As Tino and I became alone, he grabbed my arm and gave a hard tug. I slammed right into his firm body, unable to be angry at him like I’d planned, the throwing myself at him in need so close.
“Do you think I’m going to kill you?” he asked.
I shook my head.
“Why not?”
“I trust you.”
“That’s stupid and naive.”
“I know, but I do.” Especially when I was in his protective embrace. My mind started working better now that Nicky wasn’t saying scary things and I was in the safest place I’d ever been. “Besides, if you wanted to kill me, you’d have done it by now. Ever since the first day we met when you knew about how Leo felt for me. Why go through all that trouble to protect me? Why wouldn’t you let the Lanzas kill me orhimkidnap me and get it over with?”
“Finally, someone says something that’s not total bullshit. What about Leo?”
“What about him?”
His jaw flexed, his lips puckering. “Do you love him?”
“I…I don’t hate him.”
“Straight answers, Angelina,” he warned, the blue in his eyes almost black.
“I honestly don’t know. I’ve never been in love before, and my feelings are always weird. I don’t…trust them.”
“Let me make it easier for you. If he weren’t my son, would you want to marry him?”
I shrugged, groping for an answer. It wasn’t that simple, but I opted for the simplest answer. “Yes.”
Dangerous sparks as if made in hell flamed in his gaze.
“Would you let me talk without getting mad?” I asked.
“Spit it out.”
“I’ve never led a normal life, with my father andhim… Leo is a saint compared to them, even as a mobster. And he’s kind and handsome and he says he loves me. I believe him. I believe he’d do anything, even defyingyou, so we can be together…because he loves me for real.”
“He doesn’t. He just wants you, and he wants to piss me off.”
“He never tried to touch me before, and he proposed to me, Tino. He treats me with the same manners he’d treat any Mafia princess. He doesn’t see me as an outsider or some quick lay he might get.”
“So you’d have said yes?” he grated.
“No.”
“Don’t play me!”
I shuddered. “Please don’t yell at me.”
He closed his eyes for a second and breathed out. “Fine. Continue.”
I tugged at the lapels of his suit jacket. “What I said is just logic speaking. It’s the answer in my mind, not my heart.”
“And what does your heart say, young lady?”
“That I really hate it when you call me that.”
“Don’t change the subject.”
