“Exactly.” I raised my palms. “But if they’d got The Chameleon, they would have cut off whatever plan is brewing in the bigger picture. He’s the link to the big picture. Get rid of him and you get rid of the middle man.”
The Chameleon was probably more than the middle man because he had his fingers in so many pies. The even bigger thing about him was that he kept secrets.
Getting rid of him would sever the link to the bigger fish and anyone of that level associated with them.
“I hear you, I do and I don’t think we should cast off the idea but I just think it’s too airy. It’s like starting with A and jumping to W.”
“Isn’t that what we do?” I cut in.
“No, it’s what you do, Xander. It’s fine to do that when you’re in the moment and you need to make a decision, but not when it comes to shit like this. We need to keep focus and be sure. Whatever their mission was last night failed, so the focus is still on Giovanni. Find out where he’s keeping the prints. That’s what we need to do.”
I didn’t like being side-stepped when I was onto something. It pissed me off and in this case there was so much going on.
I nodded agreement, seeing that Wes looked uneasy too, but I only agreed because I had an idea.
The door had opened for me last night when I saved Jia.
The act meant a lot to Giovanni. Maybe he’d be a little more trusting of me.
Maybe he’d be willing to talk to me a little more, tell me a little more.
Like if the prints really were being kept at the Marchesi.
Chapter 17
Jia
* * *
I was so glad to see the back of Armand.
God…
Having him in my house just added to the shit. I’d never wanted him to have keys to my place even when we were together. It was just a thing I had about myself, where I wanted to know I was the only person with keys and I knew that if I heard my door opening it wouldn’t be Armand, Frankie, Vinny, Freddo, or even Pa.
Just me. Like any normal person, I’d wanted to answer the door when the bell rang or someone knocked.
Instead he had this all-access pass and this morning couldn’t have pissed me off any more because Armand actually came up to my bedroom and sat on the edge of my bed watching me sleep.
I was naked under my sheets and completely freaked out when I saw him. Freaked and creeped because no one I knew thought it was normal to do that.
Honestly, when the other guys came they never did anything like that. They always waited downstairs.
Him though… no.
It was the first time that he’d done that and I suspected it was because of Xander. Xander who was nowhere to be found when I awoke.
I was right in thinking that sleep took him from me. I was right and I knew it would happen. It was just a matter of when. I knew last night was just last night.
Armand only left because Pa came by shortly after I woke up.
Pa came and Armand left when instructed to join the others in their search for leads on last night.
Pa’s presence gave me the chance to get dressed properly.
I went downstairs and was greeted by the aroma of eggs, bacon and French toast.
When I got to the kitchen I noticed Pa had made a full breakfast just like he used to when I was little. He and Ma would make sure they cooked together in the mornings for breakfast and at dinner time. It was a standard thing our families did in Italy. It was bonding.
It was nice.
Pa hadn’t done that in years and seeing him now took me back. It took me back despite the absolute shit that had happened over the last few days.
Yet, when he looked at me that embarrassment he’d sported since he hit me filled his eyes. He could barely look at me.
Different to when I was sixteen, probably because back then I did as I was told without question and hadn’t enraged him the way I had the other day.
“What’s this Pa?” I asked, looking over the exquisite breakfast he’d laid out.
“Making breakfast for my not so little girl,” he answered with a wide grin.
“It smells wonderful.” I nodded and offered a little smile.
He left the stove and came over to me, planting a kiss on my forehead.
I thought he would go back but he took my face and inspected my cheek where he’d hit me.
“I’m sorry bellezza. I shouldn’t have struck you.” He spoke with the remorse that glittered his eyes.
I couldn’t tell him it was okay. I couldn’t say not to worry about it or that I was fine, because I wasn’t.
“Papa, what’s going on?” That was the question of importance. That one. Not anything else.
After last night I thought I was well within my right to ask.
He dropped his hand to his side and went back over to the stove to finish cooking the scrambled eggs.
Ignoring my question, he grabbed one of the large ceramic bowls from the cupboard and started serving the eggs. They were the last thing to be ready.
“This was supposed to be breakfast in bed but Armand spoiled it,” he stated, still ignoring my question. “Like when you were sick. When you were little and had a cold or anything like that, you stopped eating everything during the worst part and when you started getting better you’d always like eggs. Breakfast in bed.”
“Papa, I’m not sick. I’m well. Physically I’m well. I don’t have a cold or anything like that. In fact yesterday I ate like a horse in a field. What I need isn’t food. What I need is answers.”
He held the bowl and stared at me. “This is the only thing I’ve done in years that resembles something like your old father. Cook for you. Cook and try to protect you. When I think of it though, you shouldn’t need protection.”
“I wasn’t in danger last night,” I pointed out meaning the gun hadn’t been aimed at me. It was aimed toward him.
“Girl, when bullets fly, everybody’s in danger, doesn’t matter who the bullet was intended for. Everyone is in danger.” He set the bowl down on the table and motioned for me to sit.
I sat but I continued to stare at him, watching him as he took a place and started serving food for me. “Pa, please talk to me. Please.”
He shook his head. “No, this is not something we will discuss. You’re dressed for work and I’m not sure if it’s better for you to stay here away from danger, with the guys watching you, or there with me. Or, always with me.”
“Pa, I can’t always be with you. This goes back to everything you’re doing to control me. To control my life. Don’t you want me to live and be happy?”
His gaze hardened. “Jia, do not ask me that. That is all I want. Mostly I want you to live. Mostly I want you to live and not have the worry of threat to your life. Last night opened my eyes. It meant I have to step up my game.”
“And do what Papa? What more can you do?” I didn’t know why I bothered to ask since I knew there was a lot he could do. “Will you really lock me away? In a cage?”
He held my gaze. “Bellezza I will if I must.”
My shoulders slumped and I decided I had to up my game too, this was insane.
“Pa, I’m not going to be locked away in some damn cage. That is crazy. I’m not going to be attached to you either and I certainly won’t stay inside my house and have the guys watch me.” Each of those was a big no for me. “I’m going to work as normal. That is what I’m going to do. But damn it Pa, clearly something is going on. Something big is going on and you owe it to me to tell me what the danger is.”
I wasn’t stupid.
Last night I’d had Xander and he distracted the hell out of me. Being with him renewed me in some way even though I was still in the situation. It gave me strength.
“The last time you got like this was after Ma was killed. You thought your enemies would come for me. It’s the same thing happening again isn’t it?” I added, keeping my gaze on him so he knew I was being more than serious.
He looked at me and set
his shoulders back. Biting down hard on his back teeth, he nodded, actually acknowledging my assessment.
“It will get to that stage. Last night told me so.”
So now the question was why.
“Who’d you piss off, Pa?”
I knew him and knew the kind of people he dealt with. Everyone was scared of him. All of them scared to even look in his direction. We’d had it good for years. easy maybe. I didn’t have the feeling I had to look over my shoulder for anything and me going to Europe was always on the table. Always on the cards then suddenly it wasn’t.
Whoever he pissed off had to be big time, really big time.
“This discussion is over,” he replied, pressing his finger into the table. “No more questions Jia. From now on you are to do as you’re told. If you want to go to work fair enough but you are to stay on the main floor only. Someone will stay on watch here while you’re at home. You come to me if you need anything and I mean anything. I won’t take the risk of giving you back your car or access to your bank account just in case you get any bright ideas. I’m your father and it’s my job to make sure these people don’t come at me through you. My heart can’t bear it. Can’t lose you too. Not the way I lost your mother. She was the love of my life, just as you are. End of discussion.”
It was hard to be angry at him with the gamut of emotion his words stirred. And worse when I saw a tear run down his cheek.
It was hard to be angry, but difficult to just accept that I was helpless and little more than a child doing what she was told. Trapped in the darkness of my world.
His world.
We went to work together.
He continued to his office and I went on the casino floor. Usually my floor walk was a chance to give me something to do, just so I wouldn’t get bored. Sometimes I’d go to my office and paint. I had a few sketch pads and canvases in there for when I felt inspired to do something. Inspiration these days however was sparse.
The floor was busy. People playing games. All the slot machines had a person glued in front, trying their luck and the roulette tables were equally as full, the croupiers dealing out the cards.
Everyone was lost in the excitement of Vegas, well within the smoke screen. Not seeing beyond it, not even a little bit.
I turned down the path that led to the concierge area I usually stayed at, then I saw him.
Xander.
He was talking to Frankie and while he talked it up with him, a blond woman checked him out. I couldn’t blame her, couldn’t blame the two dark-haired women by the water fountain either. They were pointing at him, obviously talking about him.
He was gorgeous and had the kind of looks that made the women swoon.
I was doing it too and thinking about last night. I wasn’t sure I could look at him again and not think of last night, it was virtually impossible.
At least it had happened.
Frankie stopped talking to him and went in the opposite direction. Then Xander turned and saw me.
Our eyes locked and for a moment I forgot that I was just standing here watching him. I never even thought to act like I wasn’t.
He was several feet away but I didn’t miss the little smile that tugged on his lips.
I tensed when he made his way over to me.
The women watched and kept watching him. When he stopped a breath away from me everything and everyone else faded away. All I saw was him.
“Morning.” He arched his sensual lips bringing out the dimples.
“Good morning,” I answered returning his smile. The morning did feel better for seeing him. My heart warmed and my body buzzed with memories of his touch.
“Are you okay?” He shifted his weight and leaned slightly toward me.
“I’m here.”
“I noticed. Are you sure you should be here? A day off from this place after a night like last night could have been a good break.”
I shook my head. “It’s better to come here.” I was sure too that if I hadn’t come I might not have seen him. Dad would send Armand to stay with me. I was sure of it.
“I don’t know about that. If I were an artist I think I would have used the day to paint.”
I smiled at that. “I don’t have anything to paint today.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be working on something for me? Did you forget?”
I smiled wider. “No…”
His face brightened and it reminded me of happier times. It was just the feeling I got. The sensation. Like last night. Just like last night and suddenly I knew what I’d paint for him.
“I’ll work on it this week.” I nodded.
“I look forward to it Jia.”
We looked at each other and that awkward silence filled the space between us. The breath that separated us opened the haze that shut the world out and I noticed the blond woman still staring at him. He followed my gaze then looked back to me.
“What? Do you know her?”
I chuckled. “No, I’m just jealous.”
“Why? Why would Jia Marchesi be jealous?”
I took advantage of our closeness to run my fingers over his chest, just lightly, just to touch him and remember how he felt against my fingertips.
“She’s not me. She’s not the boss’s daughter. She can do whatever she wants and go wherever she wants. She can look at you because she’s beautiful and she might have a shot with you. And I’m sure if you asked her to, she could go wherever she wanted with you… Not like me. It’s crazy. I shouldn’t be jealous, because you aren’t mine.”
He glanced over his shoulder and an easy grin drew my attention to the dimple in his left cheek.
My nerves scattered when he took my hand, lifted it up to his lips and kissed my knuckles.
“You had me at the part where you said she wasn’t you. You’re right. She’s not you.” He released my hand. “Can’t get you out of my head.”
My lips parted with the surprise that took me. “Do you want to?”
“No. I like having you there.”
My breath hitched, constricting my breathing.
The smile receded from his face, replaced with a seriousness I’d never seen before. He backed away from me and continued to where he’d come from. The admiring eyes followed him. I watched until he went through the automatic doors and I couldn’t see him anymore.
The last thing I wanted to do was fall for a man I knew I couldn’t have. And not with so much going on.
But, just like everything else that was easier said than done.
Chapter 18
Xander
* * *
It seemed like every damn day was destined to be harder than the last.
Actually… scratch that, it wasn’t just the days. It had sped up to hours.
It was getting harder to speak to Jia and not want to touch her. How could I not want to touch her after last night?
Just now I’d wanted nothing more than to take her again. Just drag her off to one of the rooms in the hotel and show her she had nothing to be jealous over.
Make her mine the way I had last night.
As it stood I’d left it vague. Completely vague. A repeat of last night wouldn’t be in my best interest. It wasn’t fair and the part of me that still had a conscience told me I needed to back the fuck off out of her life because it would be so much worse if she found out who I was. As well as blow my mission, but damn it I just didn’t want to add to the list of things that would break her.
The last thing she needed was lies.
So in my head, last night was last night and past and couldn’t happen again.
I had to focus on the mission.
I’d gotten here a while ago, ready to talk to Giovanni but he wasn’t here yet. Frankie told me he’d gone to see Jia.
Then minutes before I saw her I got a message from the man himself, asking to see me. It was a lot easier when the people you wanted to speak to requested to see you, it broke the ice.
I got to his office and the door was open.
I’d only been in there once before and that was to pick up my pass and access codes. Both stuff I’d be using in the ways I wasn’t authorized for over the next few days. I wanted to check out what was in the vaults down in the Castle.
Giovanni had his glasses on when I went into the office. He took them off and set them down on the table near a stack of papers and straightened up against his chair to look at me.
“Come in and close the door,” he instructed.
I did and moved over to sit down in the leatherback chair in front of him.
“How are you doing?” I asked.
He narrowed his eyes at me. “That’s interesting to hear. No one ever asks me how I am.”
I raised my shoulders into a shrug and smirked. “Well, where I come from that’s the sort of thing you’d ask after a night like last night.”
He nodded. “Of course, and I suppose the answer after a night like last night is that I am not okay.”
I was surprised he’d share that. “Well did the guys find anything out?”
“Not a damn thing.”
I stared at him and from the way he looked at me I could tell there was more he wanted to say, or wanted me to say. So I took the bone he was throwing me.
“With security tight the way it is, I’m real shocked those guys got all the way to the conference room. Even had a drink, maybe two. Fuck, I thought it was Fort Knox when I first got here. I was searched and questioned before I could even speak to you. I’m a little offended to be honest.”
His face hardened. “Mr. Cage, you…” His voice trailed off.
“Me? What me? What were you going to say? I took this job, got on the wrong side of the knights because I’m told I basically got special treatment. Got bumped up the line and inside the Castle where you supposedly keep your secrets. Now the question is why? You’ve exhibited very erratic behavior Boss. Acting like someone who has something to hide.”
“How dare you? You forget you work for me. I could fire you right the fuck now Xander Cage.”
Ace of Hearts Page 14
