“Where are you?” I barked into the phone, my heart pounding, and the residual fear still clenching my gut into a fist.
“She’s fine.” I froze at the sound of the voice on the other end of the line. “I ran into her in the lobby when she came down for breakfast.” He laughed with a little humor in his voice. “She said you were still asleep, and she didn’t want to wake you, but she was hungry.” Yeah, there was definitely humor in his voice.
“What the hell are you doing, Digger?” Grave Digger was the name most people knew him by. I’d called him by his real name so I wouldn’t scare Bianca when we’d seen him the day before.
“I’m playing babysitter for your fiancée currently. We picked her up on the security feed alone, and I knew you wouldn’t want her unprotected, so here I am.”
I sighed. “What do you want for this favor?”
He chuckled darkly. “You can pay me later, but for now, we just want to see the two of you hitched.”
I slowed down now that the panic was gone and turned on the phone’s speaker on so I could pull on my socks and shoes. “Why are you and Kozlov so interested in the two of us getting married? I don’t see the connection.”
“Would you believe that Kozlov is a hopeless romantic?”
I laughed. “Not in the slightest. Fess up, Digger, what’s going on? Why do you want Bianca Morelli and me to be married?”
He took a deep breath and spoke low into the phone, “The cartel has been putting pressure on us to try and move their shit. We don’t work for the cartels; they are too unstable. If the asshole, Luca Morelli, tries to marry his daughter to the cartels, that gives them numbers we don’t want if it leads to a war. Call it self-preservation.”
I snorted and grabbed my wallet and phone as we talked turning the speaker off. “What all do you know about the Morelli family business?” I asked him, curious about who he’d been talking to.,
“Enough to know that the old man is dying, and that your house is about to be thrown into turmoil because of it. Luca Morelli isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. Something I think you and Romeo Morelli have already figured out.”
Meaning, he knew Luca was moving into uncharted waters for the Morelli’s. Somehow, the Russians had a foothold in our business, and I wanted to know how and why.
“Did you join the Morelli organization, Digger, and nobody told me about it?”
He laughed. “Nope. We just have a few shared interests, and one of those interests is to make sure you and the Mrs. get hitched.”
I shook my head. “You couldn’t have known Bianca and I were going to get married or that we would choose to do it here.”
“We didn’t. Hell, we were relieved when we saw you in the hotel with her.” He laughed. “It meant that I didn’t have to marry her.”
Jealousy slammed into my gut. “Over my dead body,” I growled.
“No need for that yet, Lorenzo. You’re more use to us alive than dead, and I have no interest in your woman. She’s pretty, don't get me wrong, but she’s not my type.”
“You would have married her anyway?”
I left the room and pushed the button to call the elevator. “If I needed to, yes. She would have been safe from Arias at least, but it’s better this way.”
“You’re goddamned right it is. You would be dead, and we would be at war with the Russians if you had married her.”
Digger just chuckled “If I didn’t know any better, Lorenzo, I would say that this isn’t just a marriage of convenience for you.”
The elevator doors opened, and I stepped on. The car was empty, so I kept talking. “It is. It’s a huge inconvenience,” I muttered. Loving someone so much makes you vulnerable. Ifanything happened to Bianca, it would destroy me. “But I’ll be damned if anyone else touches her, including you.”
“Good thing she’s not my type then.”
“Good thing. Now, where is she?”
“Trying on a wedding dress in the boutique downstairs. Kozlov’s treat. He wants her to have at least a semi-special wedding, and it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, so you can just go back up to your room until I text you to meet us in Obsidian Hall. There’s a wedding there tonight, and we’re going to hijack the space before the main event to see you guys get married.”
“Bad luck or not, I’m coming. I don’t have to see her in her dress, but I want eyes on her.”
The elevator came to a stop on the ground floor, and I headed straight toward the shops and boutiques. I hung up when I saw Alek standing outside of one of the shops. He gave me a knowing grin when he saw my state of dishevelment and wearing the same suit I had on the day before.
“Walk of shame on your wedding day?”
