I held his hand in the back of the GMC SUV Frankie was driving. Dante was on his phone, typing madly on the screen, the whoosh sound alerting me to email after email being sent. When he told me they conducted most of their business online instead of in person now, I’d been skeptical. Couldn’t emails be tracked and phones hacked?
But he’d laughed and showed me Frankie’s three monitor set up on the plane. They had so many firewalls and contingency plans, redirects and shell companies, it would take the most talented hacker years to crack even one of their codes or schemes.
I looked at my thin gold wedding band glinting in the sun and squeezed his hand a little harder in mine.
We’d agreed we would visit Marco at New York Presbyterian before Dante called the police and turned himself into the authorities. According to Chen, the small Italian man had woken up two days ago and wouldn’t talk to anyone but Dante.
“You’re quiet,” Dante noted. “Did I tire you out?”
I smiled a little, a flush working its way into my cheeks.
After our argument, we sat down and set out a plan of attack with Tore and Frankie before removing ourselves to the bedroom.
If we only have one more day left, we had to make use of it.
I’d lost count of how many times he made me come. On his fingers, tongue, and dick, once even when I was riding his thigh as he played with my nipples.
He’d fucked me until there was no cum left in his balls, until we were both so satiated that we were boneless masses sunk deep into the mattress.
It had been amazing.
“I promise, when I get out, we will have a proper honeymoon,” he continued. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care,” I said honestly. “Just having you back is more than enough.”
His face softened, those strong, dark features suffused with warmth. “Sometimes, Elena, you know just what to say too.”
“I’m learning from the best,” I quipped.
“In every way,” he countered with a wiggle of his brows.
I laughed, and then I shook my head because it was extraordinary how he could make me laugh even when my heart ached.
“You’ll be okay,” he told me. “Frankie, Chen, Addie, and Jaco will stay with you at the apartment. One of them will go where ever you go, capisci? Do not try to leave without him or I will go mad in prison and you don’t want that.”
“No,” I agreed. “I won’t. My life won’t be very exciting anyway. I’m going to dedicate all of my time to figuring out how to end this farce of a case.”
“If anyone can do it, it’s lottatrice mia,” he said as we pulled to a stop.
I looked out the window and frowned. “This is not the hospital.”
“No,” Dante grinned that wide, boyish grin that had endeared him to me despite myself months ago. “It is not.”
He got out of the car before I could say anything else, opening mine to help me from the vehicle. It was a nondescript shop front, the name Gatti scrawled on a faded red sign with the image of a cat curling its tail around the ‘I’.
I followed him inside without question.
“Ciao Gatto,” Dante called as bells chimed over the door.
A portly man with jowls like a bull dog entered the room behind a row of glass counters and clapped his hands loudly. “Dante! I wonder when I will see you again and here you are.”
“I brought a special woman to the only place I would ever go to buy her something as treasured as she is to me,” Dante explained, tucking me into his side and leading us forward to the back.
The shop was a smallish rectangle with a U-shaped formation of glass cases holding glittering jewels and jewelry. I stared at a sapphire the size of a pistachio and blinked.
“Of course, a beautiful jewel for a beautiful lady.” The man Dante called ‘Cat’ rubbed his hands together in glee and then grabbed a pair of spectacles from a case on the counter. “Now, what does the lady like, huh? You like rubies, pearls, diamonds?”
I looked up at Dante. “What’s going on?”
He grinned, picking up my left hand to press a kiss to my plain gold band. “You didn’t think I would leave it at this, did you? I am proud of my wife, Elena. I want anyone who looks at you to see that you are unmistakably mine. We need a big jewel for that so here we are at Gatto’s.”
“I have the best,” the shopkeeper said with an immodest shrug.
I smiled at him, but not at Dante. “I don’t need anything else. This is perfect.”
Once, I’d wanted an engagement ring the size of a baby’s fist. The bigger the better. I’d pass by Tiffany’s on the way to work sometimes and look in the window, fantasizing about which gorgeous diamond Daniel might buy me.
Now, all I could focus on was my desire to see Dante a free man, unencumbered by the RICO case or bail jumping. Everything seemed trivial in comparison.
“Indulge me,” he suggested with a roguish smile before turning to Gatto. “Bring us some rubies and pearls, maybe a few grey diamonds if you have any.”
Gatto nodded enthusiastically and raced into the back.
“What about you, then? You want everyone to look at me and know I’m taken by my shiny ring. Shouldn’t you have one too?” I asked, loving the idea of stamping him with brand.
His eyes sparkled. “Feeling possessive?”
“Always.”
“Okay. You can choose what you like and I’ll wear it.”
“Careful, Dante,” I teased, moving away to look at some of the male rings in the display case to the left. “What if I get you a pink or purple stone?”
He leveled me with a look that dared me to fuck with him. “Then I will wear it and spend the rest of our lives punishing you for every single time someone makes a rude comment about my ring, va bene?”
I swallowed thickly, my thighs tingling even though I was sexually exhausted. Still, I was a tiny bit tempted to do exactly that.
“Elena…” he warned.
I laughed, hands raised in innocence. “I promise, I won’t.”
While we waited for Gatto, Dante took a quiet phone call and I focused on the rings in the case. My gaze snagged on a large gold band studded with a single, pristinely perfect obsidian stone.
“Ah, yes, that is lovely,” Gatto agreed as he passed by with a cover tray of jewels. “Come and chose yours before you pick anything. You might want to match them.”
I followed him, hooked through the heart by the sight of those beautiful gemstones.
My hand went to my mouth as I bent over the tray as he set it down for me.
There were six rubies and red diamonds in varying shades from pink to purple to deep, blood red but each of them was enormous. There were four large pearls, black, cream pink, and white along with tiny seed pearls that Gatto suggested could be arranged framing the main choice.
And then there was the black and grey diamonds.
“They can be cut into any shape,” he said as Dante joined me.
My husband, I still couldn’t believe I got to call him that, bent over the table with me and whistled. “Excellent selection, amico.”
“Only the best for you.”
“Which do you like, cuore mia?” Dante asked me, his breath tickling my neck in a way that made me shiver.