by C. A. Szarek
“I don’t know. It’s all I can think of. It has to be some mix-up. Maybe we got hacked?” His fiancée sounded so damn optimistic, he wanted to agree.
Should he give her false hope?
Nah, Elise Giovanni was many things, but an idiot wasn’t one of them. Unfortunately.
“I don’t think the feds would’ve been able to get a warrant over a hack job.”
“We haven’t laundered any money!” She punctuated her shout with a stomp of her foot.
“I know, tesoro. Take a breath and tell me the rest. I promise we’ll figure this out. What did they seize? What did the lawyers say is the next step?”
Gian tried not to pitch himself on the edge of the couch like she was, or seem too eager as she ticked off the items the feds had taken that morning.
Every item could amend his plans. Or quite possibly be the fuel that fed Uncle Dino’s drive for him to cut his losses and hightail it back to the Windy City.
In disgrace.
No, thank you.
His time here wasn’t done. He was going to own this place. Gain—no, own—his dad’s respect.
“This is good.”
“Good?” Elise demanded, with another flash of anger in those big brown eyes.
“Yes.”
She wrenched away from his hold. “How?”
“They didn’t get anything we still don’t have access to. We have backups. Remember all those redundancies we put in place? Two off-site server locations.”
Elise pushed off the couch and started to pace. “Off-site servers?”
Gian forced a smile, because she was displaying her sharpness, and despite the turn of this conversation being his fault, he didn’t need his fiancée launching a mission. She was too smart for her own good. “Exactly,” he managed.
“I can fix this,” she breathed. She smiled. A little. “I can prove we didn’t do this.” Relief engulfed her whole lithe form; lifting her shoulders and making him see the normally confident woman that drew him no matter his resistance.
“Hold on a moment, before you go off half-cocked.”
She frowned. “I need your help right now.”
“And you have it. Always. But what did Allemand say to do?”
“He said investigators from his office will meet with me in the morning. I need to order the back-ups. To start analyzing the data.”
“I think we need to do what the firm says,” Gian said, pushing the caution forward. He needed her to calm her damn jets.
“What? But you were right. I can see almost everything the feds can. I can—”
“Hey. Breathe.” He shot to his feet and grabbed her shoulders again. “I’ll help you wherever I can, but I really feel we should follow Allemand’s lead. You don’t want to hurt the case, do you? Or make it look like you’re tampering with evidence.”
Elise’s expression fell; all the hope fleeing as if it hadn’t been there.
He couldn’t care how she felt. Not that he did. He had to cover his ass. Her uncovering his real identity hadn’t computed in his calculations, and he needed it to stay that way.
“You’re probably right,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to be right.”
She nodded. “Will you come to the meeting tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
“Then we can reassess?”
He nodded. “We’ll see how it goes. You might want to order the back-ups to give to Allemand’s investigators.”
“Yeah, I will first thing.”
“Good. It’ll be okay, tesoro. One day at a time…”
“One day at a time,” Elise echoed.
“Do you want me to go beat up your brother?” he offered half-heartedly.
She laughed. It was genuine, and made him return a soft smile.
“No offense, my love, but I fear he’d wipe the floor with you.” The playful twinkle returned to her eyes.
Somehow, Gian liked that.
“Hey! I feel insulted!” He grabbed his chest and she giggled.
Her expression sobered so fast, he frowned.
“Speaking of my brother…”
“He can go to hell, remember?” He didn’t need her reaching out to the asshole tonight. His identity was still in danger. Her brother knew too much.
The feds had a case.
There was a lot of work to do. He could clean things up with his fiancée to put her off his trail, but she wasn’t the real danger.
He had no intention of telling his Uncle Dino. Gian needed to know what Fratelli had told the feds, too.
“Yes, but it’s not that.” Elise’s luscious mouth rippled as if she was fighting another smile. The frown won, and her lips turned down. He could feel her perplexity. “He did find something else.”
“What?”
“A little brown book. It looked old.”
His heart skittered to a stop, then tripped into overdrive. He prayed she couldn’t make out his genuine ‘oh, shit’ face. “What? What was in it?”
“I don’t know. They took it before I got a chance to see inside.”
Chapter Sixteen
Damn, he needed a drink.
Maybe he needed to have his head examined.
Gio stood at her apartment door, and the golden numbers mocked him. He stared, not having the balls to form a fist to knock. When he shifted on his feet, the number four of 472 glinted more than the other digits in the fading light peeking in from the hallway windows.
Take your ass home.
He didn’t move.
There was no way she’d want to see him, not after his very juvenile outburst in the conference room, or how he’d fled like a thirteen-year-old caught whacking it by his mom.
Gio had gone right out of the PD, threw the little book into his bike’s saddle bags and had hit the road. He hadn’t gone back to work for the rest of the day, and someone must’ve covered his ass because he hadn’t gotten any calls or texts from Olinsky to ask where the hell he was.
Maddie.
Why she would’ve done it was a mystery, but he didn’t doubt it was all her.
He’d traveled the city streets of Vegas, then moved away from the strip, finally ending up on the highway, studying the mountains in the distance and the desert that surrounded where he’d grown up.
Gio had ended up at his childhood house, in the suburb of Boulder City, which his father had sold not long after his mother’s death. The old man had moved into one of the two penthouses at the casino. Elise lived in the other one, with the sleazeball, he suspected.
He’d stopped short of pulling in the driveway of the huge Mediterranean home, built in the style his mother had loved so much.
Minutes or hours passed as he’d observed the place. Happy memories flitted through his mind, even ones where his father had laughed and played with him and his siblings. That had to have been a hundred years ago, because it’d been more common for them to see the man inside the empire he’d built. Big Tony had worked a lot when they were kids.
Gio remembered his mother pretending not to cry, and holding it together for her children. Damn, Sam had to have still been in diapers. Their mother, Helen, had hated The Giovanni.
He restarted his bike, finally moving away from the old house when he’d gotten some weird looks from neighbors—no one really had to take the trash out twice, while subtly holding their cellphone, as if 9-1-1 poised—and forced his Ducati to take him back to the city. Last thing he needed was for someone to call the local police for the weird guy in a leather jacket on a motorcycle that really didn’t appear to be suburb material.
He hadn’t been able to go home, or back to work. He’d wasted a ton of gas.
Beyond a few calls he’d let go to voicemail, his sister hadn’t texted or phoned. Not that he blamed her, but Dominic had.
Angry messages that promised violence had filled his voicemail from his brother. Messages that made him worry they would never be able to smooth over their conflict.
This was a crapton wo
rse than Dom getting a DWI.
He hadn’t heard from Sam or his dad, and if Big Tony was finally going to reach out, why not when his oldest kid had brought a group of cops to raid his legacy?
Gio crushed his eyes shut.
How could he be more fucked up than before Maddie had come back to town?
He must be some sort of masochist to want to seek comfort from the source of the problem.
Then again, it wasn’t really her fault. He must know that on some level, or really be FUBAR to show up on her doorstep like he had last night.
It wasn’t like she was going to throw the door open naked, and demand he take her.
His dick, the little fucker it was twitched at the image.
Nah, it was more likely she’d meet him at the door with her Glock.
Not-Marco-fucking-Fratelli was the culprit of this whole thing, not Maddie. Sure, she was the investigator in charge and all that, but that little cocktwat was the one who’d made his father and sister look guilty of money laundering.
It had to be him.
How to prove it?
Tell Maddie the whole truth about what I found, and work with the team to prove it, his conscience chided.
She did need to know Marco wasn’t who he said he was, and she could help him find the truth; she was damn good at her job.
Maybe she’d forgive him for keeping it from her.
Gio snorted.
“Is everything all right?”
A tremulous inquiry snagged his attention and he whipped his head to the left.
It was a little old lady, eighty if she was a day, wearing a floral-printed moo-moo and peeking around the door of the apartment a few doors down and across the hall from Maddie’s. She had stereotypical white hair with a blue sheen.
Great, she’d seen him languishing on the welcome mat, if her worried expression was any indication.
I’m not a stalker, for real, wanted to pop out of his mouth. He cleared his throat to make sure he could talk. “Uh, yeah. My girlfriend just moved in here.”
Her wrinkled face lit up with a smile. “Ah, she’s a pretty girl. I saw her this morning.”
“That she is.” Gio made a show of lifting his fist, preparing to knock. “You have a nice evening, ma’am.”
Just as the door flew open, the old woman mustered an answer, but she didn’t retreat into her apartment.
Nice, Maddie’s new place came equipped with a nosy old lady who wasn’t shy about it.
“Gio.” His name was a curse, and she regarded him with narrowed eyes.
“Uh, hi, Mads.”
“What’re you doing here?” It was an incredulous demand. “And where the hell is my evidence?”
If the elderly woman wasn’t hanging on every word, he might’ve mentioned he had colossal balls.
“Uh, I was talking to your neighbor…”
Maddie sobered immediately and peered around him at Nosy Nellie. She cast her eyes to the ceiling, as if in prayer, then flashed a very fake smile, but didn’t address their witness. She clamped her hand on his leather-clad arm, and dragged him inside.
The door snapped shut just short of a slam.
Maybe he should thank the old chick for getting him in, because had she not been watching, there wasn’t a doubt Maddie would’ve sent him packing. Immediately.
Or shot his ass.
He should scan the place for the nearest firearm.
She whirled on him and her scent enveloped him, scattering any thoughts but carnal ones.
Visions of her naked in his arms, her taste, her lips, her scream when she came, dominated his brain and whatever he’d planned on saying eviscerated.
“Well?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.
She was dressed in pink again, but this time it was a tank top with alternating white stripes, as well as a pair of darker pink shorts that stopped right above her knees. They were cut-offs, as if she couldn’t stand them in pants-form and had grabbed the scissors.
Unlike the oversized tee from the night before, the tank top clung to everything he shouldn’t look at. She didn’t have a bra on, either.
His mind was still in the gutter. Or in her bed.
“Well what?” fell from his mouth like an idiot.
“Where’s the little book?” Maddie’s fair brow was drawn tight, and her full mouth a hard line he wanted to make time to soften with his lips. His tongue.
“I have it,” Gio croaked.
“It’s evidence.”
Couldn’t argue with that. “It is.”
“Hand it over.” She put her palm out, high and flat.
How on earth did she know he had it on him?
Like a guilty kid, he dug into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and pulled out the little tome. He refused to feel bad for snatching it.
He had a right to study it, didn’t he?
He was the one who’d found it, so it wasn’t like his keeping it really effected the chain of custody.
“It’s my dad’s writing,” he admitted, studying his shitkickers for a moment. He might’ve been estranged from his father for years, but he’d recognize the serial-killer-scrawl anywhere. He sounded like he was sulking, even to his own ears, and he couldn’t meet Maddie’s eyes for seconds that felt like hours.
Maybe he shouldn’t look at her at all, since he couldn’t focus on anything but the heat between them.
Heat that felt one-sided at the moment.
He’d already gone over all the reasons he shouldn’t be there when he’d been on the wrong side of the door, so he wasn’t shocked. He was still a fool. There would be no jumping into his arms.
“What do you make of it?” she whispered.
Gio met her eyes. That was the last thing he’d expected her to say.
There was no triumph in her expression. If anything, she was regarding him cautiously.
Thank God there was no pity in her pretty hazel orbs.
He had to take in air before he could find his voice. “It seems like an old school bookie’s log. Although, there’s no indication as to what the money was for.”
“No record of bets? Can’t tell if it was horses? Cards? Fights?”
He shook his head. “Just initials and dollar amounts.”
“Weird.” Maddie thumbed through the pages that were thick and sturdy, despite the age of the leather-bound book.
Gio didn’t speak as he observed her. She was so damn gorgeous, especially with the expression of concentration she wore as she studied what he’d already gone over multiple times. “Do we have to stand right inside your door all night?”
Her head shot up. “Who said anything about all night?”
He bit his lip so he wouldn’t smirk. “Why’re you so defensive? Don’t know how to host a guest?”
Maddie guffawed. “I’d say I hosted you quite well last night.”
He chuckled. “I wouldn’t disagree, but don’t multiple orgasms at least earn me a seat?”
She giggled.
Damn, this woman. No one had ever had the same effect on him.
He was tied in fucking knots.
Their eyes locked, and time froze, until she finally looked away, her cheeks flushed a delicious shade of pink.
His dick was half-hard and it took all he was made of not to touch her.
“Do you want a drink? I have bottled iced tea, or beer.” Maddie said, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze again.
“Mads…”
She glanced back at him expectantly over her shoulder on her way to the fridge, but words failed him.
What the hell had he wanted to say, anyway?
“What, Gio?”
“I’ll take tea, thanks.”
She nodded, but it seemed like it was more to herself than him. “Make yourself comfortable in the living room, and I’ll meet you there. Have you eaten? I ordered a pizza. Should be here soon.”
“I could eat.” He stood there, instead of heading the few feet to her living room. The open floor plan, featured t
he wide kitchen to the left of the front door, and the simple pecan-wood dining table with four chairs behind it. The spacious living room was to the right, where a brown couch, single recliner and long coffee table faced a generic flat-screen television sitting on a stand, obviously not plugged in.
“Yeah, you could always eat,” she said, but he was distracted, watching her long legs move in those cut-offs. For a shorter woman, Mads knew how to accentuate her killer stems.
He had to stop thinking about sex. He shuffled his feet forward, moving to the couch and ordering himself to sit.
Maddie offered him a frosty bottle of sweet tea. She held a beer for herself dangling at her side.
He was glad she hadn’t asked why he was abstaining. Gio reached, and their fingertips collided. “Yeah. Eat.”
The crimson flush up to her ears told him she knew he wasn’t talking about food anymore.
“Gio, it’s just not a good idea.”
He nodded. Couldn’t disagree; even though his dick did, with a vehement throb of protest as he readjusted on the couch.
“Let’s just eat pizza and relax.” She sat, leaving a cushion between them. “I’m tired, and it’s not like staring at that little book will decipher it.” Maddie gestured toward the kitchen table, where she’d left his dad’s old ledger.
Did her suggestion mean she wasn’t putting him out on his ear?
“TV’s not hooked up.” He broke a somewhat companionable silence.
“Aren’t you observant?” She took a sip of beer, smirking, but he couldn’t help but wish her lips were around his cock, instead of the brown glass bottle’s rim.
“Comes with my job, I guess.” He winked. “Sucks we can’t add a movie to that ‘relax.’” Gio shot his fingers up to make air quotes. He’d almost said, Netflix and chill, which read; hot sweaty sex, but didn’t want to push his luck.
“Cut me a break, I’ve been working nonstop since I arrived. It’s bad enough I haven’t unpacked everything.” She gestured to several stacks of boxes around the room. “And Jamie will be here—” Maddie tensed and snapped her mouth shut.
