“Especially his daughter. She’s off-limits.”
His words don’t sit well with me. My father’s business has nothing to do with me or my life. He stopped calling the shots somewhere around the time he went to the joint for my entire middle school years. But that doesn’t stop Johnny from trying to run my life.
“Johnny, I’m grown. I can make that choice,” I tell him with one hand on my hip, throwing him tons of shade.
Johnny’s eyes darken immediately. I can see he doesn’t agree. “Do you have a death wish, Daphne?”
“Who’s going to off me?” My eyes slice to Leo the dreamboat. “Leo?” I laugh nervously.
Leo has been a complete gentleman. Well, if you don’t count trying to get me up to his room to fuck my brains out not that long ago.
“You know who Mario Conti is, right?”
It’s hard not to know Mario. He and my father were friends back in the day until Mario decided to split from the family and form his own. Since that day, my father and Mario have been mortal enemies.
“Uh, yeah, Johnny. I know the name well.”
Johnny pitches his head toward Leo. “This is his kid.”
I gawk at Leo, wondering if he was, in fact, going to off me as soon as we were alone. The thought doesn’t seem as wild and stupid as it did a few seconds ago. Was there a hit on me? Jesus, the thought sends chills down my spine.
“Were you going to…” My voice drifts off. I can’t seem to bring myself to say the words. They’re horrifying.
Leo shakes his head. “I only had one thing on my mind.”
“Get the fuck out,” Johnny says and points toward the door. “You have thirty seconds to get your feet moving, or I’ll toss you out on your ass. Wedding or no wedding, I will make an example of you.”
“Johnny.” I draw his attention back to me as I touch his arm. I want to talk to Leo alone without my father’s henchman nearby. “Give us a minute, and then he’ll leave. Don’t make a scene at my brother’s wedding. Please.”
Johnny stares at me but doesn’t move or speak for a moment. I think he’s going to fight me on this, but he doesn’t. “Thirty seconds,” he says before he steps backward, keeping his eyes on Leo until he’s a few feet away.
“I can’t believe you.”
Anger, rage, and hurt well up inside me.
How could I have been so stupid?
“Daphne, listen.” Leo’s dark eyes bore into me, and that sexy, sinful look from earlier seems more sinister with the knowledge of who he is. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.”
“Mm-hmm.” I’m not convinced.
Leo reaches between us and takes my hand in his. The warmth of his palm sends tiny bolts of lightning throughout my system, and I instantly wish everything could be different. The way he looks at me is unlike how any man has ever looked at me before. Maybe it’s not sexual like I’d imagined, but filled with rage and hatred instead.
He sweeps his thumb across the top of my hand in slow, steady strokes. “I like you. I like you a lot, and that’s dangerous for both of us.”
Well, that’s the understatement of the year.
“Right now, you’re the only one in danger.” I pull my hand away even though I like the way he touches me. Then there’s his face. Damn, Leo’s all kinds of sexy, and it kills me to say my next words. “Just go, Leo. Go before you ruin my brother’s wedding.”
“See me again,” he begs.
Everything in me wants to say yes, but then I see Johnny giving me the stink eye, looking like he’s about to go all Tony Montana on Leo. “It’s better if you keep your distance. I don’t date mobsters anyway.”
“I’m a businessman.”
“Sure, you are. And I’m Mother Teresa.”
“We’re not done. I’ll find you,” he promises.
