“Who gives a fuck?” Adriano fixes me with his electric green eyes. “This is a job. We’re being set up.”
“We don’t know that,” I say, as calmly as I can manage. My stomach glows with alcohol. I want to believe this isn’t the disaster I’ve been predicting for weeks.
“The girl can’t go to the wedding,” Adriano says.
“She’s singing the song for the first dance. To not attend would be the greatest insult—”
“Then it’s the greatest fucking insult. I’ll break her arm if I have to, she’s not going.”
I hold Adriano’s gaze. In the seconds that follow I understand that he doesn’t mean it. He’d kill himself before he laid a finger on January, he’s just terrified for the woman we love.
“It’s going to be okay,” I say slowly. “I don’t like the idea of Parker’s eyes on January but he’s in negotiations to marry an Armenian billionaire’s daughter. He’s done with the Whitehall family.”
“And the stepmother coming to the strip club?” Adriano demands. “That’s a coincidence, is it?”
There’s a loud bang and all of us jump to our feet as Doc bursts in, his jaw set, eyes burning blue fire.
“How are you here already?” I say, looking at my watch.
“I broke the law,” Doc says, striding to the bar and picking up a bottle of Stoli. “What’s the fucking deal? Bobby says Parker’s coming to the wedding?”
I look at Bobby who raises his hands. “I texted him. I thought he should know.”
“Porca misera,” I mutter. “Where’s—”
“Daddy!”
Just hearing her voice is like a balm smeared across my soul. I whirl around and see January rushing toward me. She throws herself into my arms and as her softness engulfs me, I know it as well as I’ve known anything—I would die for her. This precious slip of a girl.
I kiss the top of her head. “How are you feeling, my ruby?”
“Okay,” she says into my chest. “No, that’s a lie. I’m scared.”
“That’s perfectly understandable,” I say. “But I will protect you at any cost. I promise you.”
“I know, Daddy,” she says snuggling into my arms. “I love you.”
My mind swims and I kiss the top of her head again. I should tell her I love her. Bobby and Adriano do and even Doc managed it once. But I can’t quite make myself do it. It feels like handing her a weapon she could threaten me with for the rest of my life. She hugs me tighter then lets go, moving to embrace Bobby. I watch her, feeling strangely empty.
“Does she know?” Adriano demands.
“Know what?” January asks.
I glance at Doc, who’s drinking straight from the Stoli bottle. He shakes his head, still swallowing vodka. I sigh. “I have bad news,bella. Parker will be at the Bianchi wedding.”
January deflates in front of me. “I… How is that possible?”
“Bianchi’s son and Parker are in business. It’s a political decision. As hard as it might be to hear, it has nothing to do with us.”
She pulls away from Bobby, her shoulders creeping to her ears. I forget how much she’s changed over the last twelve months but as she shrinks back into the scared wallflower she used to be, my anger toward Bianchi returns.
“Do not be scared,” I say. “Parker won’t touch you or talk to you. He won’t even come near you. Bianchi will shoot him between the eyes if he tries.”
January doesn’t look reassured. “Doesn’t this, like, show Parker that he can be around us if he spends enough money? That the contract doesn’t really apply to him?”
All of us exchange glances. January’s right, as she so often is these days. Her honesty and perceptiveness unearth truths the rest of us shy away from. Not that it’s always comfortable to hear the truth.
“We’ll figure something out,” I tell her, reminding myself of my mother promising my father she was coming home soon. “You must be tired. Why don’t you go to bed?”
