“What’s there?”
“That’s where I live. You can find me there whenever you want.”
I released the breath I’d been holding on to when he kissed me again.
“Thank you,” I told him breathlessly.
Another kiss was planted on my forehead then he got dressed and left. I put my clothes on too and went downstairs. I knew Pa would be waiting in the sitting room. That was exactly where I found him.
He stood by the mantelpiece looking at my painting of the Tuscan countryside.
He turned when he saw me and rage washed over his face.
“So that’s how he watches you?” he asked.
“You had no right to come into my room like that.” This was crazy shit. All of it. Once again it had come back to the part of this messed up situation where he treated me like a child. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Jia, I understand you’re a grown woman and you can screw around with whoever you want, but not when I’ve specifically expressed my wishes for you.”
Oh my God, he was going to sell me that shit again about Armand.
“Wishes, you mean Armand?” I snapped and scowled at him.
“Why are you asking the question you already know the answer to? Fucking hell Jia, I never believed you’d defy me like this. Not when I need you to comply. You saw the shit that’s happening. You’ve seen it and you insist on making life difficult.”
“Pa!” I cried. My voice was more an anguished scream of everything inside me. “Will you listen to yourself? Will you seriously listen to yourself? You’re telling me to be with a man who cheated on me. God knows how many times. I don’t want that. Fuck, we all saw for ourselves that he was with Maria the night of the shootout. You know what he’s like. How can you want me to be with someone like that?”
“So what, you think this Xander blows into our lives and suddenly you’re in love with him?” he growled.
In love…
What a nice thought. What a nice dream to have.
Maybe it explained it. The passion, the life force that took over me when I was with Xander. Maybe it explained it all. It would make sense to call it that. I didn’t think time could question things like love. I didn’t think time had a place because you’d end up questioning yourself.
So maybe I did love him.
Only yesterday I’d thought I’d never been in love before. Maybe I was…
Maybe it wasn’t a maybe…
I thought people knew if they were in love or not. I knew it. I felt it. Swirling within me like the passion it rode on. Warming me and filling me with everything good.
Pa looked furious. “This is an outrage. You know nothing about him.”
“But you knew enough to hire him and make him a knight.”
“That is different. A resumé is just a resumé. It doesn’t tell you all about a person. We know nothing more about him other than the fact that he was a marine for years and has the ability to shit on everything I say. A person like that can never be truly trusted. Secrets and lies are up their sleeves. Always an ace up their sleeve.”
“Like you…” My gaze clung to his. “You mean like you? So many secrets and lies. You can’t even tell me why you think I’m in danger. You can’t, can you?”
Pa stood his ground. His shoulders tensed and his face hardened. “Armand knows our ways. He is La Cosa Nostra. Our families go back to Italia bellezza. He is who I chose for you. Not this ace of hearts who defies me every chance he gets. I chose Armand for you. You talk about Europe, well now you get your wish. You can go. Armand will take you next week. You will be his wife, so prepare. You will be his wife, Jia.”
A tremor lanced through me. It pierced through my body like a sharp knife slicing through my skin. It pierced my soul and shattered my heart.
“No,” I breathed, clutching a hand to my chest and shaking my head. “No Papa.”
“Yes. So, you will end this thing, whatever it is you have with Xander Cage.”
I shook my head and tears spilled down my cheeks. “No.”
“No? Jia, test me and I will be forced to do what is necessary to remove a threat, no matter how useful he is to me.”
I sucked in a sharp breath that nearly choked me. “No Papa, you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t hurt him…”
“Hurt? Bellezza you know I don’t aim for hurt if someone stands in my way. A threat is a threat and you eliminate them. Get rid of them for good.”
He meant he would kill him.
He would do it.
I knew he would.
After all, my father was a monster.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Xander
I swore to god if I had the power I would have ended that bastard from the second I set my eyes on him.
I didn’t hear Giovanni come into Jia’s room. I didn’t hear him and that said a lot because I was sharper than that.
I’d enjoyed the beauty far too much, indulging in her more than I should. Going deeper down the hole of distrust. Allowing myself to feel for her. I couldn’t believe I’d allowed myself to get lost in her the way I had. It was crazy and exciting and it was getting past the line of return. The line I should have set up was so far away from me I couldn’t see it and it was making me slip up.
It was making me make mistakes.
If that wasn’t true I would have, at the very least, heard Giovanni when he came into her room this morning.
And, the fucking thing that he needed me to do was to accompany Vinny in dropping off a package. It was money. Money for diamonds.
We carried two hundred grand to a guy that looked like a dealer, shady as fuck in the back streets of San Jose. It was a dive of a place that screamed dirty dealings. Having seen the diamonds the other day in the vault I knew that Giovanni had a thing for them. But fuck, I wasn’t prepared for the diamonds I saw today.
Celestine diamonds. That was what people called them because of their starlight appearance. The thing was, if memory served me right, I knew they were worth more than what we handed over to the guy.
That took up the morning, then I was put on duty with Freddo to watch over the casino floor.
That was my day and I did it because I knew that it was better to let people cool off, let the smoke blow over, then strike. Mostly, I was worried about my own smoke because Giovanni could easily push me. Push me to a point where I could blow the mission. The mission was what I had to bring it back to.
Except for a few messages this morning on the way to my place to change, I hadn’t been able to talk to Wes or Ethan properly. So meeting at our little office just before nightfall was the first real chance I got to talk with both of them.
Wes had managed to get the building plans for the casino and hotel.
The whole thing looked like a maze.
“Want to know something of interest?” Wes asked, looking proud of himself.
“Sure buddy.” Ethan looked to him as Wes waved his hand over the plans.
“These aren’t the building plans they have listed at City Hall.”
“Wes, do I even want to know how you got these?” I asked. It was the first time I’d smiled all day.
“I have my ways, bro.” He pointed to the section that first got my interest when he laid it out. “Here, this whole section here isn’t on the original map.”