Page 21 of Toxic Things I Love About You

“Oh, Uncle Vinny. Can I call you Vinny? Or do you prefer Mr. Falco? Because you don’t have a Rossi name.”

The muscle in his cheek twitched. That was a hard-hitting point apparently.

“Call me what you want but call them off. Perhaps we can strike a deal. Unlike your father, you seem reasonable.”

The entire conference room echoed in her laughter. I’d never truly seen the dark side of my fiancée and the way her crazy was starting to manifest itself had my cock hardening and my hands itching to have her here and now.

“Reasonable? Oh, Vinny, sweetie, you have no idea just how unreasonable I can be. I hear you’re trying to take over some of the Rossi products, the Black Moth lines. Did you know that I designed that logo for Daddy? Rest his blackened soul.”

Vinny, as she was calling him, didn’t let on if this wasn’t how he saw the whole evening going.

“That is a lie. I haven’t touched the Rossi products.”

She shifted, and I struggled to keep my place as I watched him notice her skirt ride a little higher over her crossed legs.

“Oh no? I have a man, maybe one of your turncoats. Is that the term? Hm. Anyway, I had a man that said very differently. Roman, can you enlighten Mr. Falco here? He doesn’t seem to take me seriously.”

This was all business. I had to remind myself of that. I had to remind myself that you sized up the problem. You made sure they couldn’t read you. You let them show every card before you did anything. All the Rossi Holdings investors had done that, one by one. This was a game I could play.

“Mr. Falco. As Miss Rossi has told you, someone very specifically named you as one of the problems in her current Black Moth supply. Parks graciously went and checked out a lead and found far more product in that particular warehouse than it should have held. And, well, Parks, enlighten him.”

He pulled on one of his cuffs as he went around the other side of the table.

“Uncle, we found a lot of product with the wrong labels on it. Strange how your name was associated with this very specific load of product. What I can’t seem to work out is when exactly you got out of jail? That, and why something called the Lords had been a thorn in our side recently, and then you show up?”

I stood closer to Emilee, and it wasn’t lost on our friend. He had his own backup, but they stayed where they were.

“Yes, it’s almost as if you wanted me to find out about you, Uncle,” Emilee said. The venom in her words was obvious. “Let me guess. You married into the family thinking you’d be the last one standing?”

He didn’t answer her; he was still glaring down at Parks.

“I can’t figure out what you get out of this arrangement, Parks. I remember your father. Bastard for sure. How is it you didn’t try to take your uncle’s place?”

Parks didn’t move, didn’t even appear to entertain this prick.

“I believe this meeting is finished. You should watch who you are trying to take over. Miss Rossi is quite capable, I assure you,” Parks said.

The jackass didn’t say anything, but I did watch his eyes catch the ring on her hand again.

“I’m sure this is all a misunderstanding. Perhaps your fiancé would like to join us next time we meet?”

Emilee lifted her hand, the ring more obvious as it picked up the lights.

“Oh, you wouldn’t want to meet him, Uncle. He doesn’t take kindly to thieves.”

Her words were true, and I was respecting her wishes. It didn’t stop me from getting a bit closer to her though.

“Call off your dog,” said Vinny.

His attention was on me now.

“Your brother will find it fascinating, however, that you are in bed with his ex- fiancée, so to speak. Won’t he Roman?”

I smirked.

“My brother would find a great many things fascinating if he ever stopped to sober up and miss a party or two.”

The uncle was becoming annoying. Parks didn’t seem to be very pleased, and that made me like the guy even more. This entire thing stunk, and we needed to get to the bottom of it.

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