Page 30 of Vicious Vows

“Stay with your guards,” I instructed Milo. “We’ll touch base in a bit.”

Things had been going too smoothly since we arrived. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was not a pleasant feeling.

“Would you like another drink?” Lorenzo nodded when the bartender placed a glass in front of him. “Thank you, Cherri.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Garcia.” The bartender with fake lashes and long red fingernails smiled at me. She’d been doing that since I walked in. “Would you like another?”

“No, thank you.” I pushed my empty glass away from me, taking in her sleeve tattoo that went from her wrist to her toned shoulder. She was an attractive woman, but she wasn’t as stunning as Lissia. “I’ll wait for my date.”

I gazed around, noting the exits and keeping tabs on most of the people in the room. There weren’t many but enough to make me aware of who was here.

“I take inventory of my surroundings too.” Lorenzo set his glass on the bar. “Men in our line of work have to be alert.”

“Always.” My father taught me from a young age to be aware of my environment and always have an escape plan.

“Is something bothering you?” Lorenzo asked.

“Not bothering me, but I am curious.”

“About?”

“You said you wanted me to trust you, but we haven’t negotiated any terms. I haven’t agreed to anything yet. How do you know you can trust me?”

“That’s a good question.” He ran his fingers along the smooth granite bar top. “I don’t trust easily, and you’ve recently made my business complicated. But as I said last night, your association with your cartel puts you in a strong position. If I can manage a deal with you, it works to my advantage.”

“Working with you helps me too,” I said. “For several reasons.”

“You need Gian and Collins to back off so you can do business as usual.”

“It’s been difficult lately.”

“Ever since you and Lissia got together?”

“You could say that.”

“I did a little research after our meeting last night.” He shook his head. “You took Lissia against her will.”

“That’s what her family believes, but trust me, you can’t make that woman do anything she doesn’t want to do.” I shrugged. “I have a feeling you already know that about her.”

“Lissia is quite the mischief maker.” He laughed. “I have some wonderful memories of her during our childhood. I may have given you a hard time last night with all the stories, and she played right along with me, but we were nothing more than friends. I adore her.”

“Why did you lose contact with one another?” I asked.

“We got older.” He lifted his glass from the bar. “Our fathers didn’t do as much business together and life got in the way. We fell out of touch.”

“It’s an odd coincidence that she walked back into your life now, isn’t it?”

“I can assure you, Marchello, I didn’t know she was with you.” He looked into his glass. “When I struck a deal with Collins to move my products through New York City, I had no idea Gian Gallanti was the means to make that happen. Collins was the middleman, and I only worked with him.”

“I took out that shipment in retaliation to Collins and Gian coming after me,” I said. “It had nothing to do with you.”

“Collins had me believe otherwise.”

“Then why did you agree to this meeting?”

“Something was off, and then Juan contacted me and said I should meet with Nico Accetti’s sons. I thought that might be in my best interest.” He finished his drink. “When you walked in here with Lissia, I realized I was right.”

It always comes back to my girl, doesn’t it?

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