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He sighs. ”Find? What do you expect me to scrape up on a twenty-three-year-old without a cell phone or even one social media account?”
“Something. Anything. Did you ask Zander to help?”
“First, it’s ridiculous that you think I would need his help. Second, he would also come up with nothing.”
I would be pleased at annoying him if I weren’t so annoyed myself. “Not one boyfriend or hookup? Drug problem? A parking ticket?”
“She doesn’t even drive, Mark. What’s the deal, do you want out of the arrangement?”
I shake my head no and then remember he can’t see me. “No. I want to level the playing field.”
“Maybe a different girl would be—”
I cut him off. “It has to be her. You know that. She’s the best suited for my goals.”
“Mhm, so you’ve said.” He replies.
“Are you mocking my pain, asshole?”
“You don’t feel pain, psycho.”
I huff. “Nerd.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Wait, you didn’t answer. Is she or was she close to anyone outside the family?”
“Nope. She was close with her bodyguard who died, an old guy. She seems pretty close to her best friend, Luna, the Italian heiress, and Luna’s cousin, Zeno. They’ve seen each other at weddings and events over the years. That’s literally it. She’sfamilia through and through muchacho.”He says with a crass Hispanic accent.
“That’s offensive when you do that.”
“Good thing you have no feelings to offend.Adiós!”
Moron.One of my best friends and a genius and probably the sweetest guy I know. Still. He came up short.
I can’t believe she’s so squeaky clean. But also, I can, like Robbie explained. She needs a damn chaperone to talk to her fiancé like it’s 1909. Gotta protect her virtue, as if being born into a bloody crime syndicate doesn’t besmirch her in any way.
I pull up her photo on my phone and grunt in repulsion. Not at her, per se. She’s annoyingly beautiful. Fake and rehearsed, but still stunning. I just don’t want…this. The whole arrangement. A public marriage. Dating. Hugging, holding hands.
I shift in my clothes and turn the air conditioning a notch. I can’t afford to let people close, physically or otherwise. Plus, I just don’t like it. People are messy and unpredictable and out of control. I can’t lose control or get swept up in a mess. There’s too much at stake, and I’ve been at this way too long.
I throw my head back and stare out the window at the Texas plains.
I don’t like to be touched. I barely like to do the touching. And I guess I’ll even have to kiss her at the altar. Fuckingkissing?
That’s not how it works in my world. Not behind the curtain. Arrangements are made, alliances are formed, deals are inked, but there is no romance. Definitely no love, ever. Ask any politician’s wife. Ask a billionaire’s wife or a Capo ’s wife, they’re all the same.
And I’m the same. But different. This arrangement with her, this is not howIwork, howIfunction. How I stay sane.
When I need sex, I have it. I’m clear with the woman, whoever she is, that it’s a one-time, physical thing. There are no feelings, no attachments. I’m out of there before her clothes are back on.
Shit, there are even worse things than kissing…what if mybridewants to sit and chat?
Hell, no.
We are not chatting. I told her as much last week. I do not want to be her friend.
I definitely don’t want anything to do with her rotten family.
