“What?” I say.
“I just—is it…okay? You’re safe, right? He’s not hurting you or anything?”
Her brows knit together as she searches my gaze.
“No, no. Not at all. He’s been great,” I tell her.
Which isn’t exactly true. Armanihashurt me, but mostly on an emotional level. Still, I’m touched that Juliana is worried about me, and that she’s been looking out for me. Even if I didn’t realize that’s what was going on when those Bruno gangsters crashed my reception.
But the thing is…I’m not so sure I want to be saved from this fake marriage after all.
“Sooo? Where the hell have you been?” she asks. “Tell me more about the surprise honeymoon.”
Sipping my coffee, I consider what to say, because the Bellantis’ island is clearly a secret.
“Honestly, I have no idea where the island was,” I tell her. “Somewhere. In the ocean.”
She pouts. “Seriously? What language were the people speaking? French, Spanish, Dutch, some kind of accented English? Surely you at least found a postcard at one of the gift shops.”
Shaking my head, I tell her, “Actually, it was a private island, so there weren’t any gift shops. There weren’t many people there, either. Just a bunch of armed guards who didn’t talk much.”
“Wow,” she says. “Talk about James Bond level shit. Okay.”
“I know. Crazy, right? It was beautiful, of course, but other than that, all I can say is that it was beachy and tropical. What about you, though? What have you been up to while I was gone?”
“We’ll get to that in a minute.” She takes another bite of her eggs. “I have to say, I’m just…really proud of you for trapping Armani into marriage like that. Well played.”
The way she worded that turns my stomach, but I nod and smile. “Thank you. And, um, when you said it’d all be over soon, did you mean there was some kind of plan in motion?”
Juliana looks at me intently. “You know I can’t tell you that, babe. Wish I could, but it’s way over your clearance level. But listen, if at any point you don’t feel safe, or if something happens with him, I’ll get you out of there right away. Okay?”
“Right. Yeah. Of course.”
“Honestly, I can’t imagine what it’s like being married to one ofthem, but you seem to be handling it well.”
“It’s not so bad. He takes care of me,” I tell her, thinking about my still-healing foot injury.
She snickers. “I’ll bet he does.”
“Not just in bed!”
Juliana starts cackling. I force myself to laugh along with her, but I have to bite back the defense of my husband that’s trying to burst from my lips.
Because Jules only knows what shethinksshe knows about the Bellantis. It’s all hearsay, based on things her uncle has told her. She doesn’t know the family the way I do. She has no clue about Armani’s tender side. Or how much it kills him to show it. There’s something good inside him, and inside Dante and Marco, too. If there wasn’t, their wives never would have stayed.
Yes, these men have been trained since childhood to be criminals, to live their lives by a code of violence and intimidation. But each of them has made a concerted effort to separate themselves from that legacy—their father’s legacy. They might still be in the thick of it all, but they’re not trying to stay there. I know for a fact that the Bellantis would love nothing more than to leave the world of the mafia and become heritage winemakers. But Juliana would never believe me if I told her that.
And she sure as hell wouldn’t believe me if I told her that I feel like I’m finally making some headway in my relationship with Armani…like maybe somewhere, underneath all the stoic coldness and the holstered guns and the icy gaze, there’s someone I might actually, really, possibly even…love.
Suddenly, I have perfect clarity. There’s no way I can tell Juliana what I know about the Russians. I can’t do that to the Bellantis. I can’t let the Brunos find out that Armani’s family is at a disadvantage right now. It would only prompt the Brunos to strike sooner, harder, and more terribly.
Jules chatters away, mostly just innocuous small talk, but I can’t get into it. I barely follow what she’s saying, but I must nod and respond at the right times because she keeps going.
Meanwhile, I can’t stop puzzling over how Armani has been acting since we got home. That initial disappearance, the way he’d pulled me into the office to tell me I was off the hook and that new information had been revealed. He’d gone to the Deep Cellar, hadn’t he? But who had been down there?
“So, that brings me tomybig news,” Juliana says, puffing out her chest proudly.
“Oh?” I say, doing my best to act like I’ve been listening to her this whole time.
