Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Will You Be My Alibi
Raf
“What’s that weird look on your face? Are you smiling?” AJ’s taunt brings me back to the present.
“Are you always this fucking rude to someone who took a detour to Italy instead of returning home after being away for two weeks already?”
“Hmm. Missing her, huh?” he says.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. But if you’re wondering, she’s going to Texas on Saturday for work.”
“Fucking hell, she’s on the move a lot. Avery is a damn saint travelling everywhere with her.”
“I’m sure it’s not that much of a hardship,” I bite out, a bit more bitterly than I meant to.
“Is that a bit of jealousy I sense there?” He laughs, covering his mouth with his fist. “Avery is her type. Tall. Handsome. Blue eyes.”
“AJ, last I checked, I didn’t come to the Sicilian countryside to discuss Chiara’s dating preferences.”
“No, we’re just here to deal with her prospective future husband,” he says, hiking his brows into his hairline.
“And? Where did we land?”
“An acquaintance who wants to make it right with the family has given me intel about a big weapons exchange going down between the Rizzos and the Irish in…” He checks his watch. “About six hours’ time. Julian is leading it.”
“What does that mean?”
“You don’t need to know details. Just that Julian will no longer be”—he pauses, staring at me with eyebrows raised to his hairline—“a problem if everything goes according to plan tonight. You just need to make sure there’s evidence of us being together tonight.”
“So you made me fly here so you had an alibi?” I say.
“You’re smart. You should be a lawyer or something,” he says with a smirk.
“I see telling bad jokes runs in the family,” I retort.
“This was the agreement, no? I deal with things the way we do in our world. And you’ll deal with things the way you do in your world. Well, here you go.”
He hands over a file and I look inside, thumbing through the paperwork. There’s property deeds and various brochures and ledgers.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“This is my new investment with Marco,” he says, waving his hand around the kitchen of the luxurious villa he’s staying in on the sprawling estate.
“You’re going to prepare all the paperwork I need to sign and ensure there’s a digital timestamp as well as a paper trail from tonight that places us together.
It’s my wedding present to my business partner,” explains AJ.
“It also opens the door for future projects between my brothers Christian and Matteo and Seb and Marco. They’re busting my balls to open a club with them. ”
“Jumping the gun a little, don’t you think. He hasn’t even proposed yet. Or met them. They could absolutely hate each other,” I say.
“I promise you on a level of one to cocky-as-fuck, they’re all equals.” He guffaws. “And the proposal is on the cards. Chiara knows the date it’s happening. She told me to make sure I was back in the States by then.”
“So glad he’s marrying my sister, but you’re in the know.”
“Blood privileges.”
I side-eye him. “And this acquaintance. He’s trustworthy?”
“Oh, he owes me his life. He’s lucky he’s still breathing. If I had caught him before this, he wouldn’t be. But he’s one cunning fucker. Better to have him on your side than against you.”
“What’s his name?”
“The less you know the better, remember. Just be my lawyer right now.”
“I guess being insufferably secretive runs in the family too,” I say, pulling out my laptop.
“Guess so. I’ll tell the kitchen to bring dinner and a bottle of their finest scotch.”
“As you please,” I say, bringing up the client file for his investment group.
There’s a lot for me to feel sick to the stomach about.
Lying to my father. Wading through the gray area of my moral compass.
Negotiating with a fucking mobster. But the niggle that makes me most nauseous is that this takedown feels too easy, almost like someone was lying in wait to offer help with an ulterior motive of his own.
I’m sure AJ knows what he’s doing, yet I can’t seem to silence the alarm bells that this all feels a little too convenient.