CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE #2
My knee-jerk reaction was to tell her I’d have to find a way to sneak behind Achilles’s back and whoever was tasked with being my chaperone this week. But then I remembered I no longer needed to ask Achilles for permission—or to dodge any unwanted security.
Swallowing hard, I said, “I’d love to.”
I hung back to watch her play, and sure enough, by the end of the game, she won and scooped $50,000 into her fund.
Lila and I jumped and cheered together. I was so happy for her.
She had been deprived of human interaction for so long growing up, and I couldn’t blame her for playing catch-up and enjoying her dances, gambling rooms, and parties.
“We’ll see you at dinner,” Achilles said to Tiernan and Lila, snatching my hand and leading me out of the gambling room. I was still giddy about Lila’s win.
“Isn’t that fantastic?” I took another sip of my champagne. “Lila’s gotten so good at blackjack. She told me the other day she hasn’t lost one game in three months.”
Achilles looked at me like I was an adorable, dumb puppy.
“What?”
“She’s good, but that’s not why she hasn’t been losing.”
“Why, then?”
“Tiernan.”
“What does he have to do with it?”
“He cheats, threatens the dealer before every game she takes.”
“But…how?”
“Easily. Who gets to play last in blackjack?”
“The dealer.”
Achilles spread his arms as if to say “Voilà!”
Huh. “Why does he do that?”
“Says he can’t take seeing Lila sad or disappointed, even for one second.”
“Lila is a good sportswoman. I’m sure she’s no more than a little bummed when she loses.”
“Tier, he baby-proofed the house before Gennaro was born because she kept bumping into the corner of the coffee table and he couldn’t see her with a blemish on her skin.”
Good point. My brother was irrational when it came to his wife.
“Lila and Sof invited me to the mountains.” Why did my mouth feel so dry when I said this? I didn’t like that. If he had truly changed, I wouldn’t have to fear his reaction. Damn him and his toxic, controlling personality.
His spine stiffened, but he kept his expression schooled. “Did they, now?”
“Yeah.”
“They’ll go with their security detail.”
Fat chance that Tiernan and Luca would let their wives take a piss without a small army monitoring their well-being. “Probably,” I offered noncommittally.
“What did you tell her?”
This was the big test. I licked my lips. “I told her I’ll go.”
A brief silence. A chill ran down my spine. A reminder I had been his prisoner before and possibly still was.
“Good,” he said finally.
Achilles stopped in front of one of the doors in the hallway, leading to the dining room. “Stay here for a second. I need to see if our infantry room is stocked in case of an emergency.” He kissed my cheek.
I leaned against the wall, checking my nails. A couple rounded the corner from the other side of the hallway, and I instinctively flung my gaze to look at them.
My heart dipped low in my stomach.
It was Jeremie and Sofia.
They didn’t see me. I was standing in the darkened corner of the hallway. But I could see them. Both dressed in elegant black attire, walking side by side. She looked so tiny in comparison to the Russian. He was holding Ciro, confidently, calmly, like he claimed ownership of the child.
Ciro’s strawberry lips pouted in deep concentration as he tried to tug Jeremie’s nose off his face with pudgy fingers. Jeremie did not seem to care.
Their eyes met, and there was so much tension, heat, and desire inside, I knew the next thing they were about to do would change everything forever. They stopped at the end of the hallway, thinking they were alone. But they weren’t. I was here, and soon enough, Achilles was going to join me.
Guess Sofia was catching on to the fact Jeremie didn’t have social anxiety. He just had Sofia anxiety.
Before they took things any further, I stepped into the light, making myself known. “Hey. What’s up, guys?” I asked loudly.
They immediately pulled apart, stepping back. Sofia snatched Ciro out of Jeremie’s hands. “Hi, Tier. Sorry. I didn’t see you.” Her face flushed, but when I looked up to watch Jeremie, his eyes were threatening to kill me.
“Don’t worry about it.” I flung a dismissive hand her way. “Am I the only one who’s super drunk here? I bet I’ll remember nothing about tonight tomorrow morning. The hangover tomorrow is going to be a bitch.”
I wasn’t drunk at all, but I wanted to assure them I wasn’t going to say anything.
Jeremie stared at me coldly. “Alex is already in the dining room. He is pleased to see you after all these years.”
I gave him an airy smile, but zero words. I didn’t like the Bratva, and I especially did not like the Rasputins.
“We were just going to send Ciro off with the nanny.” Sofia smiled awkwardly. “I’d do it alone, but Jeremie is helping me with the stroller and baby seat…”
“Those things look heavy.” I nodded, playing dumb. No stroller or baby seat was anywhere in sight. “Better hurry up, then, before Achilles comes out of the infantry room and starts playing with Ciro. You know how he is with kids.”
The look on Sofia’s face when she gave me a quick hug said “thank you.”
And the wink I gave her back said she was very welcome.
Sure enough, Achilles reappeared a second after Sofia and Jeremie took flight.
“Who were you talking to?” he asked, locking the door and punching in a code that activated another lock.
“Just Sofia.”
This was technically true. I hadn’t said one word to Jeremie. Achilles cupped my neck from both sides, studying my face. “We still have a few minutes before dinner starts. Want me to eat you out in the meantime?”
I coughed out a laugh. “That sounds lovely, but I actually need to go pee.” I didn’t feel like sex right now because I was too on edge to meet with half the guest list. “Where is the nearest restroom?”
“You go back where we came from, first door on the right. Want me to walk you?”
I shot him a frown. “Please don’t pull a Lila. I am perfectly capable of peeing by myself.”
He smiled. “Okay.”
But I didn’t go to the restroom he directed me to. I took the stairs down to buy some time and allow myself to think.
Tristan Hale had spared my life.
He never had with any other victim—at least, none anyone knew of.
Why me? And why did he take the job if he hadn’t planned to finish it?
Aimlessly wandering through the dark corners of the establishment, I looked for signs of restrooms. I was now somewhere between one of the restaurants and the bar.
The place was buzzing, with dozens of well-dressed people, mostly men.
The silver sign for a bathroom finally twinkled from the other side of the venue.
I headed in its direction into a narrow alcove, slowing my steps when I detected a large, muscular form standing by the door.
Squinting, I tilted my head to study the vaguely familiar face.
Relax. It’s not him. It can’t be.
There wasn’t a chance in hell the Ferrante brothers would let this person walk into their establishment without a warrant. Besides, my luck wasn’t that shitty. Alex and Tristan Hale in one evening was more than enough without meeting this asshat.
But the closer I got to him, the more I was convinced it was Agent Tom Rothwell, his arm propped against the wall, waiting for someone to leave the restroom.
I stopped, shrinking behind a wall, and watched him.
I naturally assumed that if he was here, he’d be here for me, since I was the only person in the Ferrantes’ inner circle who ever gave him the time of day. But it appeared he was waiting for someone else.
The door unlocked from the inside, flinging open.
Out came Enzo, dressed to the nines and pissed into oblivion.
Their gazes clashed, and my heart jumped to my throat.
Every small hair on my body stood on end.
I couldn’t understand this reaction, especially as I had no skin in whatever game these two were playing.
“Agent Rothwell,” Enzo purred finally. “I hope you have a warrant because you sure as fuck don’t have an invitation.”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I do have an invitation. And from a founding member, no less.”
“Is the founding member in the room with us?” Enzo faux scanned the hallway. I ducked my head lower.
“Luca invited me.”
“Luca invited you?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Why the shit would he do that?”
“To save your ass,” Tom deadpanned. “Or at least try. Now, I want to take a piss. Step back, kid.”
“Kid?” Enzo’s neck flushed under his elaborated ink, and he didn’t budge from the door. “Dafuq, man? You don’t even know how old I am.”
“You’ll turn twenty-six on November thirteenth,” Rothwell said without missing a beat, fastening his cool gaze on Enzo’s firelit warm eyes.
“Born at 5:33 a.m. in Cardarelli di Napoli hospital,” he continued, fixing Enzo’s collar nonchalantly.
“Weight 6.8 pounds. The smallest of the four siblings. You live at 1215 W 46th Street. A modest one-bedroom, but you like the neighbors and it’s close to your fancy gym.
I know your A/B plan. Your cardio routine.
Who you fuck, when you fuck, and how much you come each time.
Down to the milliliters. I know who you killed last week and how.
I just need a shred of evidence to prove it.
The things I know about you, kid, you haven’t even begun to learn about yourself. ”
Enzo’s reaction was similar to my own. His jaw was on the floor. For the first time, I saw my happy-go-lucky friend completely speechless.
It wasn’t just Tom’s knowledge about Enzo’s life that rattled me.
In fact, I wasn’t completely shocked that he knew so much regarding the mobster he’d been studying for years now.
What blew up my senses was the palpable, knife-edge attraction between the two.
The air between them sizzled. And just like that, I realized why Tom Rothwell had no girlfriend or wife to speak of.
He was gay.
And he could be hating Enzo from today until his last breath—but he was attracted to him, too.
“Out of my way, peasant.” Tom shouldered past Enzo robotically, slamming the restroom door in his face.
Enzo stood there for a full ten-second stretch before spinning on his heel and crashing his palm against the door. “Hey! Peasant is even worse than kid.”
“File a complaint with internal affairs,” Tom drawled to the sound of his piss.
I turned around and found my way back upstairs before my bladder exploded.
The journey to the restroom upstairs was drama free, an achievement in itself.
After relieving my bladder and washing my hands, I dried them with a towel and slipped back to the hallway.
It was a straight shot to the dining room.
I hoped to make it in one piece. Something about tonight felt different, devious, like all our sins were catching up with us and everything was coming to a head.
When I reached a point in the hallway that forked, a body slammed into mine. I tumbled back a step before shooting an arm to the wall and righting myself. Luca stood in front of me. Our eyes met. It was the first time I was alone with him since Achilles found out what he’d done all those years ago.
“Watch where you’re going, asshole,” I muttered.
“Call me asshole one more time under my roof,” he dared quietly, blocking my way.
“Asshole,” I said cheerfully. “Now what?”
He took a step in my direction, his eyes shooting fire, and for a fraction of a moment, I saw it: the humanity behind them. It was dimmed, but it existed. And I wondered who’d put it in there. Because it couldn’t have been Sofia. Sofia didn’t even try.
“Are you gonna hit me, big guy?” I got in his face, laughing. “Threaten me? We both know you can’t do that.”
“You’re wrong.” Luca clutched my jaw between his fingers, tipping my face up with a sly smile.
“Being with Achilles doesn’t make you immune from me.
Nothing does. When I want to kill, I kill.
It’s what I do. You’re a bad influence on my brother, always were, and eliminating a mere pawn from the chessboard is not something I’d hesitate to do. ”
His eyes told me he wasn’t bluffing. His body language was languid, relaxed.
I believed him.
“You’ll have to kill him if you kill me,” I said quietly.
He didn’t blink. “The Camorra comes first. Family after.”
“Even Ciro?”
His eyes narrowed. “Don’t talk about my son.”
“Who put the light in your eyes?” I tilted my head.
His tight jaw twitched with surprise.
“Who made you feel? Made you smile? Made your cheeks flush?” I interrogated him. “I’ve never seen you this alive. Is she here?” I elevated an eyebrow. “Does Sofia know about her?”
Luca’s nostrils flared at the sound of his wife’s name.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” His jaw locked again. “There’s no one, and if you—”
“I’m a socialite, Luca.” I drummed my manicured fingers over his collar.
He had good form. Very lean, very muscular.
Shame about the shitty personality. “I have my ways to extract information from anyone. I will find out your secret and use it against you. It is the least I could do after what you’ve done to Achilles and me,” I promised with a sweet smile on my face.
Luca grabbed my throat and pinned me against the wall, snarling in my face.
“I have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, but I’m only going to say this once—snoop around me, and you’ll regret the miserable day you were born.
I’m not Tiernan or Achilles, sweetheart.
I do not have a heart with strings you can tug on or compassion to spare.
I will ruin you. And if any of the assholes protecting you stand in my way…
Guess what. I’ll ruin them, too. This is the last time you bother yourself with my personal life, capito? ”
His grip on my throat tightened to the point that he cut my air supply. I knew he wouldn’t kill me. Not here. Not now. But I knew that he could. And that was enough to confirm he had someone in his life I wasn’t supposed to find out about.
Challenge accepted, fucker.
“Let me go,” I hissed through pursed lips. “Before I make sure you’ll never be able to have children again.”
He let go of my neck and I dropped to the floor. I gasped, massaging the sensitive flesh over my throat.
Slowly, I stood, smoothed my dress, and wiped the moist residue from under my eyes.
Then I straightened my back, put a smile on my face, and marched into the dining room to have dinner with the man who was contracted to kill me.