“Don Tempesta,” Mancini spluttered, now a sickly green. “I didn’t expect you this evening.”
Uragano canted his head, his striking blue gaze sharp and filled with a killing chill.
“I received an invitation, Mancini, it wouldn’t be considerate of me to decline,” Tempesta replied, a knife edge carrying the words.
Gideon knew exactly theinvitationTempesta was talking about, and it wasn’t the one to the Winter Gala.
“Of course,fratello mio,” Mancini bleated, all that impotent power he’d been flashing before drained away in the face of true power.
Isabella, finally catching on to what was happening, simpered, “Gano,amore mio, I think we should all grab a drink, sit, talk, and?—”
“I think we should take this conversation elsewhere,” Nev interjected, cool and precise like a scalpel, making Isabella’s face go white. She knew what he meant.
They all did.
Mancini, now facing down three Tempesta men could only nod and follow behind his Don as they made their way toward the back of the ballroom where the kitchens and service entrance were located.
No doubt, by the end of the night, Mancini would be dead, Isabella would be sent off to Italy to marry into another family, and the Tempestas would be calling Gideon to set up a time to meet regarding the “invitation” that Uragano had received, and what their business association would look like moving forward.
Good fucking riddance to a piece of shit traitor and his crazy-as fuck-daughter.
Thirty minutes later, seated at a table just in front of the small stage set up for the string quartet, Kendra was nursing a sparkling water, Gideon was sipping a fifteen-year-old bourbon, Lucian was throwing back whiskey, and Cora was glaring into a glass of Moscato. Logan and Lucian had seats at the table, but neither of them stuck around. Logan had come to give face, as his eldest brother commanded, but then left soon after when his cell pinged a notification that sent him running, and Lucian had come because he’d been tasked with following Mancini. Now that Mancini was a Tempesta problem, Lucian had slunk back into the shadows to do whatever it was he’d been doing latelynow that he was healing from injuries he didn’t want to talk about.
Checking the time on his watch, Gideon wasn’t surprised to hear the orchestra stop and the buzzing sound of the mic begin.
Straightening his sleeves, Gideon pressed a soft kiss to Kendra’s head and turned in his chair to face the stage.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer, an influencer who’d amassed millions of fans with clever makeup tutorials, said, “and thank you for coming to the tenth annual Maddox Media Winter Gala.”
Applause filled the room, drowning out the sound of Gideon’s pounding heart.
He’d faced down his father’s fist, potential company-wide failure, the fear of failing his brothers, billion-dollar deals, and a displeased mob boss, but none of that made him as nervous as he was right then.
It had to go perfectly.
“Please, welcome to the stage, the man who made Maddox a name we all love and fear,” nervous titters smattered around, “Mr. Gideon Maddox.”
The applause now was deafening, but still his pounding heart was louder.
He turned to look at his wife who was staring at him in disbelief. Typically, he’d leave such things as playing host to others like Adrian, but tonight he was changing things up, and she would soon learn why.
Leaning down, he pressed another kiss to his wife’s lips and stood, walking toward the stage, devastatingly aware that he was either headed toward victory or death.
Only his wife could determine which.
Chapter Eighteen
What was going on?
First, the thing with avoiding the cameras, then he put Isabella firmly in her place, then there was all the kissing and touching and attentiveness—and now Gideon was striding toward the stage to…what? Give a speech?
Seriously, what the heck is going on?
Wanting to turn and ask Adrian what his brother was doing, Kendra couldn’t tear her gaze away from her tall, gorgeous husband as he climbed the short steps to the stage, shook hands with TikTok-makeup-tutorial princess Nikkie, and stopped in front of the microphone.
Gideon stood there for mere moments, his gaze roving over the crowd before they snapped to Kendra, intense, glittering, filled with so many different emotions it made her heart gallop.
Raw.
