“Signora, per favore, don’t drag me—”
“Did you check your phone?” Nicky grumbled.
No. I was in the shower when Tino came to the room, and then we went straight to the chapel. However, I was certain if I checked my phone now, there would be no messages from her. Where were they going with this shit? When they were caught lying, no one would be pleased.
“Just do it.” she insisted.
I stared at her for a second. She was peering at me with all the hate in the world and challenging me with her eyes. I looked back at Tino. He nodded at me to go ahead.
With a sigh, I fished my phone out of my pocket and unlocked the screen. My brows hooked the moment I did see there was a new text from Nicky.
“Show me,” Tino said.
I cleared my throat and gave him the phone.
“I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done, but I’m willing to let you apologize and make it up to me.” Tino read the text. “I’m not gonna marry you. Not like that. It has to be my choice. I have to be in control. If you really want us to get hitched, I don’t want Tino involved.” He glanced up from the phone at her and back. “If you have the guts to elope, meet me in twenty minutes at Graceland cemetery.Not your little kitten.”
He tossed my phone on the desk. “Sent thirty minutes ago.”
“Right before I left,” Nicky mumbled.
Cazzo.
How did she even manage to send that text? While it did sound like her—a lot—there was no way in hell she’d intended to elope with me. Right?
Part of me wanted to believe her lie. It would have been…different…hot. Wrong but so hot. And some might even say sweet, but not me. I had no room for sweet in my life.
It wasn’t any of those, though, because it wasn’t real. If her plan was to elope, why did she try to run away again when she saw me? She didn’t see Tino with me when she entered the chapel to think I’d betrayed her. She ran away because she didn’t send that text and never expected me to be there. Fuck, she never expected to see me ever again.
The question was, should I blow the whistle or make it our little secret?
“You’re lucky you were with me the whole time or I’d have thought you were in on this scandal,” Tino told me, pinching the bridge of his nose, before he moved around the desk and went over to his wife. A deep scowl wrinkled his forehead as he stared at her. “Why, Angel?”
She started to cry. “Because I know you. You’d have arranged for a big wedding even with Leo on the loose. Because of what Dom told you this morning, you wouldn’t wait.”
“So?”
“So weddings are too dangerous or don’t you remember?” Her lips trembled as tears ran down her cheeks. “Anything could happen then. Leo could crash it and try to kill my sister to have his revenge. He could kill you.” She blubbered ugly, her legs wobbling. “The only way I can know my sister is safe is for this wedding to be a secret away from all the vendettas and blood. I can’t take another red wedding, Tino, I can’t lose my sister or you. I just can’t. I just can’t!”
She staggered in place, about to pass out. Tino’s arms folded around her, steadying her. “Shhhh. No one is gonna die, my beautiful Angel.”
Was he really buying this?
“I’m so scared, Tino. Terrified,” she sobbed. “What if he comes after Nicco? Our baby? I can’t lose our baby, Tino. Please.”
“Shhhh. Never when I’m here. I won’t let anybody come near you, Nicole or our son. You’re always safe with me.”
Apparently, he bought every word. Playing the violin didn’t seem to be Angelina Bellomo’s only talent. Acting, too, she was brilliant at.
“We can’t have that wedding. Promise me, Tino. You have to wait until it’s safe. Please. For me.”
“For you, I’d do anything, my sweet Angel.” He smiled at her, wiping away her tears. “Don’t worry. I have a solution that will please everyone.”
“Do you now?” Nicky snorted.
He broke his embrace but kept one arm around his wife’s waist. “Si, si. Especially you.”
“Highly doubt it. What could Don Bellomo possibly do that would ever please me?”
