"Same thing."
She shakes her head. But she's smiling now. That dimple appearing in her cheek. The one I noticed the first time I saw her face without the veil.
"I'll think about it," she says.
"Think about what?"
"Not calling other men hot." She tilts her head. "I make no promises."
I should make it clear that I'm not joking about killing anyone who touches her, looks at her, or makes her smile the way Oliver did in that coffee shop.
But Valentino is waiting.
And Pietro.
And whatever crisis is happening at three in the morning that requires my presence.
"We're not done with this conversation," I tell her.
"I'm sure we're not."
"I mean it, Antonella."
"I know you do." She steps back. Gives me space to wheel toward the door. "Go. Handle your family business. We can argue about my friendships tomorrow."
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Bruno
Pietro's office is too bright for three in the morning.
Every lamp is on. The overhead lights too. Like someone decided sleep was optional and wanted the rest of us to suffer.
Valentino stands by the window, arms crossed. Liam sits in one of the leather chairs, a tablet in his hands. Pietro is behind his desk, papers spread in front of him like a war map.
I wheel myself to the empty space beside Liam's chair.
"What's the emergency?" I ask.
Pietro doesn't answer immediately. He looks at Liam instead.
Liam clears his throat. "Eraldo Romano."
"What about him?"
Liam turns the tablet toward me. The screen shows a series of photographs. Eraldo at a poker table. Eraldo at a roulette wheel. Eraldo accepting chips from a dealer in what looks like a high-end casino.
"These were taken over the past seventy-two hours," Liam says. "In New York."
I stare at the images.
The mission to New York was supposed to be a test. Simple work. Meetings with associates. Nothing that required money or access to anything he could gamble.
"How?" I ask. "We control his accounts. Every dollar he touches goes through us."
"He found a way around it." Liam swipes to another image. A receipt. "He's been borrowing against future earnings. Promising people he'll pay them back once he's in better standing with the family."
"Whose family?" Valentino asks from the window. "His or ours?"