Page 3 of Kiss of Death
He hopped it wasn’t the latter.
“If you need anything and I’m not available, you can always find him,” Gia tacked on. It was a lie. Otto stayed in the shadows when it came to Tres. He’d been the buffer between Bruno and Gia. She ran the day-to-day business—keeping the employees paid, safe, and happy—while he ran interference so she wouldn’t have to deal with Bruno. Otto knew what type of man Bruno was and he wanted to make sure Gia was as far away from him as possible.
“Good to know,” Ivy murmured as she took her time taking him in. He wanted to know every thought running through her mind at that instant. He wanted to know if she was imagining what his tongue would feel like pressed against her lips.
She hummed in the back of her throat like she heard the thought that crossed his mind. Her face flushed before she cleared her throat. “Um, I have those papers you wanted me to sign. They’re in my bag back in the locker room.” Ivy’s eyes sparked with humor as she glanced down at their still intertwined hands. “I can get them now, if that’s okay with you?” The question wasn’t for his sister but for him.
He liked the way one corner of her mouth slightly pulled up into a smirk, letting him know she was teasing him. She had plump lips that begged him to smear her lipstick.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be, O?” Smoke clapped him on his shoulder again, harder than necessary. He wanted to rip the bastard’s arm off, but Otto knew he needed to get out of whatever was going on between him and Ivy if he was going to make his meeting on time.
Otto reluctantly let go of Ivy’s hand and took a step back. As soon as he was breathing in air other than her perfume, his mind shifted back to business. He looked down at his watch, cursing when he realized he was going to have to break a few speed limits to get to the meeting on time. He looked over at Ivy once more, committing her face to memory. He wanted to know what secrets hid behind her eyes and wondered if he would like what he saw when she finally exposed her true self.
“It was nice to meet you, Ivy.” He liked the way her name tasted on his lips; just like he knew he’d enjoy how the rest of her would taste. “Like my sister said, you need anything, I’m always available.” A small part of him hoped she would seek him out, even if she didn’t need anything related to working at Tres.
Ivy’s lips pulled back into a full smile, and it caused his lungs to seize in his chest. He fought to breathe as her beauty knocked him on his ass.
Maybe poison is too tame for the death she’ll give me.
“Sounds good,” she murmured. Her gaze lingered on him for a second, and he almost hated that she had to go, but she needed to if he was ever going to get his feet to move out of Tres Bella.
“It was nice to meet you, O.” Ivy turned on her heels and walked back toward the locker rooms.
It wasn’t until she was completely out of eyeshot that Otto’s surroundings finally came back in full view. It was like he’d been blindfolded by her and her absence removed it. His senses seemed to come back online too. The lighting in the club was now too bright for him, and he blinked a few times till his eyes adjusted.
Otto flinched when he heard Smoke’s annoying laughter in his ears. “Half a g says you about to break your own stupid rule, O. I give it a week before you tryin’ to blow her back out in the locker rooms. Maybe sooner if she goin’ to be dancin’ like that for you. I bet you she’s good in the sack.”
Smoke tacked on that last bit for a reaction. Otto didn’t give Smoke the satisfaction. But when he heard his sister laugh alongside Smoke, Otto flinched a little. She didn’t even attempt to defend his ironclad restraint when it came to the rules he set in place for his life. His sister knew him better than most, and while she should have been able to deny Smoke’s claim, she couldn’t because he couldn’t.
As clean as Otto’s track record was to not mix business and pleasure, he knew it was only a matter of time before he slipped up and gave in to his desire to have her—at least once. He’d only need one time to know if she tasted as good as she looked, even though he had a feeling the second he got her beneath him, she was going to blow his world apart.
OTTO MADE IT TO LITTLEItaly with time to spare, though the look Sofia gave him told him otherwise. He was on time, but to her icy glare, he was late. They went over a few particulars, like a haphazard plan in case things went south tonight. Dom reminded Sofia who would be at the table and made sure she knew exactly where their territories fell in with her own and the Council’s.
“Let’s go, boys.” Sofia smirked as she led them toward Bocca Felice.
As soon as they got to the door, they asked for the house special. It was code to let them know who they were and what they were there for. Two men in jeans and black muscle T-shirts appeared behind the reception area and escorted them through the busy restaurant. They made their way through the kitchen area and were led through a secret doorway that gave way to an enclosed room.
Anytime Otto had been in Bocca Felice it had been to eat, but those times had been few and far between because it was always packed. He knew the place was among the few neutral territories among the families but never knew they held meetings here. Seeing the amount of patrons dining in Bocca Felice gave Otto a false sense of security. It was hard to kill three people when there was a restaurant full of witnesses.
A woman stepped out of the room to the door all three of them had stopped at. She kept her gaze to the floor as she moved around the two additional men who had been guarding the door. At first glance, she looked like Ivy with darker hair. His body hummed in recognition, and he moved before he thought better of it, blocking her path. He knew logically this woman couldn’t be Ivy, but he couldn’t control his response to her.
She bumped into him, and it forced her to look up at him. He sucked in a sharp breath as he was hit with the same reaction he had the first time he and Ivy locked eyes. This felt a little different, though; where Ivy was all teasing and tempting, the woman before him looked skittish and scared.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled as she nervously looked behind her.
Otto stepped aside. “It’s okay,” he murmured to her retreating form. It was such an odd reaction, not only for a complete stranger but also because she looked so much like Ivy. He’d known of the woman all of two seconds, and one dance had his dick calling the shots.
He turned back around, facing Sofia and Dom. Sofia didn’t have to utter a word with her icy glare cutting him in half. He was distracted by a pretty face. It was one of the concerns she had about a bunch of men sit at her table. She thought men were prisoners to their dicks, and he just showed her she was right.
Otto gave her a slight nod, letting her know his head was in the game—at least for now. He pushed Ivy and her look-alike to the back of his mind as they were stripped of their weapons and phones and checked for any wires and bugs. When they were finally let into the room, the families were already seated at the table with only one seat vacant, which was left for Sofia. Otto did a quick scan of the room, cursing under his breath as he counted the amount of men each head of the respective families brought with them. He looked for another exit out of the room and came up empty.
It was going to be a long night.
He felt Sofia’s hand on his chest, and he looked down at her to see a smirk on her face. “You’re nervous. I didn’t think you had any real emotion if it didn’t involve your sisters. Though that woman outside seemed to get an interesting reaction out of you. Careful, Otto, I can’t have one of my best soldiers following his dick instead of his head.”
“I learned that lesson a long time ago, Sofia. Trust me when I tell you, we’re good.” The one and only time he had real feelings for someone, she ended up in bed with Nico—the same man keeping his younger sister safe and out of Bruno’s sleazy hands.
He handed this woman the world, wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, and she turned around and gave everything Otto wanted from her to someone else. Nico hadn’t known about their relationship when their affair started, but when he found out, he didn’t stop seeing her, and Otto went after him. His ex and Nico were the reason Otto had gotten into bed with Bruno in the first place. Bruno saved his ass from Nico, and it had cost him and his sister their freedom.
