Page 74 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

Headlights flashed out front, and I ignored them. I lived on a busy street. There were always cars outside.

But I couldn’t ignore the knock on the door.

I squinted at it and then got up with a sigh, expecting one of my brothers to be standing there, drunk and needing a place to crash because my place was closer to the Strip than theirs.

Luca Guerra stood on the other side. “My father wants to speak to you.”

I didn’t answer. Because what the fuck did Carlos Guerra and I have to say to each other? I could tell him all about how I had just fucked his fiancée. I could say I loved her with every beat of my heart and that her marrying someone else was killing me.

But my brain was smarter than my heart.

It shouted at me, warning there was a danger here I needed to respect. Not because I gave a shit about my own life, because without her, I didn’t care if I had one. But I did care about her. She was scared of the man sitting in the back seat of that car. And not without good reason.

So I was smart enough to be scared too. “If I get in that car, is he going to put a bullet through my brain?”

Luca blinked, honest surprise on his expression. “Why the hell would he do that?”

So maybe he didn’t know about me and Nyah and what we’d just done on the back seat of my car.

Or maybe he was a really good fucking liar.

Either way, I got the impression I really had no say in the matter. If Carlos Guerra wanted to talk to me in the back of his sleek black limousine, then that’s what was happening.

Luca turned and led the way, sliding into the back seat, leaving the door open for me to follow.

I hesitated for a second but then got in beside him.

Carlos and another man I didn’t recognize sat across from us.

Both of them stared at me.

I waited, none of us saying anything. The silence drew out so long I got annoyed. “I’ve got shit to do, so if you’re just going to sit there…”

Carlos cocked his head to one side, studying me. “What shit do you have to do, Dax? It’s the middle of the night.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I was painting his fiancée in nothing but her birthday suit and my sheets, but I didn’t think that would go down too well. So I just said, “I paint.”

Carlos raised an eyebrow. “A man of many talents, then? Painting. Tattooing. Fighting…”

“Some would argue I’m mediocre at all three.”

“But they’d be wrong, wouldn’t they?” His gaze traveled down my body, over my bare chest and arms. “That your work?”

“Some of it.”

“It’s good.”

I sighed. “You come here to blow smoke up my ass, Carlos, or did you come here for an actual reason? If you’re going to shoot me, just fucking get on with it. I’ve had a hell of a night.”

He chuckled. “Why would I shoot you?”

Huh. It was much the same question Luca had asked. Maybe that actually wasn’t why he was here. “Isn’t that what you do? I’ve heard the rumors.”

“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear, Dax. Not all rumors are true. Like the one I heard where you once dated my fiancée.”

I froze.

Luca’s head snapped up.