King of Hearts

by C. A. Szarek

  “If you come with me, I’ll take you to Deputy Chief Patton. Her meeting should be brief, then we can get started. Are you alone?”

  “For now. Marshal Inspectors Griggs and Bailey should be joining us in a day or two. They were delayed due to some red tape at the office.”

  “Alrighty then.” Another smile stretched across his mustached mouth. “I look forward to working with you. My squad does, too.”

  As long as I don’t see Gio, I’m good.

  She let Olinsky lead her around the corner, answering when required, but not offering much conversation otherwise. She was on edge; just wanted to get inside an office so she wouldn’t chance running into Gio.

  As if thought conjured him, her eyes collided with a very blue pair.

  His went wide, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and his step faltered. He was coming toward her and the captain down the hall, about ten feet away. He had a file folder in hand, and his brisk stride, despite the pause, suggested he was in a hurry.

  Of. Fucking. Course.

  It didn’t matter how far away he was.

  Maddie could see, sense—remember—every inch of his body, from the dark jeans, the blue polo that brought out the hue of those eyes, and the gun holstered at his waist; the badge pinned next to it on his belt. Even the black shitkickers he always wore, same as back then.

  His hair was shorter, less messy-looking. Still just as dark. Sable locks that needed her fingertips in them.

  Nico Giovanni was just as delicious as he’d been at twenty-three.

  “Ah, here’s one of my guys now. Gio, come meet the leader of the marshal taskforce.” The captain gestured, and her former lover slowed.

  The distance disappeared much too soon.

  She flushed to her toes. Her gut churned and her heart thundered, unable to decide between hot and cold.

  Maybe she really was going to puke.

  Recognition flared in those gorgeous eyes, and it took all she was made of not to flee like a felon running from a warrant being served.

  Gio gave her a onceover, as if she was a gallon of water and he was stranded in a desert.

  Maddie squirmed.

  Captain Olinsky was oblivious. “Senior Inspector Madison Granger, this is one of my lead detectives, Nico Giovanni, but we all call him ‘Gio’ ‘round here. He’s going to be on the taskforce.”

  Oh. Shit. Of course he is.

  She swallowed. Like a hundred times.

  Vomit was only seconds away.

  Maddie shoved her hand out. “N-n-n-ice to meet you, Detective.” She’d stuttered, but at least her voice had come out.

  He stared at her extended offer before those eyes landed on her face again. This time, narrowed. ‘This is how you want to play it?’ his gaze asked.

  Gio glanced back at his captain before taking her fingers in his.

  Awareness zapped down her spine and she squared her shoulders. Wanted to yank away and scream for him not to touch her.

  Even if polite and expected, the handshake had been a horrible, horrible idea.

  She wanted to cut her hand off.

  Just one brush of his fingers against hers. His palm against hers.

  The past sucked her into a black hole and Maddie was suddenly standing in the private bar area of the casino, tears running down her cheeks when the man before her spliced her heart into shards.

  She blinked, but the vision was only replaced with Gio touching her in a different way.

  Cupping her breasts, kissing her mouth, her neck, moving in and out of her…

  Stop. It!

  Maddie jolted back to the present and pulled back, damn-it-all if it seemed abrupt.

  Gio released her, but his broad shoulders were stiff, and his stare was still pointed at her.

  A far from professional stare. Far from appropriate for meeting a new coworker.

  Captain Olinsky appraised them, but said nothing.

  The silence lasted seconds too long, until Gio cleared his throat. “Nice to meet you, Senior Inspector Granger.”

  She should be grateful he was cooperating, but his gaze smoldered with promises that made her fidget all over again.

  Maddie cleared her throat, too. “For sure.”

  Now his eyes were barely slits. “I’m sure you and I will talk later.”

  Nod, just nod.

  Her spine flushed with heat and ice that made her shoulders and arms ache.

  He’d made a vow.

  She read it in his expression, and it scared the shit out of her. Gio would have her babbling about Jake in two seconds flat.

  “Briefing should be soon regarding the marshals’ case,” Olinsky said.

  He spared his captain a glance and nodded. “Roger.” Gio pinned Maddie with one last look. “See you there.”

  She wrestled the tremors in her limbs as she and Olinsky continued on to Deputy Chief Patton’s office. Cursed herself to hell and back.

  Her physical reaction to Nico Giovanni was just as potent as it had been eight years ago.

  He was going to be on her taskforce?

  Fuck. My. Life.

  ****

  Gio fought the urge to rub his eyes.

  Maddie’s here?

  Or had he just dreamt the exchange in the hallway?

  Had he really ‘met’ the best lover he’d ever had? At work? Walking with his captain?

  He’d been asking himself the same questions, over and over again since he’d returned to his cubicle from the records room.

  Gio had touched her hand with what should’ve been an innocent greeting; except, touching her now had sent his brain to back then in two seconds flat. Had his mind in all the places he’d convinced himself he’d forgotten, or gotten over.

  When Olinsky had asked if he’d wanted to be on US Marshal’s taskforce that morning, he’d jumped on it. Hadn’t really needed Hector’s urging. Throwing himself into a new case would help with his headfuck over his family for sure, since his last investigation was over.

  Maddie was heading it?

  Sure, he’d known she was still with the Marshals’ Service.

  The woman who’d broken his heart was based out of Chicago for the last few years—not that he’d checked up on her or anything after she’d left him.

  What the hell was she doing in Vegas?

  They’d met years ago…

  Eight to be exact.

  Gio could try to kid himself and pretend he didn’t know how long it’d been, but that was all bullshit.

  Damn, she was still gorgeous. Petite and curvy in all the right places. Wavy shoulder-length blonde hair, but it had a honey-gold hue. It was longer now than when he’d known her. Huge hazel eyes, complete with gold flecks.

  Maddie’s eyes always looked like burnt amber when she was aroused.

  God, the way she’d screamed when she came…

  Fuck. Stop.

  He didn’t need a boner at work.

  “What the fuck’s up with you?”

  A hard hand landed on his shoulder, and jolted him.

  Gio met a pair of midnight eyes. “Jesus, you scared the shit out of me, Garcia.”

  Hector arched a dark eyebrow. “What’d I tell you about calling me Jesus? It’s not my fault it’s my middle name. You look like you’re daydreaming, dude. Same as this morning, but you looked like you wanted to be left alone, so I didn’t say anything.”

  Exactly. Same for right now.

  “Blow me.” He shifted away from his buddy’s grip, spinning his computer chair around to face him.

  The short, stocky detective smirked and perched on the edge of his desk beside him, like he’d done that morning. “How many times I gotta tell you I’m not into dong? Gonna think you’re after my cojones for sure, amigo.”

  Gio flashed a grin. “If I was gay, I wouldn’t be into your ugly mug.”

  “Aww shucks, you’re gonna hurt my one remaining feeling.”

  He snorted.

  “In other news, did you see the US Marsha
l heading that taskforce? She’s in Patton’s office right now. I had to invent a few reasons to walk by. What a HPOA.”

  He arched an eyebrow. Had to ask, even if he wouldn’t like he answer. “What the fuck is a HPOA?”

  Hector winked, a gleam in his dark eyes. “Hot piece of ass.”

  He was up and out of the chair before he could take a breath, pushing his face in his friend’s. “Don’t fucking talk about her like that.” He made a fist, in lieu of grabbing the guy. By the throat.

  The detective’s eyes widened. “Easy, hombre.” Hector threw his palms up. Took a step back when Gio towered over him.

  He shook himself, made his hands loosen. “Sorry,” he muttered but didn’t retake his seat. He had no right to…what? Defend Maddie’s honor?

  “You know this fed chica or somethin’?” Hector’s nonchalant curiosity snagged his attention, but his buddy’s gaze was shrewd, studying him.

  He cleared his throat before he could answer. “Yeah. You could say that.” He tried to deliver the words with the same ease, but failed miserably.

  “Ah, si, si. History.”

  Gio wanted to deny it, but he’d already admitted he knew Maddie, and hell, ‘history’ felt like too weak a word to describe his past with Madison Granger.

  The other option was to tell Hector to go to hell, but that would just seal the smugness his friend already regarded him with.

  “Wait. This is the one that fucked you up when you were a rook, huh?” One dark eyebrow shot up. It was more a statement than question.

  “I’m gonna fuck you up,” he grumbled. The dude knew too much about him. One drunken night rearing its ugly head at the last moment he needed it to. He’d gotten too honest, too friendly, with the guy when he’d first made detective.

  Figures.

  That eyebrow went higher. Hector opened his mouth, but Olinsky popped his head in the room.

  “Gio, Garcia, Navarro, Foster, briefing room. Marshal Granger is ready for us.”

  Thank God.

  They filed into the briefing room in an orderly manner, like good little boys and girls.

  Maddie stood with a white board to her left and a projector to her right. On the cart next to the projector was an open laptop, but the hanging projector screen behind her was blank.

  Her gaze appeared to sweep over them, but pointedly avoided him.

  Gio narrowed his eyes and willed her to look his way, but she didn’t. Like she wouldn’t.

  On purpose.

  She introduced herself and talked about what she did for the Marshal’s Service.

  “So, not a fugitive hunt,” Hector whispered from beside him, elbowing him in the side.

  Gio tore his eyes from his former lover and glanced at his fellow detective. “Guess not.”

  “Did you know?”

  He shook his head.

  “We can thank the FBI for this case, people. It was a joint effort, but now it’s all ours.” Maddie flashed a smile that was somewhere between feral and proud. “Let’s dive in.”

  She bent over and clicked on a few things at the computer. Images popped up on the big screen.

  A few shots of paperwork he quickly discerned as someone’s financials, and a photograph of an older man, with thick salt and pepper hair, olive skin and brown eyes.

  Confusion swirled in his gut when he took in the last picture. It was a picture of The Giovanni.

  The building he’d known all is life was unmistakable, with the ornate water fountain in front of it, and the attached hotel tower soaring into the Sin City skyline behind it.

  The shot had been snapped in the daytime, so none of the bright colored night lights were visible.

  Maddie’s words didn’t compute any more than the photos she’d called up from the laptop, and the projector’s screen spotlighted.

  All the crap from the previous night was shoved to the wayside.

  The US Marshals and the FBI thought his father’s casino was a front? Money laundering? For the mob? In Chicago?

  What. The. Actual. Fuck.

  No fucking wonder she wouldn’t look at him.

  Gio fidgeted on his seat, his stomach twisting itself further into knots the more she spoke.

  Hector kept shooting him ‘what the hell?’ looks, but he couldn’t tear his eyes from his former lover. Maddie, the marshals, hell, the FBI was all wrong.

  So wrong. None of it’s true.

  The old guy on the screen was Cesare Fratelli, the CEO of a huge accounting firm, and recently apprehended for a massive money laundering ring tied to the Falcone Syndicate—old school, old Chicago Italian mobsters that were as relevant today as they’d been in the fifties and sixties. A crime family.

  According to Maddie, the FBI was still trying to get the Falcones behind bars, but intel from Fratelli indicated there was the same kind of activity at The Giovanni.

  Worse than that, Fratelli claimed his father’s casino had been started with mob money over forty years ago.

  No. Fucking. Way.

  Sure, his father had grown up in Chicago, but he’d moved to Vegas and built the casino from the ground up before he’d met and married Gio’s mother.

  History and stereotypes alike proved Sin City had been shaped and grown by old mobsters, but his father had never been involved in organized crime. He’d never caved into pressures, even if he’d been susceptible.

  “This shit is crazy,” he murmured.

  “I know, right? Nothing changes about ol’ Vegas.” Hector winked.

  He didn’t correct his buddy, let alone spare him a glance. His head was still spinning.

  How could they suspect this shit about his family’s casino?

  He’d never heard of Fratelli’s firm, and besides, his sister handled everything accounting-numbers-money related, and she sure-as-hell would never have anything to do with organized crime.

  Wait a minute…Elise.

  Elise’s fiancé.

  Gio straightened in the chair, then leaned forward, his stare boring a hole in the picture of old man Fratelli.

  Marco fucking Fratelli.

  He didn’t believe in coincidences.

  Chapter Five

  “I need to talk to you,” Gio muttered in her ear.

  “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  His large hand clamped on her wrist. Maddie tugged away, but he tightened the hold.

  Her eyes darted around the corridor. There was no one around, but anyone could come at any moment. The ready-room door was ajar. It would likely empty momentarily.

  The briefing had gone well, but she’d fled the room first, before any of the LVMPD detectives or Captain Olinsky.

  She’d thanked them for their time and attention, answered questions as fast as lightning, then told them she’d check in soon.

  Maddie hadn’t had a direction or destination. She was supposed to stay there, work with them, but she’d copped out. Stated her colleagues from the Marshals would meet up with them soon and they’d proceed.

  She’d just needed to get out of there.

  Get away from him.

  Even if she’d never given him the barest acknowledgment during her talk of the case. Her reason for being in Vegas. With his father’s casino at the center of things.

  She hadn’t spared him one glimpse.

  Now, her eyes shot to his face, and she couldn’t turn away. “N-n-not here.” The stutter made her cringe, but Gio gave the barest nod and dragged her down the hallway.

  He pushed open the nearest door and shoved her inside, slapping the light on and yanking the thick panel shut, just short of a slam.

  The click of the lock resounded in her temples.

  The contents of room told her it was an office supply hub, from the neatly organized stacks copy paper cases against one wall, to the shelves lining all the rest.

  Post-it notes were next to boxes of pens, bundles of notebooks, highlighters, and multiple toner refills. File folders, and banker boxes galore. The scent of paper and celloph
ane tickled her nose.

  She’d always loved going to the office supply store. New supplies made her want to do her job. She’d never been afraid of the paperwork side, what most cops dreaded. Maddie thrived on the investigation, being sharper than coworkers, researching and catching the little things others missed. She was detail-oriented, and good. She deserved this case, this command.

  Her former lover whirled and stalked toward her, towering over her with his six-foot-four frame.

  She refused to shrink way, but Maddie retreated until her shoulders and upper back hit the edge of the far shelf. There was nowhere else to go. The contents shook and she waited for something to fall and smack her head, but it didn’t happen.

  Gio’s sapphire eyes flashed with anger and he slammed his palm on the edge of the shelf right above her left ear.

  She winced.

  “Are you five?”

  “Excuse me?” She met that gaze dead-on, not wanting to give in to her confusion. Whatever she’d contemplated he might open with, it wasn’t that.

  “Ignoring me. Pretending you don’t know me. Leading the whole fucking briefing, avoiding even one glance in my direction? Real cute, Senior Inspector Granger, with the United States Marshals Service.” He spat her title, last name and agency.

  “I was trying to maintain professionalism.” Her tone sounded defensive to her ears and she fought another wince.

  He threw his head back and laughed. “Bullshit.”

  Maddie shuddered and wanted to rub her arm, but couldn’t move when he looked at her like that.

  Gio was right, of course, but she’d cut her tongue off before she admitted that.

  “It doesn’t matter how many years passed. You can’t pretend we didn’t exist.”

  “Why not?” she snapped. “None of it matters. We have a case, and you happen to be on my taskforce. We have to work together. So, let’s just keep it professional. A work thing.”

  “Hell no.”

  His vehemence made her startle, and she reared back, knocking her head into the shelf.

  “Shit.” Maddie rubbed the throbbing spot.

  Gio’s expression lost some of its harshness. “You okay?”

  He must not have been overly concerned, because her former lover still hovered too close for comfort. The heat coming off him warmed her, and her traitorous body only wanted him closer.