My eyebrows shot up.
“You do,” she said with a snap. “You are a,ah, chick magnet!” She was so incensed, her accent was stronger.
Marciano exploded with laughter, laughing so hard that he was wheezing for breath.
I thought she might pummel him, too, but a grin came to her face.
Hannah laughed from her seat before the fire. Her hair was braided, and her shoulders were covered in a bear-skin blanket. “Hunter with the lion’s heart and mustang’s spirit,” she called to me, “you have a fire on your hands with that one.”
“Yeah,” I said, bringing her knuckles to my mouth, kissing them. “And she needs some ice.”
Her eyes wouldn’t fully meet mine. Her cheeks were red. She wasn’t embarrassed but pissed off. Her eyes kept going to the spot where the assistant had been.
“I will walk with you to get some,” Angelo offered.
He never offered. He always waited for an order to do anything. In America, though, we were freer to be cousins and not just Fausti royalty. I nodded at him, and after he kissed Atta, he stepped in line next to me.
“You going to be all right, Annie?” I asked.
She waved me off. “I do not even need ice.”
I grinned at her and lifted my eyebrows. “Tell me, my Annie, what you need,” I said in Italian.
“To take another swing at that ass-face!”
I pulled her close and kissed her, and when we parted, I breathed in her ear, “This fucking outlaw has met his match.”
“Annie Oakley!” Marciano hollered, lifting his beer toward Sistine. “Here’s to her and all her entertaining scenes!”
Fucking Marciano.
I gave him orders to watch over her, and he smiled at me.
“Seems like Spicy Sissy needs to watch over me. She has the muscles. She can shoot. I’m just the brain in this situation.” He opened his arms and grinned.
I resisted the urge to pop him upside his fucking head. He looked at me, tilted his head to the side, and then rubbed it. He knew my fucking intention. Atta pulled Sistine to the side, Marciano keeping a safe distance, while the two women whispered to each other.
Angelo kept stride with me while we made it to the ice chests. We were out.
One of our men said more ice was being kept at a cabin on the property, not far from where we were. He took the lead, and we followed at a nice distance so we could talk.
“Something is amiss, cousin,” Angelo said.
I rubbed the back of my neck and nodded. “Agreed.”
“The money.” He shrugged, waving a hand. “This is no matter. I have spoken to Nonna Hannah, and she approved Atta and I building on the land. Atta has a favorite spot, and we will build there. I will pay Nonna Hannah for this, and it will go toward the debt on the ranch.”
I knew this already. I spoke to Hannah as well. I was going to buy a part of the property too. She said we respected the land, and therefore it felt right to sell. Her husband would have approved. Especially since the land was going to family. She considered Sistine a grandchild. I was buying the land in Sistine’s name. Hannah had nodded at this, but she told me that was unnecessary, that she trusted me. I was still going to do it that way.
Angelo said he was too. It would be in Atta’s name.
“There is something else at play here,” he said. “Something sinister, I feel.”
“Rattler,” I said.
Angelo nodded. “This name was mentioned. This snake wants the property.”
“Little moves Sistine,” I said. “I’ve never seen her lose it until she thought a snake was chasing her. It could be that she’s afraid of snakes. My intuition is telling me something different.”
