After we ate, Massimo and Carmine shuttled us over to the spa for a day of pampering. I wasn’t sure what my brother and husband’s motives were by keeping us together and away from the house, but I knew something was going on. Worry seeped into the bubble of happiness that I had been experiencing since I’d stolen a few hours in Lorenzo’s arms and we’d confessed our love for each other.
“See. Right there.” Gia was pointing at me, and her smile grew. “You have this sappy-in-love look on your face, Bea. Are you in love with someone from the studio?”
My face flamed red, and she and Nic both awwed and squealed with delight. “I hate you.” I stuck my tongue out at both of them and laughed before covering my face. I wanted so badly to tell them my secret, but it wasn’t the time.
“Who is it?” Nic asked as she lay back on her lounger for the esthetician to apply the mask to her face.
“I’m not ready to share that yet,” I said quietly. “When I’m ready to share, I will, but I’m just not there yet.”
I could tell they wanted to press, but neither of them did. They both knew me well enough to know that I would share details when I was ready. Giana was the wild card, strong and opinionated–almost abrupt. Nicoletta was the baby. She had her head in the clouds and loved to be the center of attention. The only place I liked attention was when I was dancing. Outside of that, I liked to fade into the background. Dancing was a short career, I knew that. I would enjoy my time in the spotlight when I could, but I fully expected that someday I would be teaching dance rather than performing. I was okay with fading into the background while others shined.
There was only one way that fading into the background felt unacceptable, and that was where Lorenzo was concerned. When I was forced into the background of his life as his sister or his best friend’s little sister, I became a brat. I couldn’t handle it, but he could handle me.
My body involuntarily quivered at the memory of our lovemaking before he’d taken me home to meet with my brother and sisters.
“Damn,” Giana whispered when she saw my reaction. “When is the wedding?” There was amusement and a tinge of curiosity in her voice.
‘Over the weekend.’ I thought to myself, but forced myself not to react. “I’ll let you know.”
“Oh, my God. You’re serious,” Nicoletta squealed.
“Shhh,” I hushed her, not wanting Massimo or Carmine to hear her. They were on the other side of the door, but with Nic’s cry of cheer, they could end up overhearing something they shouldn’t. Romeo and Lorenzo didn’t want anyone knowing until the cartel was dealt with–until my father was dealt with. “Seriously, I don’t want anyone knowing right now. Romeo will go all big brother, and it’s not something I want to deal with right now. Not when my audition is so close.”
Giana and Nicoletta shared a pointed look. “What?” I asked, wondering what they were thinking.
“Are you sure it’s Romeo you’re trying to hide it from?” Gia broached in a hushed whisper.
I shook my head. Nope. It wasn’t Romeo I was hiding my marriage to Lorenzo from. It was everyone else, though, to be fair, Romeo didn’t know that the marriage was far from the facade he thought it would be. “Who else would it be?”
My sisters shared another heavy look before turning back to me. “Lorenzo,” Gia stated flatly. My chest squeezed, but I laughed it off.
“Lorenzo?” I laughed, “Why would I need to hide it from him?” I could feel my heart beating in my chest, hear my blood thumping in my ears with every beat of my heart.
“We’ve always thought you secretly had a crush on him,” Nic whispered. “That’s why you would act differently when he was around. You never intentionally got on anyone’s nerves or pushed their buttons like you did his.”
Well damn. There it was. Confirmation that I was an open book to everyone except myself. I was floored that both my sisters had obviously discussed the topic of Lorenzo and me with each other. If they knew, who else knew? That thought was terrifying to even consider.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Lorenzo
“This place is nice for a junkie,” I muttered to Romeo as we headed up to the apartment located in the Sunset Park neighborhood.
Romeo and I both looked around the street where the apartment sat. It was a family neighborhood, middle to upper class. Nice. It wasn’t the kind of place you would think a known coke whore would live. Costa’s mom was in and out of rehab all the time, and while Costa worked for the family, affording this area and those stints in rehab was suspect.
“My gut is telling me there’s something about Costa that we couldn’t dig up,” Romeo said out loud exactly what I was thinking and feeling.
I nodded my agreement. “I wish Rossi was with the girls, too.” If Costa was a rat, rats, when caged, could become unpredictable and dangerous.
“I have the outside security firm following them as backup.”
“An outside security firm will call the cops, but they won’t take someone out if it’s needed,” I growled, not liking the feeling that was creeping into every fiber of my being. Too much shit didn’t add up, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what or why.
“This security firm will fire back, Enzo. I didn’t hire run-of-the-mill security for my sisters, not with everything going on with my father.”
I knew he used this same company in the past when we first decided the girls needed protection from their own father and his men, but I never knew which company he hired.
“Who did you hire?” I asked quietly.
