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“I see,” Marco responds, his gaze shifting to me.
“So,” Alex begins, drawing Marco’s attention. “What exactly needs to be done to your security system?”
Marco takes a slow sip of his wine before saying, “A complete overhaul.” He leans back, his eyes moving to Romeo and Caine. “We caught our head of IT…” He rolls his head from side to side. “Sharing confidential information with some of our distributors. So we…let him go.”
Caine snorts into his drink. “Is that what we’re calling it?”
Marco glares at him, his silence carrying a loud and clear warning.
“We’re searching for someone to replace him,” Romeo explains. “But until we find somebody trustworthy, we’d rather keep things in the family.”
Alex nods once. “I’ll go through everything tomorrow morning and let you know what needs updating. It may take me a few days, but I’ll make sure it’s properly secure before I leave.”
Marco studies him over the rim of his glass. “You help us with this, and Vincenzo can consider everything forgiven for bailing on the marriage contract with Liliya.”
Liliya? As in Liliya Vasiliev?
My stomach tightens.
Alex reaches for the newly delivered bottle of wine, inspects the seal, uncorks it, and pours us each a glass. “He’ll be relieved. He wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the arrangement to begin with.”
Was Liliya being forced to marry Vincenzo?
Unease filters through me. A marriage contract is exactly how I ended up forced into a brutal marriage with Garrett, spending every day trying to survive. I never thought the Alaries would follow through with something like that, but maybe that’s just me being naïve. Maybe—
“He wouldn’t have gone through with it if she didn’t want it,” Alex says, his eyes not missing a hint of the sudden anxiety across my face. As if reading my mind, he adds, “That’s not how my family does business.”
I nod once, believing his every word. I reach for my wineglass and inhale the fruity aroma before taking a sip. The sweet flavor slides over my tongue and down my throat, leaving me craving more.
“This is delicious,” I say, earning the tiniest hint of a grin from Marco. If you can even call it that.
“It should be,” Marco states firmly. “The grapes in that wine came from our vineyard in Tuscany.”
“You made this?”
Marco straightens slightly in his chair, pride flickering across his features. “For the past couple of hundred years, our family has run one of the largest vineyards in Italy. Wine is what the Marchetti name is known for around here.”
“Among other things,” Caine mutters.
Marco rolls his eyes.
Beside us, Clara squeals happily before slapping her sauce-covered hands against the tray of her high chair.
Red sauce flies everywhere.
Alex stares at the disaster unfolding before him. “You really thought marinara sauce was a good choice?”
“What kid doesn’t love spaghetti?” Caine asks, arching a brow. “Marco’s kid can’t get enough of it.”
I regard Marco. “You have a child?”
He nods. “A son. He’s a few years older than Clara. You would have met him this weekend, but he’d been begging my father to take him on a fishing expedition, and my father cannot say no to that boy.”
Romeo lets out a soft laugh. “To be fair, none of us know how to say no to that kid.”
“Very true,” Marco replies, leaning back in his seat, looking every bit the born leader. The candlelight flickers across his face as his gaze drifts around the table, lingering on each of us before he lifts his wineglass into the air. “A toast.” Everyone raises their glasses. “May the Alarie and Marchetti names continue to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies.” His voice is calm despite the violence in every word. “While remaining a shield for those we love.” Alex’s palm settles against my knee, his thumb brushing back and forth over my skin in a soothing touch that eases the fear growing inside me. “To family.”
“To family,” everyone echoes.
