Page 38 of Taking Care of the Target

“That’s just silly. You can’t put your entire life on hold to be my bodyguard.”

“Sure I can.”

“We just talked about this.” She exhaled a frustrated breath, wishing she could go back and un-mention the car. “Let’s think about this rationally. Why would anyone be after me? It makes no sense. Look, I’ll just drive my car for a little while until I stop seeing everyone as a threat. It’ll be fine.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist, drew her to him, and pressed his lips to hers. “I’ll pick you up tonight. Don’t leave without me, okay?”

She curled her hand into his shirt. “Don’t do anything crazy.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said. Then he kissed her again, taking a moment to linger and drag his tongue across her lower lip. “And don’t worry. As soon as I eliminate the threat, we’ll have long discussions about boundaries and trust and whatever you want. Now, have a good day at work. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Then he was off, and all she could do was go into McCarthy’s and hope that “eliminate” was security code for “calmly look into.”

***

A couple of phone calls confirmed Sal’s whereabouts; it hadn’t been him following Cassie this morning, because no one could be in two places at once. Vince highly doubted Sal would cross Carlo again and hire a third-party to do it, but he couldn’t be sure.

When Cassie had stormed out of the deli and demanded him into the Jeep, eyes afire, he’d known better than to tell her she looked sexy as hell pissed off, even though it was true. He’d been sure she was about to solve his dilemma by dumping him on his ass. After all, to her, he was a guy she’d only met not quite two weeks ago.

The dread that’d immediately risen up made it clear being apart wouldn’t solve his conflicted feelings about being with her. It’d only send him over the edge that much faster. Under usual circumstances, he wouldn’t have followed her, and he would have “trusted her judgment,” but once he’d seen her with the cop, the possessiveness wasn’t an act.

Watching him put his hand on Cassie’s, making it clear he wanted more than friendship, had sent toxic jealousy burning through Vince’s gut, and he’d been out of his Jeep before he could reign himself in. He’d been a hair away from charging in there and knocking the pig out, his entire body buzzing with the desire to do just that.

Maybe I am just like my dad, Carlo, and his thugs.Anger and the desire to use his fists certainly came faster than it should, which made him the wrong guy for Cassie.

But the self-analysis would have to wait until he found whoever was following her and make sure they stopped.

Because that was one job he was perfectly suited for.

He made a pass around the block, checking every silver four-door—and there were a lot, although none were manned—and looking for the Taurus he’d noticed earlier. When he came up empty, he parked a few blocks from McCarthy’s so he could watch the street and the ones that fed into it, and got out his phone to check in with Carlo.

“Yeah?” Carlo answered, and then, “You did not just fucking throw a glass at my head.”

A muffled shattering noise came through, followed by an angry scream from Allegra—Vince assumed anyway. When she screeched, “Is that her?” it confirmed it.

“There’s no one else, angel. You keep me as busy as three women would with all of your personalities.”

More crashing came over the line, and Carlo swore. “Just a minute, Vince.”

Ah, the always fun “are you cheating on me?” fight. Vince and Bobby witnessed a few firsthand when they lived in the house. About once a year, Allegra decided Carlo was cheating on her, usually because one of his capo’s wives or her other friends found out they were being cheated on, and/or he’d been working late nights. Not that Vince made it a priority to know who any of the men slept with, but anyone could see Carlo adored Allegra. She was his second wife, and while he’d cheated on the first with Allegra, as far as Vince knew, he was faithful to her. Despite the fact that she was, well, kind of psychotic.

She’d resented the hell out of having to take care of Vince and Bobby, even though they were mostly grown already. Motherly just wasn’t in her skill set.

Vince watched the street, focused on the passing cars and people, until Carlo came back on the line. “Women. I tell you, you’re lucky you’ve never been in love. Everything’s calm one day and then you’re walking into a shitstorm because youglancedat someone in a low-cut dress during dinner.”

Vince’s gaze automatically moved across the street at McCarthy’s. Yeah. Good thing he’d never been in love, or who knew what he might do. Maybe something crazy like dodge bullets, spend a day on surveillance looking out for a silver car-shaped needle in a haystack, and consider how far he could get if he tried to run away from his family…

The answer to that last one immediately popped into his head: not very far before Carlo came after the both of them.

“Sounds like a real pain in the ass,” Vince said. “Guess I’ll keep on avoiding it.”

“Ah, there’s good days, too. Gotta remember the good days. So, did something change with the girl? Angelo said you didn’t come in today.”

Vince knew he purposely didn’t use Cassie’s name in case they were being listened to. “I needed to take care of a few things, and the restaurant runs fine without me, right?” Before Carlo could answer, because it’d inevitably end in a back and forth about which side of the business he should be in, he moved on. “Things are the same.”

How long would they have to stay that way until his uncle would forget about Cassie, and she could live a normal life?

“Good, good,” Carlo said. “You can back off. No need to waste your time.”

---