Page 35 of Entangled

Gian’s father nodded. “Seemed so, Tesoro.”

“Well?” Celeste looked to Gian. “See, even he—”

“She’s not feeling well,” Gian repeated, “and I can’t make her come to dinner when she isn’t up for it, Ma.”

“Fine.”

His mother didn’t sound particularly happy about it, though. He wasn’t about to complain that Elena stayed home.

“What’s for dinner?” Gian asked.

Celeste waved a hand, beckoning her son and husband to follow. Gian walked alongside his father, a few paces behind his mother, as Celeste described the meal that was waiting for him. As good as it sounded and for as hungry as he was, he only wanted to eat, spend a few minutes talking, and then get the hell out of there.

Cara would be waiting at his place for him.

Maybe …

He’d sent her a text earlier and gotten a reply. She had been at the penthouse then, but whether or not she still would be was another story.

Cara had a bad habit of overthinking.

Not that Gian blamed her.

“Sounds delicious, Ma,” Gian said.

Celeste preened over her shoulder. “Of course it does.”

The family had just sat down for their meal when the phone call came in. His parents’ maid handed the phone over to Gian with wide eyes before she bolted out of the room. Celeste and Frederic watched him like two hawks as he put the phone to his ear.

Gian tried to hear what Elena was saying through her panic, but he could only make out a few words.

They were enough.

They were too much.

Cops.

Warrants.

The mansion.

Get here, now.

Gian only made it outside of his parents’ place. The cops were already waiting for him there, too.

Apparently, the mansion was one of many places served with warrants, and he was just one of many men to find themselves in hot water with police. His father-in-law’s house that was just an hour outside of Ottawa was another. Gian found himself in the back of a police cruiser and his hands cuffed, before he could even tell his father what to do.

“The charges?” Gian demanded from the officer.

The man shrugged, but before he shut the door, he said, “Ask Seeley when you get to the station. He said you two had missed your meeting this week.”

Gian realized then that he was fucked.

He just didn’t know why.

Cara had forgotten how comforting and familiar Gian’s penthouse was for her. All the tall ceilings, the warm whiteness of the rooms, and the wide windows that could make someone feel like royalty looking down on the city—it was beautiful.

The walls of the penthouse had heard her secrets and given her a safe space, all those months ago. They had shut out the world and let her learn who Gian Guzzi was underneath his charming, mysterious mask. Or rather, who she had thought he was.