Page 96 of Their Princess

“What? How?”

“You’re resourceful.”

I scoffed. “As you pointed out, I’m stuck in a bedroom.”

“Yet you were out today,” said my father. “How were the hills? The canyon?”

Of course, he knew about that. Had Rafe told him? Or did my father have more spies? They were probably watching the club and had seen me leave, but they hadn’t known where I was going.

“What difference does it make?” I hissed at him. Simply by making the deal, he’d gotten what he wanted—better access to the border crossing. There wasn’t anything here for him to have an interest in.

“Why were they up there?” he asked.

That proved he didn’t know as much as he let on. Strange. Did he know about the thing with the cartel?

“I don’t know,” I lied. “They don’t talk business around me.”

“Well, then get them to do it,” he snapped.

“Why?” I asked. “What do you think is happening?”

“Adelina, they were involved in overthrowing the Gambinos. That means they need to be monitored.”

I barked a laugh.

“Do you disagree?” he asked.

“They’re actually super disorganized.”

If he thought there were some big master plans in the works, he was sorely mistaken.

“You’re smarter than this, Adelina. I raised you better.”

“That’s rich, Papà.” My grandmother and mother and a couple nannies raised me, but certainly not him.

Don Massimo Parisi waited for an answer, using his famous be-quiet-and-let-them-spill-their-guts technique. But I didn’t want this conversation to continue. I was already playing his mail-order bride for the MC.

“Fine,” I said in a low voice. “What kind of information should I be looking for?”

“That’s my girl,” murmured my father.

Chapter Twenty

RAFE

Standing outside Adelina’s door,I braced both hands on the wall on either side and hung my head.

It was wrong.

Me. This situation. This whole thing. But definitely me.

And everything Mass had me doing in this MC involved me chasing after my niece. Including today, and the reason I was here.

“Show her around a gun, Rafe,” Mass had said. “Make sure she can take care of herself if necessary.”

I had known her since she was a baby, so the fact that she was transforming day by day into a woman I wrongly desired had me needing someone who could beat some sense into me. But I didn’t know anyone here. Not in the way that I could confess to the wrongness of what I had been feeling.

I raised my hand and knocked on the door, then returned to a parade-rest position. I found comfort and the will to do what had to be done when I stuck with Marine customs.

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