“Oh, I couldn’t,” she says with a worried expression. “Not when we’re going to get an annulment. That would be wrong.”
“We’ll see.” About both. “I’ll arrange for anything you need to be brought from your home.”
I summon Giovanni with a flick of a button.
“That’s not necessary…” The door opens behind Ruby, and she stalls mid-sentence.
“Giovanni,” I greet my second-in-command. He still looks a little suspicious of Ruby. He can be excessive in his protectiveness of the Angelini family. “I’d like you to meet my wife, Ruby.” There’s a subtle or perhaps not-so-subtle emphasis on the possessive.My wife. God, I like the sound of that more than I should. Love it, in fact. “Please arrange for all her possessions to be moved into my suite immediately.”
“Yes, Don,” he answers with one word and my honorific, informing me delicately that he thinks I’m off my head, but he isn’t going to argue.
“Give Giovanni your house key please, Ruby.”
“What?! No!” Ruby hides her hands behind her back and leans away from Giovanni as though he might wrestle her to the ground and steal her key. “I’ll do it. And only get a few things. Basics.”
I’d rather Giovanni went with Ruby personally to protect her, but he arranges several of my best men to go so they can carry all her belongings efficiently.
I stem the urge to accompany her, and merely check that she’s safe as she leaves. Back in my office, it’s quiet and empty without her.
There’s a knock and a respectful request of, “Don?” before I can start figuring out what else I need to do now that I have a wife.
“Giovanni.” I allow him forwards with a nod. “What is it?”
He stands with his hands held by his sides, a soldier waiting for an order. “What would you like me to do about the plan for finding a wife for you?”
I swear colourfully in Italian and sit back into my chair, regarding my second-in-command.
I’d totally forgotten about that. At least eight months ago, Giovanni suggested he look for a wife for me. He’s tried to update me since, and I’ve totally ignored him, because while I agreed with him in principle that marriage would secure the Angelini family, I didn’t want a wife.
Until Ruby.
“It will be poorly looked upon that I have been making enquiries, and you have been married during that time,” he says seriously.
That’s a fair point, and the set of his brow indicates he’s offended that I didn’t tell him something so important to me, to the Angelini family, and by extension, Clerkenwell.
I sigh and drag my hand over my jaw. “It wasn’t planned.”
“I did think it was surprising you didn’t choose an Italian wife,” he says earnestly, the lines on his forehead clearing.
“I didn’t get much choice,” I reply, thinking wryly of when I first saw Ruby. There was never any decision-making. My heart knew. There was an inevitability about it.
Giovanni nods.
“It was an accident.” He deserves to know I didn’t intend to humiliate him. “A mix-up with the certificate.”
“She isn’t your wife?”
“She announced it in front of the whole London Mafia Syndicate,” I point out, unable to keep the smile off my face. That was quite a moment. “She’s my wife, but we’ll look into an annulment.”
Trusted as Giovanni is, I don’t want to spill my heart that I’m going to persuade Ruby to love me. That sounds pathetic, and I’ll let actions speak for themselves. “Let me know when Ruby is back, and arrange with Valentina to have something special prepared for dinner.”
He frowns, but nods. “Yes, Don.”
I pick up the phone as soon as the door shuts behind Giovanni.
“Bro?” Lucia answers.
“You set me up.” Yes, I like the outcome of this, but that doesn’t mean I’m letting my sister off.
