Page 123 of Brutal Legacy

I couldn’t fight the smirk that passed across my lips, and I shook my head.

Ettore’s eyes bulged as if he’d just seen the Devil himself, at the sight of my half-smile.

“Let’s go.”

I foundGeorgia in her studio. The idea to give her a room to make her dresses had been a natural one. She needed something to occupy her and keep her out of my hair. If she was busy, she wouldn’t be trying to escape or poking her nose where it didn’t belong… she wouldn’t be a distraction.

Right. How is that working out?

It was an exercise in futility. Her smile at discovering the room and her new equipment had warmed the hollow in my chest.

She was wearing another of the dresses I’d bought her. It shouldn’t be possible, but the thick white linen dress, with a skirt that fell to her knee and nearly covered her completely, was as titillating as lingerie on this woman. She stood and went to a tall stack of shelves, going up on her tiptoes to reach for something, and I quickly stepped forward and closed the door. The movement brought the hem of her dress indecently high. Ettore was outside, after all, not to mention Toni. Was I really jealous of other people’s eyes on my wife? Yes. It was why I’d assigned her a female bodyguard, after all; well, that and the fact that Antonia Deponio was one of the best soldiers I’d ever known, and she’d saved my ass more times than I could count.

“Allow me,” I said and reached past her.

She jerked against me, falling into my chest. She hadn’t known I was there. She twisted around and leaned on the shelves, looking up at me.

“You’re home.”

“Hmm.” I pulled the box she’d been aiming for down from the top shelf and held it at my side. “Did you miss me?”

She scoffed, but her cheeks turned pink. “Hardly. I manage on my own just fine…”

“Was that what you were doing when I found you? Managing just fine?”

She swallowed hard and shrugged. “I was okay.”

“No, you weren’t.” I couldn’t resist tucking a stray curl behind her ear. “But it’s okay. I wasn’t either.”

Her dark eyes held mine, and a lot passed between us in that moment. Last night had been the first night of uninterrupted sleep I’d had in over a decade. It was the first night I hadn’t even thought of playing the damn roulette game. Though I hadn’t played it with a loaded weapon since the night I’d found out the Tommaso Conti had died. I’d never play it again that way. How odd that after all this time, I’d found something to live for again, and it was the person who’d threatened that desire in the first place. She’d broken me, and now, it seemed like only she could fix me.

Life had some sense of fucking irony.

“I think we need to talk,topolina.”

She nodded, a jerky, uneven movement. “Yes, I think we do.”

“Let’s do so over lunch.”

36

ELIO

We ate in the dining room in front of the stunning views of the water. We talked about nothing, simple and easy, something I hadn’t experienced in a long time.

When the dishes were cleared, Georgia’s smile dropped, and she sighed.

“So, I found out about my father. Were you listening?”

“Do you think I was listening?” I was genuinely curious if Georgia had any idea how much surveillance I had on her. From CCTV to the GPS chip, to bodyguards who would follow her when she eventually started to leave the house without me, she’d never be far from my eyes.

She lifted a shoulder, uncaring. “He promises that the De Sanctis family won’t be used in his deal with the state. He’s going to snitch on the Ravellis instead, just like you wanted.”

Her expression was grim.

“And that upsets you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Not really. I guess the alternative was never going to happen.”

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