Page 19 of The Arianna Arrangement

Crestwood had a couple of good pizza places, but nothing beat an original New York style pizza. Tucker ordered an extra large pepperoni and extra cheese pizza then took a seat across from me at the table I’d grabbed by the window.

“How’s wedding planning been going with your mother?”

“Ugh.” I loved my mom, but she was difficult at the best of times. Planning the wedding for her only daughter? She’d become an utter nightmare. I felt certain at this point that this was her wedding, not mine. “She vetoed my choice of flowers this morning and decided to go with white roses, baby pink peony’s, and gardenias.”

“What flowers were you wanting?”

“Pink zinnias, hot pink gerbera daisies, and white orchids. She said, ‘Absolutely not. We’re going for classy, not trashy’.” I rolled my eyes. I knew from the flowers she picked out that she wasn’t going to allow Leyla to wear a hot pink dress like I wanted, but a baby pink one to match the flowers.

“I don’t think those flowers sound trashy at all.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Thank you!”

“I’m sorry she’s making this difficult for you. If you want me to say something, I will. This is our day, not her’s. You should have the wedding of your dreams.”

I loved that he was willing to put his neck on the line for this. That he’d pick this battle to make me happy, but I wasn’t sure it was worth it. “That’s alright. I’m sure whatever she picks will be gorgeous. I’m just glad that she can’t pick the catering menu or cake because the two of us will be choosing those.”

He grinned. “I don’t know. She does know how to pick out a delicious meal.” Our pizza arrived and we both dug in, burning our tongues in the process but not letting that stop us. “Maybe we should just cater pizza.”

I about spit out the drink I was taking. “She would go postal if we did that.” I thought about it for a second, before grinning. “If she doesn’t back off some, maybe I’ll threaten that.”

Tucker raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that’ll work?”

“No. She’ll just demand to be part of the tastings and probably completely take over that area as well.”

“Then maybe you should tell her my family will do that for the rehearsal dinner. We’ll host it at a bar if she doesn’t back off and let you make choices for your wedding day.” He shrugged. “She can’t stop what my family does for the rehearsal dinner, and if my mom found out you didn’t have a say in your big day, she’d sure as fuck do it.”

He was right. Ashley would one-hundred percent rent out a bar for our rehearsal dinner to piss off my mom if that’s what it came to.

God, I loved this family I was marrying into.

Chapter 8

Tucker

“Boys. I’m very impressed with the work you did. Finding out that information on Leo? Well done.” If it was my father saying it, I’d be proud. But with the words coming from Lucian, I was leary. “As a reward, you’re going to be the ones that get to torture the information out of him.”

Yep. There it was. I knew that no good deed went unpunished. I mean, who in their right mind would consider getting to torture someone a reward?

Sandro gave a small tilt of the head. “Thank you, sir. Anything specific you want to know?”

Lucian shrugged. “The usual. I’ll be watching through the cameras and will let you know if I need anything else. Also, you guys will be responsible for body disposal and cleanup as part of your initiation. Tucker should take the lead on this since he’s yet to have to do that task.”

My stomach dropped at the thought, but it wasn’t like I didn’t know this day was coming. “Yes, sir.”

He flicked his wrist towards the door. “You all are dismissed. The interrogation will start in an hour.”

Sandro looked at me as the office door shut behind us. “You should probably change clothes.”

He was right, but what in the hell did you wear to torture and murder someone?

All three guys followed behind me and into my room, really setting off my alarm bells. As soon as the door was shut, Sandro faced me again. “I’m assuming you have surveillance blockers in here?”

I eyed him skeptically. “Yeah.”

“Good.” Without asking permission to go further into my domain, the three guys went and sat at the table. “That means this is the only place on the estate completely safe to talk. So here’s the game plan. I’ll ask the questions, you three will take turns torturing. Tuck, we’re going to give you the easy tasks since it’s your first and probably only. How good are you with your fists?”

I’d never been in a fight, but Apollo had taught all of us self-defense and basic fighting techniques. “Decent.”