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And now that I’m closer to her, I can see the darkness around her left eye, with concealer caked over it to hide the bruising.
My hand tightens around my gin and tonic. My teeth clench hard.
You motherfucker.
“My wife,” Massimo laughs easily, clearly seeing where my gaze is lingering. “She’s so clumsy sometimes. Aren’t you, sweetheart?”
Eloise smiles wanly. “Yes indeed,” she says in a musical French accent. “So very clumsy.”
I swear, I’m half a second away from throwing my drink in this fucker’s face when he clears his throat.
“But as I was saying, congratulations are in order.” He grins. “For marrying my cousin.”
My brow arches. Massimo’s grin widens.
“Well, only a distant cousin. But still, I consider Dante family, and now this makesyoufamily, too.”
Jesus. OfcourseDante is “family” with creeps like this. Wonderful.
“Although,” Massimo continues, stroking his strong jaw meditatively, “I suppose the bigger congratulations are owed to my cousin, since he gets to keep his lovely club now.”
Wait, what?
“Oh…yes, of course,” I feign a knowledgeable nod. “Yes, that’s…good.”
Massimo, who already looks pretty drunk, knocks back the champagne in his hand. “You know, I wassurethey were going to take it from him. These puritanical old men on The Commission who somehow still find the idea of a single man running a club of that nature distasteful…” He shakes his head. “I say who gives a fuck if he’s married or not. But then, I’m not an old man.”
Well now.
Thisis interesting.
My gaze slides past Massimo. Across the ballroom, through a set of gorgeous French doors open to a balcony overlooking the ocean, I can see Dante heatedly speaking with a younger man. My eyes stab into his back, my jaw tightening.
You. Mother. Fucker.
This whole time, he’s been framing this marriage thing as if he’s doingCharlesa favor. Or like he was going to marry Maeve to get something from him.
Now, I see the truth.
He needs meway morethan I need him.
I smile darkly inside.
I’m going to use that to my utmost advantage.
“Welcome to the family, Ms. Black,” Massimo mutters, yanking Eloise away with him as he disappears back into the crowd of laughing, drunk mafiosos.
I’m ready to get thehellout of here. I put my drink on the bar and turn to go find my brothers. But just as I do so, cold liquid splashes down my side, soaking the dress.
“Oh myGod!”
The girl looks around Maeve’s age, with her dark hair up in an elegant bun and piercing blue eyes that are currently as round as the “O” her heart-shaped lips are making. Her gaze snaps to mine in horror.
“I amsosorry!” she blurts, her face scarlet as she grabs a handful of cocktail napkins off the bar and starts to blot at my dress awkwardly.
“No, it’s totally fine?—”
“Seriously, Tempest, I’msosorry! I’m the world’s biggest klutz?—”
