Page 15 of My Best Friend's Dad

“Money usually opens any doors. I’m not sure how I can delay a wedding when they can just go elsewhere, to some other venue, for the big day. When things don’t work out, they can get another wedding planner, and I’ll probably be fired.”

“You’re not getting fired.” She sounds so sure of herself. “We just have to make this work.” Mika takes my hand and squeezes the life out of it. “Are you with me, my rabid raccoon fighting partner in crime?”

“I’m sorry, I think they ate all the brains I had.”

“It’s okay.” She bumps my chest with her fist, curling her long, clawlike black lacquered nails into her palm so they don’t stab me. “Think with this.”

She flattens her hand over my racing heart, and ugh,blimey and barnacles, what kind of friend would I be if I told her no?

Probably the rational, sensical one.

I need more information. She’s had some time to process this, but I’m out here, wallowing in the deep end.

“What else did your dad say? Like why a wedding to get the connections he needs? Why did this asshat throw his daughter into the deal when it could have been strictly business?”

I don’t like Mika’s smile. It says she’s already been over this, and it’s by no means an out. “Geneiva’s father is old money. I was right about the castles and his empire. And what does old money care about more than anything?”

“Their wealth?”

“Theirreputation,” Mika corrects me. “Apparently, Geneiva’s always been trouble. She has this guy she’s in love with, and he has connections to the mob.”

“The mob?” I gasp. “Are you freaking kidding me? I’m not getting involved with the mob in any way.”

“She wanted to marry him, but she agreed to this marriage on paper and to keep him as her secret lover so she doesn’t shame her family. His family isn’t keen on her either. She’s not Italian.”

“Who cares? Just get married anyway and fuck what people say.”

“It’s complicated. For one, they care. A made man has to keep his empire under control. Revolts end up in bloodbaths.” Like Mika knows so much about the mob. She better be spouting this from smut books and movies she’s watched and not from real-life experience. “I guess for all her faults, Geneiva loves her family. She doesn’t want to be cut off in any way, financially or otherwise.”

“Hold on. You have to give me a minute to let that percolate.” I turn that minute into a few, sliding off the counter to pour the coffee.

After adding cream to mine and getting the sugar for Mika, we both sip and sigh, sip and sigh, until I have my thoughts in order enough to put them out there.

“This is such a weird situation because if we were going to wreck the wedding or postpone it, there are really only a few things we can do. Character assassinating her isn’t going to work. Her dad already knows she’s a bad girl, and your dad wouldn’t care. Besides, that’s just rank mean, and I could never do that. Sure, I could fudge the venue, delay the dress, and stuff laxatives into the cake—all brilliant ideas that will get me fired. I could send out invitations with the wrong date and time orsend out notices that the wedding has been pushed back. More grounds for getting fired. Or we could play the long game.”

“We don’t have time,” Mika says.

“It would be the long game in the short run. What’s the one thing that could really fuck up this deal?”

“The business deal, not the marriage.”

“That’s right, but if one goes down in flames, the other dies a hard death too.”

“Uh…”

“You said this guy values honor more than anything, meaning his name is everything to him. If he thought your dad was a douchebag asshole who ran a chain of bug-infested hotels, do you think he’d really be so keen to do business?”

“He’s already approved my dad, though,” Mika says carefully, unsure of the slippery slope we seem to be descending.

“New evidence could come to light. I’m so sorry, but the only way I can see to not have this happen is to hurt your dad in the present but also help him see that business isn’t going to fill the void in his heart. Only you can do that. Family. And love, of course.”

“So we’re going to sabotage him, and you’re going to seduce him.”

Seducing her dad would be hard, but not as hard as the feel of him pressing up against me. The length and size of Mika’s dad’s package most definitely should not be at the forefront of my brain while I’m talking to her.

Or ever.

Last night was a brain blip. It was a night of bad decisions, but that’s it. End of.