Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126682 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 633(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 422(@300wpm)
“How are things at the club?” I ask.
“Anya is doing a great job. She’s running the place as well as any of us. Better, actually.”
I let sufficient warning infuse my tone. “Don’t get too chummy with my wife.”
“I’m Claire’s godfather,” he says, splaying his fingers.
“So you keep on telling me.”
“I’m not a backstabber.”
“No.” He did kick the first grenade away and pulled me off Anya when the ambulance arrived. He was the one who dragged me out of the debris when everything was over. For that, I’ll always owe him. “But Anya is Anya. She’s easy to like.”
He considers me. “However, you don’t love her.”
“It’s complicated,” I say, gritting my teeth.
“I gather you’re not sending her to Switzerland anymore.”
“She refuses to go.”
His gaze sharpens. “Are you guys talking?” He adds, “As in communicating.”
“Yeah.” My defensiveness is a knee-jerk reaction. “Why do you ask?”
“No reason.” He rubs a thumb over his bottom lip as he studies me too closely for my liking. “What’s happened is hard on both of you. Women need to talk to get stuff off their chests.”
“Are you an expert on women now?”
He smiles at the jab. “Just looking out for both of you.”
I push down my irritation. Dante is the only man I trust, but he riles me up when he gets too friendly with my wife.
“Did you ask me here for a reason?” Dante asks.
“Could you trace Raphael’s supplier?”
“The weapons came from the Balkans. That’s as much as I could find out. What about your hacker? Did he find anything on the dark net?”
“Nothing.” I take another swig of my drink. “They covered their tracks well.”
“Did you ask Anya? Maybe she can pick up a money trail.”
My reply is clipped. “I’m not involving her in this.”
“I hate to break it to you, my friend, but she’s already involved.” He adds with a wry tone, “Thanks to you.”
I gnash my teeth harder. “That was never my intention.”
“You brought her in to do the books.”
That sounds like an accusation.
“I had to.” I tighten my fingers around my glass. “Luigi wanted to kill her. It was the only way I could make her indispensable.”
“Kill her?” His brown eyes flare. “Why?”
“She saw Giorgio and me when I knifed down Lewis.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, Sav.”
“A bunch of witnesses saw me with Anya when I went after her. I needed an alibi, and she happened to be there.”
“So you kept her close,” he says, not bothering to hide his astonishment. “Pretended to be in a relationship. And then you found out she was pregnant and thought, hey, why not marry her and kill two birds with one stone—protect your alibi from Luigi and gain a child in the process.”
I don’t tell him about my long spell of near impotency after I found out that I was infertile and my first marriage went up in flames or that Anya was the unexpected magical cure for my unresponsive cock. He can fucking judge me as much as he likes.
“Doesn’t matter why I married her,” I say. “She’s mine. Always has been. I evened the score by offering her freedom, and she didn’t take it. Now she’ll always be mine.”
He gets to his feet. “I guess you’re just going to have to deal with the shitstorm you created.”
“I’m dealing,” I bite out.
“Good.” He fixes me with look. “You’re my friend, but so is Anya. If you don’t treat her right, expect to have me in your face. A lot.”
I sit there like an idiot with my mouth full of teeth instead of getting in the last word because I’m too thrown off kilter to formulate a reply.
Dante doesn’t do friends. Period.
It’s different between him and me. We have an understanding that developed over many years. Trust my treasure to win him over in the short span of a few weeks. It must be all the time they spend together. I don’t like it, not one fucking bit. I should be there with her, not him. The injustice is enough to make me howl. It makes me want to summon Kevin to drive me to After Dark right now, but I’m not going to put all my goddamn weaknesses on display for my men to lose hope and faith. Our situation is dire enough as it is.
The reality of my life leaves me restless and irritated. When Dante is gone, I throw myself into work. Dante is good at procuring new business, but he has his hands full with getting information on those weapons Raphael ordered, so I start doing research on Raphael’s regular suppliers to gauge if there’s anyone worth corrupting.
Mid-morning, I order a cooked meal for dinner. Then I bury myself in work again. When I drag myself upstairs to change, it’s close to five.
In the hallway, I pause in front of the nursery. Unable to help myself, I open the door.