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“Hey!” she sang, literally beaming with joy. “Welcome to my humble home.”
“Humble,” I chuckled, my eyes on her daughter. “God, she’s grown up! And she’s so cute I could bite her little cheek!”
“I know, right?” She laughed, the two of us strolling inside.
“Wow,” I muttered, looking up at the high ceiling. I lowered my gaze to the wall across from me. There was a portrait of my friend, amongst a number of oil paintings. She was in a red bikini, leaning against her shoulder, with a wide-frame window in the backdrop. “You’ve done so well for yourself, honey. I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks, but it was a fluke, Piper,” she maintained, handing her son to his babysitter. “I just realized I’ve never told you the truth about my inheritance. Why don’t you have a seat? Believe me; you need to sit down to hear what I have to tell you.”
Her little speech piqued my interest.
I did know she had inherited a fortune. Her mother had kept from her the fact that her biological father was a gangster. Once her brother died, she was his only heir.
Nevertheless, as I listened to her story, I discovered that I’d only had bits of the truth. Maggie was right. This was a fluke indeed. Nothing of this would have been made possible without the courage and the tenacity of the three men who used to work for her deceased brother. They pursued the truth and made Nick Roselli pay for his crimes and his intent to have his own sister murdered. By the time she finished her narrative, I was dumbfounded and in desperate need of some fresh air. I excused myself and walked out into her porch. The scent of the sea rushing into my nostrils, I watched the waves roll in and out, before her light footsteps filled my ears.
“I know it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead, but your brother was an asshole,” I said, clutching the railing in front of me. “He was hell-bent on killing you. Thank god for Rocco, Julian, and Slater. You’d be dead if it wasn’t for them.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, halting on my right. “They risked pretty much everything to keep me safe. Say, does that sound familiar to you? Just a little bit?”
“Stop teasing me,” I urged, taking my eyes off of the ocean to offer her a sideways glance. “I’m sure you know about Cesare and Leo, so, I’m not going to bother telling you about them.”
“I do, but what about Matteo, too?” She posed a question, her raised eyebrow illustrating her want to hear more about him. “He was the first one I met. He struck me as an intelligent man. He’s very handsome as well.”
“If you must know, yes, we’ve kissed,” I revealed, unable to keep a smile from bursting across my face. “But that’s it. If he’d bothered flirting with me a little more, I would probably have gone all the way with him, too. His big brains you mentioned are a big turn-on, but he stuck to his man code and kept his distance from me.”
“Sweetheart, I really hope you get what I have with Rocco, Julian. and Slater,” she stated, her voice stinking with excitement. “Anything I say can’t do it justice. The love, the closeness, and don’t even get me started on the sex. You’ll feel like you’re in your own, sexy chunk of heaven. Abigchunk to be exact.”
“Who knows?” I rolled my shoulders, my mind drifting to the trio. “Where are your…?”
“Taking care of business,” she replied before I even got to finish my question. “Let’s just leave it at that. They’ll be working with your boys, just this once. I hope they all play nice. I don’t want to imagine what’s going to happen if their huge egos get in the way.”
“That makes two of us, but that’s not my biggest fear,” I confessed, my tone weakening. “Danger. That’s what gives me the creeps.”
“Danger had that effect on me, too,” Maggie went on. “Especially at the beginning.”
“How did you handle it?”
“I’mstillhandling it,” she emphasized. “They may not be doing anything illegal right now, but they still have to answer to some powerful figures in the mafia world. I just treat that danger as part of their job, Piper. It comes with the territory. I just had to get used to it. You should do that, too.”
“I’ll try,” I told her, focusing back on the rough sea. I watched the waves roar in, wondering if I’d ever be able to find that kind of strength in me. To consider peril as part of their everyday routine. For now, all I could do was put my hands together and pray that none of them got hurt. I hoped that god would look past their sins and shield them from their enemies. I knew how selfish this was, but, at this point, my life depended on them. On a bunch of aspiring crime lords.
34
MATTEO
Driving allthe way to Sin City.
It should have been great.
A wonderful road trip, filled with laughs, amazing roads, awesome food and some sightseeing. Sure, there would be a few sleazy motels along the way, but that would be just a minor detail. A hiccup in the whole thing. It would make a good story to tell in the future.
Well, it wasn’t.
Leonardo’s obsession with Vegas came back with a vengeance. Not that it had gone anywhere really. It had just been slipping my mind these past few weeks. I had been too busy with other stuff to dwell on Leonardo’s damn love affair of the city of slots, blackjack, poker and all things gambling. I could understand a visit to a casino, although I wasn’t stupid. The saying about casinos was as old as the dust in that desert around Vegas.
The house always wins.
Yeah, but there was nothing wrong with someone trying to beat the house in their own game. The thrill was just too big to ignore. For some degenerate gamblers, that thrill was so irresistible that it could bankrupt them in a matter of hours. Even so, I wouldn’t mind trying my luck in a casino, just for the hell of it.
