The man held all the power right now. Three of his mercenaries covered the room, one right beside me, two at the door. I was naked and cuffed underneath the oversized coat – at least that was what he assumed.
With such an upper hand, he shouldn’t overreact to my small victory. But his reputation urged caution. Gianna was a wild card too. Would she blame the messenger?
Her heels clicked on the tile in the silence. She turned at the end of the bar and grabbed a bottle of clear rum. A shot glass clanked behind the bar before she poured and downed a shot and then another. I hadn’t expected that response.
The door to the side creaked open before her third shot. The passenger from the boat stood in the doorway. The stylish suit, skinny legged and trendy, might have been different from the pictures from my intelligence reports, but not even an extended early morning boat ride could move one of Luca Ceci’s perfectly quaffed hairs.
“I thought this was supposed to be a celebration,” the heir to the Chicago Outfit said. “It looks like a funeral in here.”
19
Gianna
“Ha!” I let out a cackle.
I couldn’t help it. The line wasn’t funny, not even worthy of a polite titter like a tired anecdote at a dinner party. Every shot of rum but the first, I’d poured on the floor, so I couldn’t finger the alcohol, either.
No, madness had me giggling. It was either that, or I’d slam the rum bottle against someone’s temple. My father, or Alexei, either one would do. How could he have kept something like that from me?
I’d pushed past the kidnapping, gotten to know him. Now, I knew exactly why he hated my father. He should have just told me that first night. We could have started with the truth.
Like hell.
I’d have never believed him if he’d told me when we’d first met. Now, my father had all but confirmed it. All my life, he’d poisoned me against the woman I hardly had a memory of: my mother, his wife, the woman he killed as sure as his guns had killed Alexei’s mother and sister.
Him, I’d deal with later. If anyone got a face full of liquor bottle today, it’d be my father. He’d burned it into me early. You never betrayed the Family. If you turned on your own people, they showed you their backs. But my father had destroyed my family.
“Tough crowd.” Ceci clapped his hands as he passed the guards at the door. He smiled brightly and bowed his head to my father. “Mr. Marciano, I want to thank you for the confidence you have shown to me. I will take my responsibilities toward your daughter seriously.”
I bit my lip to keep from cackling again. Not only had my father chosen who got the final rose in our private little season ofThe Bachelorette, he’d invited him to my rescue. The newcomer sent Alexei for a spin too. His jaw jutted forward whenever he thought too hard. He had a plan, but not a good one. That slappable but kissable smile would make an appearance if he had a winning hand. I’d have to help.
“Ah, Miss Gianna,” Ceci turned his attention to me with a formal, perfunctory tone, “it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
The pictures Alexei had shown me of the man matched the real deal. Not a single hair sprung out of the gel’s hold. He took better care of his brows than I did, perfectly sculpted. The shirt under his dark pinstriped suit was silk.
He wore a silk shirt in the other picture Alexei’s spies had taken of him kissing another man. How had he put it? Our wedding pictures would be grand, but the wedding night awkward. Losing my virginity to Alexei only made it more so. Even if Ceci liked the ladies, he was a downgrade from my first true lover.
“An unexpected one,” I said, unclenching my jaw. “Yes.”
Bottle hanging from my left hand, I stepped out from behind the bar. Ceci had already turned his eyes to Alexei. Those manicured brows knitted as he examined the Russian. His lips curled into a smile. The same smile appeared on my face when gazing at Alexei.
The oversized coat wrapped around his shoulders would have made him look small if he stood alone and I hadn’t studied every inch of his body. Wearing only that, favoring his uninjured leg and with a growing red spot on his bandage, he was still a head turner.
“And who is our underdressed friend?” Ceci asked. His leering look almost had me jealous.
“This is the man who tried to steal Gianna from me, from you,” my father replied. Were he a dog, he’d have been foaming at the mouth.
“Alexei Lebedev. I’d shake your hand but I’m kind of cuffed right now.” Alexei shook his shoulders. “But we’ve actually met before.”
“Really? I think I would have remembered you.” Ceci’s eyes lit up, lips pushed out as he studied Alexei’s face.
“It was in Chicago, at that club in West Lakeview.” Alexei’s kissable, slappable smile reappeared. The man loved to lord his information advantage over people.
“I… don’t go out often.” Ceci shook his head and inched away from Alexei. “You must have me mistaken for someone else.”
By now, I’d neared my father, almost in striking distance. Ceci, searching for anything but Alexei to focus on, turned to me. He stepped in front of my still unwitting target. His hand grasped mine and held it up to kiss the back. Just as his lips grazed my skin, a thump sounded below.
All eyes futilely dropped, mine included. A louder thud followed the first, then a single gunshot. That pulled my father’s eyes up. He pointed to one of the men by the door.
