Page 75 of The Last Vendetta

“I am!” I roared it, not caring how much he’d perceive this as the ultimate sign of disrespect. “I fucking am.”

“Oh, you are, huh?” He sneered, looking away as he walked back a bit, like needing to shake off his frustration. “You’re looking for Luka’s killer while you’re shacking up here with Giulia Acardi. The stress of the job is already getting to you so much that you need to take a little vacation with the daughter of our enemies.”

I ground my teeth, fighting back the urge to punch his smug face. “Fuck you. I’m not.”

“You’re not fucking that woman?” He grunted. “Not what I heard. Not what the witnesses said. The Greeks burned down half the fucking road chasing you when you were so pussy whipped and distracted that you didn’t pay attention to whose territory you drove through. Imagine my goddamn surprise when reports came in that you were taking Giulia Acardi out of town with you.”

“It’s none of your business who I sleep with.”

“Yes, it fucking is!” Hands fisted, he came close again as though he struggled with the same desire to punch hard. “It is my fucking business when you choose her. Of all the easy pussy on the earth, you have to fall for her bullshit?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He smirked. It was such a wicked, maniacal expression that he looked unhinged. “I don’t?” Shaking his head, he looked away again and muttered under his breath. “I know more than you. I know, without a doubt, that you cannot mix with that woman. Giulia is off-limits.”

“Fuck you.”

“No. Fuck you, you dumbass. She’s bad news.”

I narrowed my eyes, getting angrier by the minute as he badmouthed the woman I wanted to make my wife. “You don’t know her. You know nothing about Giulia.”

“I know enough to assume.” He pointed at me, his face taut and lined with fury. “I know her mother. And I know that Isabella Acardi is bad news.”

“Giulia isn’t like her.”

He chuckled darkly. “She isn’t like her? How stupid can you be to ever think that Giulia isn’t just an extension of her?”

“Giulia is not Isabella’s pawn. She hates her.”

He snorted another angry laugh. “She actually led you to believe that? How goddamn stupid can you be? I expect you to act like my second in command, and you’re not going to do that when you’re so gullible to be conned by that bitch?—”

I punched him. Hard. Right in the side of his face.

In my peripheral vision, the guards stepped forward, tense and ready to act. But Giovanni halted them. As he staggered back, sliding his jaw from side to side and glaring at me with murderous intent, he lifted his hand to ward the guards back.

“You have no fucking clue what you’re talking about.” He fumed, glowering at me with such venomous hatred shining in his eyes. “You have no idea.”

“I don’t,” I agreed hotly. “So why don’t you tell me?” I was sick of wondering and guessing why a perfect woman like Giulia had to be so forbidden. Why she had to live with the label of being my enemy due to an old issue that set this rivalry in place.

“You don’t need to know everything. Not now. All you need to do is follow my orders. I told you to find your brother’s killer and seek justice. I told you to prepare for marrying Cecilia.”

I lost it. Chuckling turned into laughing, and I caught myself before it became hysterical. “Cecilia?”

He slitted his eyes, waiting out my laughter. He couldn’t be so stupid and dull as not to realize that I was laughing at him. Of all the things he could have said…

I shook my head, getting a grip on my knee-jerk reaction.

Marry Cecilia?

That wasn’t happening. It wouldn’t have been an option for me to follow through with even if she hadn’t been stabbed. My heart belonged to Giulia no matter what anyone said about it.

“You tracked me. You had to know exactly where I was,” I said as my dark amusement faded.

“What of it?” he demanded.

“You have to know I went to the Romanos’ villa.”

He tipped his chin up. “I did. The men saw the route you took. I wanted to assume those rumors about your having Giulia with you were false and that you were stopping in to check on your bride, since you’d found her.”

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