Page 19 of Wild Ace

“Thank you. Nonno, you stay here and make sure they do what they said they’re here to do and nothing more.”

“Where are you going?”

“To have a little chat with Vinny.” I run upstairs to splash cold water on my face, brush my teeth, and grab my purse and go. I’m angry and I don’t know why. He’s being nice, or trying to be nice, and I don’t want him to be.

I don’t know where I’m going to find him, but I park near the main entrance and walk right inside. I look around for a moment, and decide my quickest form of action is to walk right up to a pit boss.

“Excuse me, can you please take me to Vinny Carfano? I need to speak with him.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t know who that is.”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Tell him Lexi Manzato is here to speak with him about the random men he sent to my grandfather’s deli this morning.”

“One second.” He relays my message into the earpiece he’s wearing, and a minute later, another man shows up.

“Right this way, Ms. Manzato,” he instructs. I look to the pit boss for confirmation and he gives me a nod.

“Thank you.”

I’m guided through the casino to a gold door where the man puts in a passcode, presses his fingerprint to the screen, and has his eye scanned before the door opens.

Inside, there’s a short hallway with a black door to the left and one at the end of the hall.

My guide knocks on the one to the left and it swings open a few seconds later to reveal Vinny standing there, leaving me speechless. His hair is styled, his suit is tailored perfectly to his body, and that little smirk I want to both slap and kiss away is right there on his perfect lips to greet me.

“That’ll be all, Manny, thank you.” The guard, or whoever he is, walks back down the way we came. “I didn’t think I’d see you so soon, dolcezza. It looks like you woke up and ran right over here to see me. Miss me already?” His smirk grows as his eyes roam down my body.

Shit.

I look down and see I’m still in my yoga pants and oversized tee. With no bra. Apparently, I overlooked that key piece of clothing in my rush to get over here.

“Clearly,” I say sarcastically. “But you weren’t thinking clearly either when you decided it was a good idea to send men to the deli this morning so that my grandfather would wake me in a panic saying he hears voices downstairs, thinking there was another break-in.”

Vinny at least has the decency to look regretful. “I guess I didn’t think of that.”

“No, you didn’t think of that.” I push my hair away from my face and push past him into his office.

Chapter 6

Vinny

Fuck, she’s beautiful when she’s mad.

Lexi just stormed right into my office like she’s the one who owns this place, not me, and I don’t even mind.

I want her in my space.

“It’s a good thing I stayed with him last night, otherwise he would have woken up to that alone and thought he needed to play the hero again,” she says to me, her eyes spitting fire. “I don’t need favors from you. I told you that.”

“Not everything’s a favor,” I tell her, my words harsher than I meant them to be. She said the same thing at the club, and I didn’t like it then either. I don’t want her in my debt. I want to make her life a little bit easier. “I don’t expect anything in return.”

“Good, because you’re not getting anything in return. I can handle this all on my own.”

“You seem to handle a lot on your own.”

“Yes, that’s what I do. I’m used to it.”

“I respect that, but I have just one question.” I rub my jaw and her eyes follow my movements. They linger on my lips before she meets my eyes again.

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