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“Take us to the safehouse,” Dario ordered and looked at his watch. “Have Gianni arrange to transport whoever Alessandro will need there, but they must be blindfolded.”
“What do you mean?” I asked incredulously.
“We still have a wedding to get to,” Dario ground out and returned to furious texting.
“You can’t be serious. After that?” I waved a hand behind me, aware my voice sounded a little too high-pitched, and I took another breath and tried to think. “It makes no sense.” I added. “I thought you said the wedding had to happen. That the problem was afterwards.”
He sighed and looked up at me. “Before the wedding, you are most at risk. I would have no choice but to marry Sofia. After that is whenmylife is in danger.”
“Or your brother’s,” I pointed out. He inclined his head in agreement. “Then why are we doing this?”
His eyes narrowed, but I held up my hand to stop his argument. “I don’t mean the wedding.” Even I could see we were both backed into a corner. “I mean the elaborate ceremony. What’s wrong with the courthouse?”
Dario sighed, glanced out of the window, then back to me. “Because if they think they have me on the run, the sharks will be out for my blood...and yourspiccolo mio.”
“So we have to make a statement,” I said, and thought furiously. I didn’t see how we could both be protected. “Did they get the shooter?”
“No,” Dario clipped out. His jaw clenched, but I didn’t need to see that to imagine how he felt.
“Are you sure Rocco is responsible?”
“As much as I can be without the shooter in hand. He will have known where we were headed.”
“So, your immediate problem is keeping me alive to say, ‘I do’, then keeping yourself alive afterwards? And if he succeeded in killing both of us, then Gianni would be compelled to marry Sofia?”
He nodded again, and I watched the big hands that had touched me with so much gentleness curl into fists until his knuckles whitened. I also knew if we weren’t in the car, he would never have let his temper show like that. I didn’t know whether I should feel complimented that unconsciously his body trusted me with its secrets. Or maybe he was just having a really bad day. Then I gasped. His parents. His parents had been killed in exactly the same manner, and this must have brought everything back. Not that something like that could ever leave you, but even so. “Dario,” I whispered, and his eyes glittered dangerously, as if challenging me to dare offer comfort, but then the words that came out of my mouth would, I imagined, be just as much of asurprise to him as they were to me. “What if we were already married before the ceremony?”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“You need the ceremony to make a statement, but what if that could be a blessing rather than a marriage?” Interest lit his eyes. “Of course, if I was already married there would be no need for my father to make any speeches.”
I saw the smile curve his lips as he acknowledged I had managed to get what I wanted. He glanced at Lucio. “Get hold of Judge Nolan. Find out where he is.”
I sat back and listened as Lucio used his phone. I picked at the plain black pants and the equally uninspiring stained white shirt it seemed I was now about to get married in, and wondered how my life had suddenly come to this. I had to blink a couple of times. I wasn’t about to start a one-person pity party. I was stronger than that.
I’d had to be.
I jerked a little when Dario’s large hand covered both of mine. I hadn’t realized I’d been sitting twisting my fingers, a show of nerves that would be completely unacceptable in the life I was marrying into. I didn’t look up and Dario continued talking with Lucio, but the fact that he hadn’t brought attention to my nerves, simply offered support, kind of shocked me. I knew he was giving me a message of what was acceptable and what wasn’t, but I just wanted to pretend for a moment that he had another reason. “Do you have your own men?”
His eyebrow lifted as Lucio ended the call. “Because?”
“Because Rocco never allowed Elisabetta or Sophia to go out without at least two cars full of bodyguards.” Not that I was complaining. He grinned and I watched in fascination as it seemed to take ten years off him.
“Do you want two cars full of bodyguards?” I shook my head. “But you are correct. Lucio and I were elsewhere when we discovered your history. I have many loyal men.”
My eyes narrowed. I smelled a lie. “Do you?” I challenged. “After finding out about Rocco and what happened back there, how do you know who to trust?”
I ignored the grunt from the front seat, but fancied Lucio was agreeing with me. “Not something you need to worry about,” Dario assured.
“Oh no you don’t.” I yanked my hand away. “I’ve looked after myself for a very long time. I don’t trust you just because you say I should, and based on my recent experience back there, what makes you think I should?”
Dario’s eyes turned flinty dark again, but I stood my ground. Well, sat. I was sitting. But I lifted my chin.
“Tesoro mio,” he whispered throatily. “I want to take a bite out of that chin.”
His voice hit me like I’d been punched, but it wasn’t my chin that throbbed. That sensation was reserved for areas that had no business throbbing. Right at that moment, I wouldn’t accept so much as a flutter. Trying not to make it look obvious, I shifted and considered crossing my legs, but the instant flare in his dark eyes told me he hadn’t missed it. I doubted if Dario missed anything.
“Your protection will always be my first concern.” His voice was low, dangerous. Sliding over my skin like silk. I didn’t tremble in fear, but the sexual energy sparked between us, igniting what seemed like every cell in my body. For a beat, maybe more, words deserted me.
