Page 5 of Till Death Do Us Part

The men all got quiet as I approached. Cassio snapped out of whatever he was thinking and met my eyes. Tommaso stepped forward and took my hand before kissing each of my cheeks.

“John,” he said. “We have a situation.”

My eyes held his before he turned some and motioned with his chin toward Emanuele Corvo.

Corvo was speaking to a doctor, and for the first time in however many years I’d known him, he looked disheveled. His tie was loose and snaking around his neck. His white hair stuck up all over his head. He kept taking his glasses off, cleaning them on his shirt as if the world was smeared and he couldn’t get it clean. Without the round-framed spectacles, his eyes looked beady and tired.

“John,” Tommaso said again, demanding my attention. “Emanuele’s two daughters were attacked tonight. It’s not looking good for either of them.” He took my hand and squeezed.

That squeeze spoke the words he didn’t have to. I’d take care of it. But surprising both of us, I was the one who cleared my throat and spoke.

“Which daughters?”

Tommaso stared into my eyes, trying to dig for information I refused to give. “It’s past my bedtime. Cassio will fill you in on what we know.” With that, he turned and headed toward Emanuele with five guys in tow. He squeezed the man’s shoulder, whispered something in his ear, and then left the building.

“Coffee?” Cassio asked, holding up an imaginary cup.

“Which daughters?” My eyes fixated on Emanuele, who took a seat, ran a hand through his hair, then hung his head.

“Miss Iridescent and Miss Illinois.” He smirked when I looked at him. “Miss Iridescent, Lolita, always has different color hair. She’s a colorist at some popular salon in the city. The other one—she’s the youngest—was Miss Illinois a while back. Roma. Guess she didn’t want to compete after that. She quit. Everyone thought she had Miss Universe potential.”

“How serious?”

He sighed. “Lolita is missing. Roma is in critical condition. Dr. Corvo usually has men with them when they go out, but they ditched them, and here we are.”

“That’s all we know?”

“That, and there was a group of guys at the diner. There was some harmless flirting from across the room. The girls stopped to talk to them before they headed to the bathroom. Maybe the sisters knew them; they hopped out the window to meet them in the parking lot. Didn’t take them long to beat Roma half to death and get out. The bodyguards said they were only gone about ten minutes when they found Roma outside. The guys left their table not even five minutes after the girls disappeared into the bathroom.”

We both grew quiet as two men bypassed us and headed toward Emanuele Corvo. One of the men was older, and the other one was much younger. The older man took a seat next to Emanuele, speaking to him in a hushed tone, while the younger one took a position with his back against the wall, studying his phone.

“You all right, John?” Cassio asked.

I didn’t answer. The older man was my paternal grandfather, Alfonso Maggio, and the younger was my father’s brother Jack. Jack was younger than me, but older than Roma. It was no surprise they were kissing Emanuele Corvo’s ass, even though what they should have done long ago was beat it.

If it wasn’t for Tommaso, Emanuele would be dead.

Emanuele Corvo was a famed physician who invented a life-saving heart device and a pill to erase some of the damage, but he refused to save my old man. Said the damage to my old man’s heart was too extensive. But Tommaso? Who had just as much damage? Emanuele had saved him, which was why Tommaso felt indebted to him.

Alfonso and Jack were still the heads of the pharmaceutical company my great-grandfather, Giovanni, had started, and they had purchased Emanuele’s life-saving device and pills for the market.

Kissing Emanuele’s ass wasn’t limited to the company. Everyone knew Emanuele was traditional when it came to his daughters. The older sisters were married to men Emanuele had chosen for them. It would be no different for the younger two. I wasn’t sure who had been chosen for Lolita, but an arrangement between Alfonso and Emanuele was in place.

Jack and Roma would marry.

The daughter of a legendary doctor married to a pharmaceutical mogul’s son? For them, it couldn’t get any better or be more perfect.

That was why I’d been at Jupiter. I went to see and fuck the woman Jack was going to marry, fucking them over in the process.

Jack’s eyes swung to mine, as if he heard my thoughts. He’d been at the nightclub earlier, one of the boys watching her while she danced. She might not have known who she was going to marry, but Jack had known he’d been watching his future wife. He liked what he saw. There was no doubt he’d claimed her.

“Poor bastard,” Cassio said. “He’s going to lose his wife before he even has her.”

“Yeah.” I fixed my suit and headed toward the two guards who were supposed to keep her safe. “Poor bastard.”

Not because he’d lost her before he ever had her. But because she’d always been mine.

Chapter3

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