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“Of course, a gracious invitation.”
We exchange a few more pleasantries before the Guerras excuse themselves to head to the buffet table, and I turn my attention back to Tia.
“What do you say? Will you honor me with a dance?” I suggest.
Tia’s eyes light up. “If you’re lucky, I might just be willing to dance with you twice.”
Chuckling, I guide my bride onto the dance floor, finding an open spot as the band pauses between songs. Then, as the music starts once more, I take up a ballroom frame and guide Tia into a foxtrot.
Tia smiles, her arm resting lightly on top of mine as she grasps my shoulder with one hand and clasps my palm with the other. Her neck arches elegantly to the side as she moves with flawless grace across the floor.
It brings me back to our first dance, how calm and poised she was from the very start of the day, how regally she’d carried herself. My wife is a wonder, a treasure I can scarcely believe I was lucky enough to have fallen into my lap. All because she waltzed into my house one night looking for an adventure.
Then, in an instant, the magic of the moment is shattered.
Gunshots ring through the open ballroom, the sound distant, as if coming from down the hall. But the sharp cracks are unmistakable. As are the panicked screams that follow.
The band falls silent, all eyes shifting toward the door, and Tia stumbles into me. Clinging to my arms, she leans against my chest as a frightened gasp rushes past her lips. And I instinctively wrap an arm protectively around her shoulder.
The violent shots come to an abrupt stop, and for one single, suspended moment, it’s as if the world has gone completely silent. Then, a deep voice bellows down the hall.
Fuck. That’s Johnny. Something’s definitely wrong.
“Tia, find your father and hide,” I command, pushing her gently toward the buffet table as I turn to make a beeline for the ballroom door.
Frustrated that my men haven’t managed to keep the conflict quiet and furious that we have something to deal with at all when tonight is supposed to solidify my relationship with the mayor, I intend to crush the disturbance before it can get any further out of hand.
39
TIA
Despite Leo’s orders—and the clear danger waiting in the direction he’s headed—I race after him, following him from the ballroom and down the hall toward the auction room. Because I can’t stop the terrible sinking feeling in my gut.
My father’s energy was off tonight. He barely looked at me when we spoke. His gaze was distracted, his mind clearly somewhere else. And as soon as I reach the doorway of the auction room, my suspicions are confirmed.
Several of my cousins and many of my father’s men—men I’ve known since I was a little girl—are now in the custody of Leo’s men.
Maria must have told Father about the deal Leo made with the mayor—and the significance of tonight’s event. I shared the information with my sister in confidence, when I was still trying to formulate a plan to destroy the Moretti family. But in her fear for my safety, my sister must have thought it best to pass my thoughts on to my father.
And apparently, he took the information and ran with it. He chose tonight as the opportune moment to betray Leo—just as I had originally intended to do. Like father, like daughter. Only my father didn’t trust me enough to tell me about his plan.
And suddenly, I’m faced with picking sides when I desperately do not want to have to choose.
“What the fuck is going on here?” Leo growls, his presence intimidating as he seems to grow larger, more bearlike in his fury.
I hover just beyond the door’s threshold, suddenly scared to enter at the expressions of fierce violence on the men’s faces.
“The Guerras thought it’d be a good idea to come in guns a-blazing during the charity event and heist the auction items,” one man growls, a man I think I’ve heard Leo address as Johnny once before. “Idiots didn’t even try to be subtle.”
The tendons in Leo’s jaw pop as he clenches his teeth in fury. “Does Don Guerra know about your imbecilic plan?” he demands, pinning his gaze on my cousin Maury. “You do realize he’s a guest at tonight’s event. You can’t possibly think this will shed a positive light on your family. And what gives you the right to use the two brain cells that make up your intelligence to come up with a plan anyhow? You work for me now, Maury. Or did you forget? You don’t get to so much as sneeze without my permission. So, what the fuck are you doing here tonight?”
I’ve never seen Leo so angry. Even when he shot that Valencia man in the woods, he did it with a chilling calm. This new rage is something to behold, and it makes me tremble deep in my bones.
But like a true Guerra, Maury’s too stubborn to back down from a fight. He just sneers, clearly oblivious to what’s at stake. “You play such a big man, but you have no idea what kind of game you’ve set in motion. The Guerras are a powerful family that has ruled this town for centuries. You can’t just waltz in and expect us to step aside because of one wedding.”
My heart stops at the scathing words, and suddenly, my understanding of the entire situation shifts. Not just the standoff but everything. My pregnancy. The wedding. The tension between our two families, which seemed to vanish overnight.
My father never intended to follow through with the alliance. He sold me to the Morettis with every intention of using the temporary peace to lay his trap.
