“Fine,” I grumped.
“Yay!” Nicole set the cat on the counter and tugged my hand. “Let’s grab some grub. Baby’s hungry.”
***
It was painfully obvious, the more time I spent around Nicole, that I would do anything to protect her. I made the right choice when I told Dad I would marry sothat the criminal didn’t come after my sister. If I could meet with the F.B.I. later this week, if they could help us nab the bad guy, then I wouldn’t have to do that.
But if there was no evidence for them to act on….
I’ll do whatever it takes.
Checking my phone as the hostess sat us in the back, I frowned. I hadn’t heard from Dad. Wouldn’t he have texted me with an update by now? Or at least had his secretary or her assistant give me wedding details? Marrying the foreign crime lord was ten times more important than marrying Steven, and that had happened in the blink of an eye.
As I debated excusing myself from the table to call and check in, Nicole slapped my phone out of my hand. “Stop it.”
“What?” I scrambled to grab my phone, but she held it out with her other hand.
“No phones at the table.” Her lips tipped up in a wide grin. “It’s the rules here.”
I waved to the other tables spread around us. Mama Ana’s Bar & Grill was full, even though it was after the lunch rush. “Literally everyone else is!”
“Literally?” Nicole arched a brow. “Come on, Amanda, is that the kind of language you use in court?”
I fumed.
Thankfully, the waiter chose that minute to come and take our order.
Nicole and her husband fell into an easy conversation about a prize fight coming up. I let them carry the bulk of the conversation while my mind played with other thoughts. Maybe it was a good thing she had my phone. It prevented me from calling Dad for an update.
And saved me from embarrassing myself by begging him to find another way out of this.
What if he wouldn’t listen? Dread swirled through me. I didn’t feel the rise of another panic attack, but I felt sick. I didn’t want to find out. It was easier to believe he didn’t want to do this. That he didn’t feel like there was another way.
No, calling Dad, working with him, wasn’t an option. If I wanted to avoid the impending marriage, I would have to save myself. Until then, I just needed to hope Dad continued to delay giving me an update. He would call when it was time, and I needed a plan in place to be ready. I wasn’t dumb enough to think the foreigner would keep his word. Once I was in the crime lord’s clutches, he could threaten Nicole at any point, and I would be powerless to stop him.
How am I going to manage this?
I had to get out of this deal and save my sister, my dad, hell, even my idiotic stepmother. At least my mother was probably safe, living off the grid with her tree-loving friends.
The few bites of food I managed to take turned sour in my gut.
Nicole leaned over. “What’s wrong?”
Not wanting to worry her, I tipped my head as if to crack my neck. “That woman over there is glaring at me.”
Nicole snorted. “Not you—both of us.”
I turned to my sister. “Why?”
“Merda, fratello,” Cristiano muttered, getting up from the table.
Nicole ignored her husband, sounding more cheerful as she said, “She’s the daughter of Morelli’s other capo. She hates our guts.”
I rolled my hand to elaborate. “Why?”
“Her dad wanted to marry his daughters to the Messina boys—the sons of a capo destined for the daughters of the other—and well, we sniped them.” Nicole held up the gorgeous rock on her finger.
I cupped my empty left hand with my right. Nicole hadn’t mentioned my wedding to Vincenzo. Maybe she didn’t know, but I found it hard to believe that her husband hadn’t told her that part of the story.
