chiara has betrayed us, I’ll have no choice but to end her.
Even if that means killing the woman I love.