Chapter 8 #2
“I really hope this isn’t bad news,” she said, setting her glass aside to reluctantly check her phone too.
Damn, a text was no way to update somebody about their injured father. But it might explain why we were both getting pinged at the same time. Bad news about Don Romano.
I braced for the worst. But my notification didn’t have anything to do with Valentina’s father. “I’ve got a message from one of the potential wedding caterers,” I informed her.
“Same here,” she said. “A reminder for us to come in for a cake tasting. Later this week.”
“You up for it?” I asked. “We could reschedule if you want.”
“I’m up for it,” she replied, that brave face back on. “If I’m going to take over for Papa while he recovers, I can’t drop the ball. If I can’t handle a simple tasting, then I shouldn’t be in this business.”
With that settled, Valentina moved to clear the coffee table, taking the tray with her as she exited the living room.
The relief I had been feeling began to dissipate. Giving way to the seriousness of the moment. A food tasting was yet another sign of how real this wedding was. There was no backing out and no pretending that I was in this out of selfless loyalty.
I’d been lying to Valentina from the start.
The fact that she was willing to go on a cake tasting and continue planning the wedding showed that she believed the lie that I’d been selling her.
Believed that I was making a sacrifice to avert all-out war between our families.
When the truth was, marrying Valentina was a master stroke in a long game that I had to win.
The war wasn’t going to end with a stalemate between aggressors.
It would end when I said it did and I was going to be the one and only victor.
~~*~~
I HAD THREE RULES WHEN I got involved in this scheme to make Valentina mine.
Rule number one: use as much of the truth as possible to get her to fall for me.
Rule number two: do not, under any fucking circumstances, fall in love with her.
Rule number three: if dumb enough to have feelings for her, bury those feelings so deep that even I don’t know if I actually have them.
As much as I’d lied to her, giving her most of the truth made my life easier. I wouldn’t have to work hard to keep my story straight. I wouldn’t have to recall what lies I’d told. Problem was, while I avoided lying to Valentina, I could definitely fucking lie to myself.
Which was what I was thinking as she led me to the guest bedroom for the night.
Ordinarily, I would have used it to check how badly she wanted me.
But she’d barely washed her father’s blood off, for fuck’s sake.
Not to mention, she looked exhausted. There were dark circles under her eyes, and I got the sense that she was wilting. A check on her desire could wait.
Most important was getting maximum sleep so that I could face tomorrow. I’d need to get up-to-speed on her security system. Make sure neither her father’s shooter, nor the mole who had been spying on them, had managed to breach anything.
But sleep was elusive. Guilt was a hard thing to shake.
Especially since I was starting to realize that I fucking hated lying to Valentina.
I had zero regrets about lying to anybody else in this game, but her?
Instead of a feeling of satisfaction at playing my enemy, it truly did feel like I was lying to a fiancée who deserved better.
Especially with a hitman lurking in the shadows.
Don Romano was probably going to survive the assassination attempt.
That meant the shooter might want to try again. Finish the job.
Nearly losing her father would shake her emotionally.
And here I was, using her for my family’s benefit.
No matter how committed I was to protecting her, I was still lying.
Her father was marrying her off for protection, and she would get that if I had to lay down my life.
But a wife deserved an honest husband. That I couldn’t give her.
When I first started this con I wouldn’t have cared how much honesty she got.
After all, she was getting off light compared to what we could have dealt her and her family.
But now that I was getting to know her, I hated that I had to hold back.
Hated that falling in love was going to be a one-sided affair on her part.
Somehow, I was going to have to accept that I was a cold, manipulative bastard. It had never bothered me before when I deployed those weapons to my advantage. I shouldn’t have let it bother me now. Not even if I did feel a misguided sympathy for her in the wake of her father’s shooting.
My thoughts were too conflicted for me to sort through the guilt but at least I managed to finally get some sleep. It was my urgently ringing cell phone that jolted me awake the next morning.
Groaning, I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and sat upright to answer it.
My father’s voice. Fuck. He still didn’t know about Romano getting shot. Which meant I had to play it cool. Act like I was still in wedding mode.
“Have you heard the news?” my father demanded.
Fuck. Had word about Don Romano managed to leak already?
I couldn’t be sure. This con with Valentina gave me leeway to choose her side of things against my family.
As long as it wasn’t information about imminent danger to my family, I could hide things from them to keep the con going.
Still, I needed to keep my lies straight, which I hated having to do.
“What news?” I asked, getting out of bed. I wasn’t going to let on that I knew anything. If this was about our rival getting shot, I’d pretend to be in the dark until I had no choice.
“One of our dealerships,” my father answered, his voice like gravel. “Somebody attacked it late last night. Set our automobiles on fire.”
I hadn’t expected that at all. “What the fuck? How the hell did they get in?”
“We are looking into it. Nobody was hurt at least,” my dad said.
“Good to know.”
“We will catch whoever is responsible and make them pay,” my father said in an ominous tone. “As for you, Enzo, maintain this plan with your bride. If she hears of this news, reassure her. Tell her that we have it under control.”
Of fucking course we had it under control. Even if we didn’t, my father would have made sure we wrenched back control as quickly as possible. Whoever had managed to break into the dealership had been one stupid son of a bitch because he was a dead man when my father caught up to him.
“Got it,” I muttered.
My dad didn’t say a final goodbye. All he did was hang up abruptly. Like he so often did.
I returned my phone to its place on the nightstand then quickly brushed my teeth and took a shower. After I got dressed, I stepped out of the guestroom, heading in the direction of the smell of what had to be sizzling bacon.
“Morning.” I stifled a yawn as I stepped into the luxurious kitchen.
I froze, stunned at the sight of Valentina.
She was frying bacon over the stove. Dressed in a transparent, oversized white shirt that was unbuttoned to reveal a tank top that showed off her midriff and a tiny pair of workout shorts.
Sunlight streaming in through the kitchen windows hit her directly, illuminating her porcelain skin.
Brightening her blonde hair so it gleamed like pure gold.
She was so beautiful that I literally stopped in my tracks to take her in. If marriage was based on looks alone, I was the luckiest man alive. There were definitely perks to having a bride this exquisite.
“Good morning.” She smiled. “I’m just going to change, give me a second.” She disappeared and came back three minutes later in business attire. She motioned at the kitchen table in clear invitation for me to take a seat. “Got news about Papa.”
“How is he?” I grabbed a seat at the table, eagerly waiting for the bacon.
“His vital signs are improving,” she replied. “He isn’t conscious yet, but they think that since his vitals look better, he will be soon.”
“That’s great news.”
She nodded. “Best news I’ve heard in a long time.”
“I’m confident that Don Romano will make a full recovery,” I said. “He’s the toughest man I know.”
“Really? Even tougher than your father?” she asked, turning the stove off to start dishing out the bacon.
“Your father has to deal with you all the time. I say he’s got the tougher job,” I deadpanned.
Valentina narrowed her beautiful eyes at me and then let out a soft laugh. “Imagine how heard that’s going to be for a husband.”
I sobered at those words. “Listen, there’s something I should tell you.”
“That sounds serious,” she said. “What is it?”
I’d been hiding the truth from her and now didn’t seem like the time to keep that going.
It was well past time to be honest with her.
Well past time to actually let her in on my family’s side of the business.
Even if it would dampen her spirits. I owed it to her to tell the truth, no matter what my father had ordered. It was time to start coming clean.