My phone rings.
“Yes?”
“Will you be at the port today?” Giulia, one of my assistants, asks.
I’ve worked remotely this week to stay close. I sigh when she lowers her head and walks away.
“I’ll be there around three.” That gives me time to transport Dante. I want him to sweat for a couple more days.
“You have a call in ten and another in an hour. I emailed the fourth-quarter projections for reference.”
“Thank you, Giulia.” All of my businesses require my attention. There’s no time for distractions, but I can’t take my eyes off her.
I switch the video feed to the camera in her room. She’s bored but refuses to admit it. I’ve given her time to adjust, but I’m not a patient man. If she won’t talk to me, I’ll force her hand.
“Let the games begin.”
Chapter 21
Biting Bonnets
Bianca
Hiss.
My ears perk up, but I keep my chin tipped toward the late morning sun.
Hiss.
The hell?
Hiss.
My sunglasses are off.
Either the snake JLo and Ice Cube battled in the Amazon is in the courtyard, or a sprinkler is about to piss me off.
Do you know the effort it took to squeeze myself and an inflatable lounger into this fountain? The thing can’t bend corners and is thinner than the piece of wood Rose hogged, but I’m floating. I’m barely moving, but it floats. I pretend the central water fixture is the Gulf of Naples, where I’m supposed to be.
The hiss slithers to a slow gurgle. Fountain water sloshes at my ankles, then at my knees.
“What is this?!”
The inflatable lounger tilts left, then right, before it wilts, sinking my ass with it. My arms splash and my legs scrape the concrete. Scissoring with no happy ending. Water drowns my pajamas and fills my bonnet.
Alfred picked up my pool accessory after a day of begging. I didn’t care if I used it as a blanket on the grass. I’m on vacation. It’s brand new and shouldn’t have any holes.
It—
Benny.
“That motherfucker.”
What kind of bastard kills a pool lounger?
Benny has been a special kind of petty this week, doing the most to get me to talk to him. Everything Alfred said about him being “reasonable” went out the window the second he took my snacks and the batteries from my remote.
Fuckery is afoot, and Salvatore Bennici will see me.
