The two guards at the door can be taken out easily. I’ve seen how loose the training is here on some of the guards, and those at the door don’t hold themselves with the readiness to move fast.
Giacomo’s ankle subtly bulges with the weight of a gun, and I presume he has one near his hip.
I can get to my gun and shoot before he can, but what about Guido? He looks unarmed, but I have no idea what he has in or under his desk.
And then what? Out the window and pray I land in the pool? Out and across the garden, over the fence, and into the field within ninety seconds?
Too long.
I swallow the reflex, forcing myself to appear calm. “Threaten me again and I’ll gut you.”
“The fuck you say to me?” Giacomo rises rapidly, his eyes flashing with fury. But before he can advance, Guido clears his throat.
“Enough.”
Like a restrained tiger, Giacomo very slowly sinks back into his chair with a muttered curse.
Keeping one eye on Giacomo, I look to Guido. “I’m afraid I’m in the dark, sir.”
“I hired you to protect Aerin.” Guido turns away from the window to gaze at me. “To protect her from everything and anything. You swore an oath to me with your life on the line.”
Heat pulses down my spine and fizzes across my shoulders. Do they know what I did? Aerin in the shower? Or the kiss in thegym? Or maybe even the way I humped my pillow while wishing it was her.
I was never good at following certain rules.
“I haven’t broken that oath, sir,” I say flatly.
“You bastard,” Giacomo growls. “You’re pathetic, you know that? You can’t even admit your own failings! Aerin wasrapedbecause of you, and you stand there like you’re still some fucking honorableknight?—”
“Enough!” Guido snaps. “One more word out of you and I’ll throw you out, understand?”
Giacomo growls as anger clogs his throat but he slumps in his chair, silent.
Raped? Confusion creeps over me like a rolling fog while Guido takes a swig of his glass then sets it down on his desk.
“My daughter. My heir. Do you understand how catastrophic this is? Aerin is a symbol of everything I stand for. Everything that—” He cuts himself off with a soft, rapid cough. “My enemies, even my allies look at me and my ailing health and see me as weak. Aerin is the only thing keeping them at bay, and I find out that the most precious part of her has been destroyed?”
My brows dip. Surely the most precious part of Aerin is her life? “I don’t follow, sir.”
“She was raped!” Guido slams both his hands down on his desk, sending the glass skittering away from him. “The only interest the Irish had in her was because she was my daughter and avirgin. Her value has nosedived because you couldn’t do your job. I wanted to look into your eyes, to see the gaze of the traitor who betrayed me and set this family on the path to ruin. Withoutthe Irish and now a sullied daughter, my future is crumbling. This family’s future is crumbling because of you!”
Silver flashes on the desk as Guido draws a thick, heavy handgun from under the wood.
“You’re wrong, sir,” I reply immediately as my mind races to connect the dots. “Aerin wasn’t raped.”
“What?” Giacomo half rises in his seat. “You stand before your don andlie?!”
“I can prove it, sir.”
Guido’s eyes narrow. “Proof?”
“Your daughter… She was kidnapped, drugged, and assaulted. I don’t deny that. But she wasn’t raped, sir. May I?” I lift my hand and hover it near my pocket, hyper aware of the gun in Guido’s hand. After he nods, I reach in and pull out phone with the recording as I approach the desk. “The criminals who kidnapped your daughter filmed the whole thing. I warn you that it’s very disturbing but?—”
“Give me that.” Guido snatches the phone from my hand, and after a few taps the sickening sounds of Aerin’s assault fill the air. My stomach lurches like I’m on the edge of a cliff. Giacomo approaches his father and peers around his shoulder to watch.
Then, relief bleeds across Guido’s face. “Oh, thank god.”
Acid burns at the bottom of my throat while I fight to keep my expression impassive. How can he watch that footage and feel nothing but relief? Was his only concern truly whether Aerin remained a virgin?
