Page 71 of Not Mine to Keep

“And if Rocco doesn’t take the bait? If his father convinces him to stick to the cease-fire arranged between our parents and not come after me? Us?” I finally spoke, my head still spinning.

“Whether he comes or not, we still pin the blame on him,” Constantine said. “The League’s eyes in the sky confirmed Claudio’s also at the compound in Romania. I’ve convinced them not to storm the place to take him out for now—to wait so we can use Rocco for Armani’s murder.”

“Think about it,” Izzy began on approach. “You stole Rocco’s chance to marry Callie by killing Esposito at his wife’s fortieth birthday. So what better revenge plan for him than to learn you’re having a party for your wife, and for him to want to take action there? It’s believable, and I have a feeling he won’t be able to resist coming, regardless of whether his father chooses not to start shit with us and The League.”

“You’re getting scary good at this job,” I muttered, taking a sip of my drink, buying myself more time to think. “We’d need to have the party offthe island. No hotel or anyplace that can chance the risk of civilian casualties.” I thought through the idea a bit more. “A mansion we can secure that has a safe room I can hide Callie in if Rocco or his men do show up.”

“And a way to kill Armani and Marcello privately to pin their deaths on the Barones,” Izzy said with a nod. “We can do this. And hey, this gives Mom a party to plan, and she’ll get off your back about having a family dinner.”

I shook my head. “Real funny.”

“Not a bad idea, actually,” Constantine chimed in. “Better to keep Mom away from your wife as much as possible. She’ll get attached, and her heart will get broken when you two split.”

Mom’s heart?Yeah, another heart I needed to worry about breaking alongside Callie’s, which was why I’d been so adamant earlier at the airport that Mom keep her distance from my wife. “I might need to talk this over with Gabriel first.”

“No, he stays out of it.” Constantine set down his glass, and I looked Hudson’s way, waiting to see if he’d share whether he’d had any luck digging into Gabriel’s background like my brother had asked him to do in Rome.

“Still looking,” Hudson said, reading my thoughts. “He’s been with the DiMaggios since he was a teenager. I’d question his motives for working with you, but—”

“Taking over the DiMaggio organization seems like a legitimate one,” I finished for him.

Hudson discarded his unfinished glass on the bar cart. “But I’ll keep checking.”

“So?” Izzy circled the desk, waiting for my okay on the plan.

“I think it can work.” I lifted my hand to tell her to pause her excitement for a beat. “ButI need daily reports about Rocco’s whereabouts from The League. If the man takes a piss outside that compound in Romania, I want to know about it.” I turned toward Constantine next. “You sure you’re good with this plan? You talked to Dad about it? We held off on hunting Rocco down all these years, not because Dad arranged a deal with Claudio, but becauseyouasked us to follow Dad’s orders.”

“Dad was trying to keep us from having to look over our shoulders every five minutes.” Of course Constantine would defend Dad. “But it’s time Rocco gets to look over his shoulder. And when he does”—and there was that anger that’d been missing from him before—“I’ll slit his throat.”

“Lovely image,” Izzy whispered. “Well, I have to get going. I’m going to let Mom know about the party and hope that distracts her from her efforts to cozy up to your wife.”

“Mom can’t lose another daughter,” Constantine said somberly, and fuck, that comment hurt. “We’ll talk later. It’s been a long day. Everyone should get home,” Constantine deflected, then motioned to clear out, but I hung back and once alone, rested my elbows on the desk, placing my head in my hands.

I’d be single again soon enough.I can do this.

I finally had the energy to look up before I fell asleep right there, my eyes catching sight of my wedding ring in the process.Shit.I grabbed my phone and called up my assistant, not caring it was after 2100 hours. “I need a favor.”

“Another one?” I heard the smirk in his tone.

“I forgot to get her an engagement ring. She’s a Costa now. She needs a diamond on her finger, or people might—”

“I’ll pick one up tomorrow.”

“No, now. I need to gonow.”

“Sir, it’s late. The stores will be closed.”

“Get a manager on the phone,” I directed, not prepared to back down on this. “Something on Fifth Avenue. The best jewelry store there is. They’ll open up for me. Text me the location. I’ll be there in thirty.”

“Yeah, um, okay. I’ll do my best, but you owe me a nice vacation when this is all over.”

“All expenses paid on me. Got it,” I said before hanging up, then went and refilled my glass, my nerves shot to hell as I thought about buying a diamond—something I hadn’t done since I was twenty-two. Of course, I’d gotten down on one knee then, and I had no plans to ever do that again.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Alessandro

“About time you showed up. You don’t plan on letting your wife sleep alone, do you?” Frankie had the nerve to stop me in the hall of my own damn home on the way to my bedroom, and it took all my restraint not to shove him against the wall. His attention dipped to the bag in my hand. “Ah, got the princess a diamond, did you?”

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