On The Ropes: Tapped Out Book 3

by Quinn, Cari

  On the way inside, I grabbed my sister’s hand and tugged her with me. “Sorry, girls only,” I said when Fox tried to follow.

  He made a puppy dog face so I laughed and ran back to give him a smacking kiss. “We’ll just be a few minutes, promise.” I patted his chest. “You know, we’ll probably want to talk about our periods and stuff.”

  “Never mind then. I’m just fine out here.” From the twinkle in his eyes, he knew I was bullshitting him. He ruffled my hair. “So happy to have you back, squirt.”

  “Me too. Love you.”

  I smiled and followed my sister down the hall into the former dance studio she’d already begun to renovate. She’d started painting since the last time I was here, though I seriously doubted she was supposed to begin doing that kind of thing yet.

  That was Mia, always forging her own way.

  And now that would be me too.

  “I believed the note,” she said after a moment of silence. She picked up a paintbrush laden with aqua blue paint and just stared at it. “I thought I’d driven you away with my nagging and my unreasonableness.”

  “Ha. If that was going to happen, it would’ve happened years ago.”

  She didn’t look up.

  Sighing, I leaned against the wall beside her stepladder. “You couldn’t drive me away, okay? I’m telling you here and now. There is absolutely nothing you could do that would make me leave you.”

  Her throat rippled as she lifted her gaze to mine. Her eyes were still red-rimmed and the sight tugged at my belly. “But you’re going to anyway, aren’t you?” When I didn’t respond, she let out a dry laugh. “It was always supposed to be me and you, freewheeling in the big city. Or freewheeling somewhere. Single girls, living it up.” She smiled. “Okay, so you’d be living it up. I’d be hiding in my trash can, barking at passersby.”

  I didn’t mean to laugh. “You’re not quite that bad.”

  “Close.” She studied her paintbrush, blotting gobs of blue on a newspaper. “How long have you been with him?” she asked quietly.

  “Physically, just a little over a month. But in here?” I rubbed my chest. “I think since the moment I saw him. I know that sounds corny.”

  “No, it sounds like what happened to me.” She sighed. “Stupid boys. Come along and wreck all our plans.”

  “They aren’t wrecked. They’re just different now. Look at Fox moving in with us.” I dipped my finger into the paint. “That was a little weird at first, now it’s like he belongs there.”

  She made a face. “Are you saying someday I’ll look at Giovanni Costas and think he belongs at my table?”

  I had to laugh. “Maybe. I hope so.”

  “We could get a doublewide sleeping bag or air mattress,” she said hopefully. “Until we find a suitable new apartment, we could make room.”

  I cast a dubious eye at my stomach. “Yeah, for how long? We were already going to be using the bedroom for a nursery once Mrs. Knox moves out.”

  “Yeah. I know.”

  “It’s not like I even know what’s going to happen,” I said quickly, trying to reassure her. To reassure me. “We haven’t really even talked. I may be staying right where I am. Maybe nothing has to change.”

  Her eyes filled. “It already has, Car. Everything is different now.”

  Shutting my eyes, I hooked my arm around her neck and brought our foreheads together. And we stood there, sniffling, for who knows how long until she finally drew back.

  “I’m going to be an amazing aunt.” She rubbed her thumbs under her eyes. “I know I started off a little rocky, but I’m going to get it together in the second round and pull off a win.”

  “MMA refs? Really?” I teased.

  “It’s what I know.” She took a long breath. “And I promise, I won’t threaten Gio’s life until he does something to really piss me off. Like not taking good care of you or the blob.”

  I blinked. “Blob?”

  “Well, yeah, isn’t that what it is right now?” She frowned. “Okay, yeah, we’ll just chalk that verbal screwup to the fuckups of the past. Tear off a new page on the book, starting here and now.”

  “That sounds good to me. Really good.” I smiled and reached out to take her hand. “There is one more thing. I’m guessing Dante filled you guys in on what happened while I was talking to Gio?”

  She nodded. “The shortened, sanitized version.”

  “Yeah. Well, in the interest of that new book we’re starting and full disclosure—for a while, I worked as a stripper. Not full nude,” I hastened to add as my sister’s mouth dropped open. “Just topless. I made really good money, but I quit. I’m not doing it anymore. From here on out, it’s just the Salad Hut and school for me.”

  And mothering.

  And girlfriending, whatever that consisted of besides hot sex. That part we already had down pretty well.

  Mia cocked her head. “I just have one question.”

  Uh-oh. Here it came. The big one that would send our newfound peace and good feelings swirling down the toilet.

  Even so, she was allowed to express her opinion, no matter what. We loved each other, and we’d figure it out.

  I licked my lips nervously. “Shoot.”

  “I’m pretty athletic and all, but how in the hell do you slide down a stripper pole?”

  I laughed so hard that I started to choke. Then I grabbed her and kissed her dead on the mouth. “Don’t ever change. Not even a little.”

  “Too late. It’s already happened,” she said with a crooked smile.

  A few minutes later, the guys came back in, and Dante said his goodbyes. Fox and Mia soon took off too, leaving Gio and I alone.

  “I choose you.” He stared at me without closing the distance between us. “I always did, but I couldn’t allow myself to admit it. My God, I felt so guilty.”

  My eyes filled. “Because of Emilia.”

  “Yes.” He took a few steps closer. “But I can’t turn away from you any longer. From now on, you will be my choice. Always.”

  For the first time since I’d met him, I had absolutely no idea what to say. I was too emotional to speak.

  “This is my fault.” He stepped right up to me, making me look up at him. I couldn’t look away. “All of it. I led you to the club that night in the spring, and I tried to push you away, even though I never wanted to.”

  “You had your reasons,” I managed.

  “Yeah, I did, and I let my love for Emilia and my need for vengeance cloud my judgment to the point that I didn’t have any anymore.” He grasped my hands and brought them to his mouth. “For two and a half years, killing Emilia’s father because I believed he’d killed her was all I cared about. Then there was you, and suddenly, I didn’t want to die anymore.”

  I blinked back the heat in my eyes. “You wanted to die?”

  “I never thought of it that way, but I guess you could say I had a death wish. I’d lost so much. The woman I was going to marry, the baby she’d just found out she was carrying—” He broke off and stared hard at my stomach. “But she’s gone, and nothing I can do will bring her back. I don’t want to check out anymore. I want this life.” He linked his arms around my waist. “I want what we can be, you and me. I’m not entirely sure what that is yet, but I want to find out.”

  “I do too,” I whispered.

  “I’m not going to go near The Pyramid Club or the Andrettis anymore. I’m not sure if they’ll let me walk away clean, but because I never harmed anyone in their organization, maybe. I’m damn sure going to try.”

  My tears spilled over as I lifted my face to his. “Trying is plenty.” I sniffled. “I still have my throwing stars and pepper spray too.”

  I’d found my purse, contents mostly intact, on the way out of the warehouse. The only thing that had been missing was my condom stash. Since I wouldn’t be needing those for the foreseeable future, the thugs were welcome to them. No glove, no love, right?

  Well, except in my case.

  Gio laughed. �
�You’re a badass. My brother told me what you did to my father.”

  “I’m sorry you lost him. Even though he was a bastard.”

  “He killed Emilia, and my mother. God, part of me wondered, but I never let myself think it for long. I wanted to believe he had a limit, and he just…didn’t.” He bowed his head. “Christ, all this time, my vendetta was aimed at the wrong person.”

  “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think the Andrettis are saints either,” I said drily.

  He didn’t smile, but close. Considering everything he’d endured recently, I’d take it.

  “I’m so sorry, baby,” I murmured. “There aren’t words.”

  “You aren’t the only one who is sorry.” His expression darkened. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through all of that.”

  “They didn’t hurt me, much.” I pressed my hand to his scruffy, bruised jaw. “You, on the other hand, don’t look so good. What happened last night?”

  “He kicked my ass. Lucky break.” He looped an arm around my waist as we walked toward the door. “I told him two out of three, but the pussy won’t take me up on it.” He cast me a sideways look. “Sorry. I mean pansy.”

  I laughed harder than I’d laughed in days. “You can say pussy around me.” I leaned up on my tiptoes to bite his earlobe. “In fact, I kind of love it when you say pussy to me.”

  “Oh, is that so?”

  “It’s so. In fact, it turns out I have the afternoon free, and I’d like to learn some Italian, since you and your brother are constantly saying things I don’t understand. Maybe you can teach me that particular word too.”

  “I’ll teach you everything I know, tesoro.”

  I smiled at his back as he opened the door for me. He’d already taught me a hell of a lot, including how to fall in love even when the timing was wrong and the world was ugly and imperfect.

  I couldn’t wait to find out the rest.

  Epilogue

  Carly

  “No, no, not there. Put it a little higher. No, move it to the left. No, hmm, maybe the right?” I studied the framed painting of cupcakes and cocked my head. “It’s still not working. What do you think, Gio?” I asked offhandedly, wanting to include him in the process.

  To be honest, his opinion was an afterthought. He didn’t ask my opinion in the ring, and I didn’t ask his opinion on where to hang my cupcakes. We had a system, and it worked just fine for us.

  “I think your sister’s about to break that painting over your head, and then my brother will be pissed because it took him a month to get the colors just right.”

  I sighed. My sister was all twitchy today, and evidently, Dante was Mr. Sensitive Artist. And jeez, people accused me of being the hormonal one. “Fine, just put it wherever.”

  My sister slapped it on a hook right where she was and got down off the stepladder, leaving my cupcakes at an almost diagonal angle.

  Yeah, well, I’d be fixing that the moment the lot of them cleared out. I’d just have to wait, because at six and a half months preggo, everyone flipped the hell out every time I even touched a stepladder.

  Apparently, looking like a beach ball wasn’t enough evidence you had plenty of cushioning.

  “I’m going to go downstairs and finish setting up the books.” Mia moved to the door of my café/bakery. “Then we can take pictures, because this place is almost freaking done, and Safe House and Dangerous Treats will be ready for opening day next week.”

  I bit my lip at the name of my place. I still worried about it. Did it seem to be making light of Safe House’s mission? I hoped not. I’d just thought it was a cute play on words, and you know, with my being with a former mob dude, it was kind of ironic.

  “Do you think I should change—” I began.

  “No,” all three of them said in unison.

  I scrunched up my nose. “Fine, fine. You’ve done your duty here, now scram.”

  “About damn time.” Fox unfolded himself from one of my brand new white chairs. They went with the adorable round pedestal tables that had cost a mint.

  They’d actually cost Gio and Mia a mint, because I still wasn’t bringing in much on the moolah side of the street. But I would be. I still wasn’t fond of letting other people pay my way, but right now, I needed help. They loved me, and I would return the favor for all they’d done as soon as I could. This place was going to be a success if it killed me.

  And if it wasn’t, once the baby was born, I’d just go back to stripping.

  Kidding. No stripping for me. I was done with that for good. Besides, my stretch marks were killer these days.

  “Hold it. I have something I’d like to take care of.” Gio rose from the little settee in the corner that was supposed to be casual seating and yet most often served as a bed for Princess, my Yorkie puppy. Even now, she perched there with a hopeful expression in her big eyes and her floppy pink bow hanging halfway off her head.

  “Uh, now? You probably want privacy.” Mia gripped the door handle. “We’ll give you privacy.”

  “No, we won’t.” Fox slid his arm through Mia’s. “We’re just going to stand right here and watch.”

  “Pervert,” she muttered.

  I frowned as Gio kneeled before me. The only time I saw him in that position was when he was praying—or uh, serving at the altar of me. And my thighs definitely were not open at this time.

  Then the lightbulb flashed in my mind and I covered my mouth. “You’re not…oh boy, yes, you are,” I said as he popped open a navy blue jeweler’s box and showed me a baseball-sized diamond.

  It really wasn’t the size of a baseball. Maybe a golf ball. But my hands weren’t big, and compared to them, that was some freaking rock.

  Compared to anything, that was some freaking rock.

  “Yes.” I held out my hand.

  Gio started to laugh. God, I loved that sound. “I didn’t ask yet.”

  “No need. We can expedite this. Yes, I’ll marry you, yes, I’ll wear that gorgeous ring, and yes, I’m so going to climb up that stepladder the minute all of you turn your back.” I grinned. “Now gimme. Please.”

  He slipped the ring on my finger, and it fit perfectly, even accounting for swelling. I wasn’t the least bit surprised. The guy had a way about him. When he set out to do something, he always nailed it one hundred percent.

  He nailed me pretty often too, especially when the second trimester had kicked in. Hoo boy.

  “Thank you,” he whispered, rising and drawing me into his arms. We didn’t quite embrace like we once had, considering the belly, but it was still the best hug I’d ever had in my life. “Thank you for giving me the honor of becoming my wife.”

  “No problem.” When Fox snorted behind him, I tried to backtrack. Lately, the always dubious filter on my mouth had been completely missing. I blamed hormones, and possibly an alien abduction. “Um, I mean, thank you also, and when can we get married?”

  “Anytime you want. Dante said he’d fly back whenever we needed him to.” Gio’s brows lowered. “If you want him there. Your call.”

  Dante hadn’t yet managed to extricate himself from the mob life, unlike Gio. From what I could tell, Dante wasn’t even trying. He enjoyed the women and the power and, oh, the women. Now that he was in line to take over his father’s place, he spent more time on the west coast and less in New York, which meant he was probably getting even deeper into the roots of the organization in Vegas, their hometown.

  I didn’t want those kinds of people swarming around us—or my kid—but Dante was Gio’s brother, and I owed him my life. I also knew that the reason Gio had been able to walk away from the mob was probably due in large part to Dante’s influence behind the scenes, both with his father’s former crew and the Andrettis, who realized taking a shot at Gio would now risk the ire of his brother and his men.

  Right now, everything was good. Gio was out of the life. But we simply didn’t know if the allegiances—and enemies—he’d made in the past would come back to haunt him in the future
. And we couldn’t worry about it too much either, because today was too precious to waste.

  “Of course I want Dante there.” I pressed a kiss to the dark thatch of hair peeking out of the open vee of Gio’s shirt. “As long as I’m getting married to you, I don’t care who else is there.”

  “He’s not going to be my best man.” Gio stepped back to point at Fox. “That one is. Even if he’s still a pussy who won’t fight me again, fair and square.”

  “Same dance, different day. Stop your whining.” Fox grinned and moved closer to kiss me on top of my head. “Congratulations, lovely lady.”

  “Thank you. What, no more squirt?”

  “Nah. I’m saving squirt for this one now.” He gave my belly a quick pat and returned to my sister’s side. My sister, who had suspiciously bright eyes.

  “Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re really getting married.” She bundled me up in a huge hug and we dance-rocked back and forth, sniffling, as we had since the beginning of time when something amazing happened. Or awful. We pretty much always cried and dance-rocked. “I’m going to be your maid-of-honor, right?”

  “Well, duh. You have that on lock.” I grinned up at her and tapped her nose. “Though you know, you could always make that matron of honor,” I teased, glancing over at Fox.

  “Funny you should mention that,” he began.

  Mia’s eyes went wide. “Uh, I gotta go outside. Because it’s hot in here, and I’m feeling faint. And oh, yeah, the books downstairs. Those really need shelving. Congratulations, love you, see you!” She bolted out the door and down the stairs so fast that Fox and Gio nearly busted their guts laughing.

  I just smiled. “You’re softening her up. Keep working at it, Fox.”

  “Oh, I intend to. I picked up something when I went ring shopping with this jerk.” Fox took a black ring box out of his pocket and just as quickly tucked it away again. “Just waiting for the right time. Hopefully, it’ll be before we’re both in walkers.”

  “Aww, that’s awesome.” I rushed over to hug him again. “I’m so excited for you. Maybe if you make it happen, even Slater will come.”