Luciano was most assuredly a peacock. All feathers and color and no substance.Howwas she going to get through to him when all of her motivations would fall on deaf ears?
You’ll figure it out, she told herself sternly.
As she got closer, his dark gaze drifted over to her and sharpened in recognition. She didn’t stop walking, but she braced herself for the fight ahead. She held his gaze and walked straight to him. She didn’t even look at one of the men she supposed acted as some kind of security for him when the suited hulk held out an arm to stop her.
She held Luciano’s gaze. “He’ll see me,” she said.
And Luciano must have waved his little bodyguard off, because the arm dropped, then the rope, and Serena was allowed to move forward.
Once she got close enough to hear him over the pumping music, he smiled. Like a shark. “Ah, if it isn’t Satan herself.”
Serena smiled in return. Like a wolf. Because a wolf could swim, but a shark couldn’t do a damn thing on land. “Do you really suppose the devil would be a woman, when we all know men are the crux of all our problems? Two men in particular.”
This got a laugh out of Luciano’s companion.
“Twomen,” he scoffed. His gaze dropped to his glass. “The investigators thought differently.”
“Yourinvestigators thought differently. The ones not on your payroll blamed both men for foolish, unreasonable speeds. A fact that, knowing our fathers, is undeniable.”
“Did you know your father?” he asked, tilting his head, as if to consider such a thing. “It is rather difficult to know a snake.”
“Perhaps just as difficult as it might be to know an Ascione scorpion.”
“As much as I love our littletête-à-têtes, I am busy.” He gestured to the woman under his arm.
“I think we both know you are not.” She gestured to the club around them. “Per usual. But we do have a problem, and I’d like to discuss a solution with you.” She offered a polite smile to the actress who was watching them curiously. “In private.”
“I shall pass.”
“Do you think I came all this way with something that can simply bepassedon, Luciano? I know you do not understand how anything important works, what kind of threat there is against your legacy, but I would think you would understand just how dire everything is if I would deign to come to you. Inthisplace.”
“What’s wrong with your legacy?” the actress asked him, innocently enough.
Serena had to bite back a smile when he muttered irritably but stood. “We will discuss this in my office,” he said.
She glanced back at the actress, wondering if the woman had purposefully helped her along. A wink told her yes.
Serena chose to take this as a good sign for what was to come. She’d take any good sign in this nightmare.
Luciano marched ahead, and she followed him easily enough. Through throngs of people, into an elevator that a card opened. She assumed only his staff had access to the second floor. After a brief elevator ride, he moved into a hallway, and then into a well-appointed office.
He flipped on the lights, closed the door behind her when she entered, then faced off with her, arms across his chest.
“I do not care for accusations about mylegacyin front of my companions for the evening.”
Serena nodded. “I do apologize,” she said, without any sincerity. “Are you unaware then? Perhaps this may come as a surprise to you, perhaps the men actually running Ascione have not filled you in. Or perhaps you simply do not understand—”
“I understand just what Ascione is up against,” he all but growled, looking fierce and dangerous.
She would not feel intimidated by that. She had been facing down wealthy, ego-driven men since she’d been a teenager. And she had learned how to come out on top. She had won over her father, which had been no small feat. It had required absolute perfection in everything she did.
And she had achieved that perfection. Still did, even with him gone. She used it as ballast and assurance that she could win overanyone.
“Then you know that if you do not dosomethingin the next six months, Ascione will have to declare bankruptcy.”
His expression shuttered. “I know nothing of the sort.”
“Well,Ido. Valli has more time, because I have been at the reins.” She would not admit that her father left her a messalmostas big as the one Luciano’s had left him. She would not admit that for a very brief period of time, she had been struck by the injustice of him being an imperfect mess while requiring perfection from her. “But there is a simple solution to our problems. A cure for both of us. Like with any cure, it is distasteful and might just kill us both first. Such is the nature of a last resort.”
