Page 4 of Hot-Blooded Killer

All the players in our world might see me as the Beneventi baby brother, the easy-going one, the one who always has a laugh and a smile.

They’re about to find out how very wrong they are.

Starting with Gia Rossi.

CHAPTER2

GIA ROSSI

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” I gape at my father, stunned into momentary silence after my initial outburst.

“Watch your mouth, Gia Lorraine Rossi.” Pop gives me his most paternal glare, but for the first time in my life, I don’t care how upset he is.

It doesn’t come close to matching how angry I am with him.

“I will not marry Lorenzo Beneventi,” I say. “You can’t make me.”

He raises one eyebrow. “You promised to do whatever was necessary to protect this family,” he reminds me.

I give him an incredulous stare. “Yeah—when I was twelve years old.”

He nods complacently. “And now you’re twenty-one, and it’s time for you to make good on your promise.”

We stand in his study in our home in The Ridges, high above Vegas, and Pop’s dark eyes bore into me.

I’ve always been more like Pop than any of my sisters. And since he and Mama never had any boys, I’m the closest thing to an heir he’ll ever have. I know he hopes I will someday give him grandsons, boys he can raise to take over the family business.

But in the meantime, he trusts me with all his business secrets.

So why is he so determined to marry me off to Lorenzo Beneventi, of all people?

I move to the bookshelves, running my fingertips along the leather-bound volumes, not even seeing what I’m looking at as I consider his words.

He stands up from behind his wide mahogany desk and comes around to stand behind me.

“But theBeneventis, Pop?” I say. “They don’t have any more power—not since their father died. And then Max married that Colombian woman. She’s anobody.” I can’t imagine why the elder Beneventi brother chose her. Not when there are so many women of his own caliber interested in him.

Hell, if my father wanted to sell me off to Max, I might take him up on the offer. But Lorenzo? He’s the family playboy, and everyone in Vegas society knows it.

He will never have any real power.

And if I follow my father’s wishes, neither will I.

In our world, a woman married to a nobody becomes a nobody.

“What did he pay you for this?” I demand.

I could swear Pop’s gaze turns shifty, but the expression skitters across his face and is gone, leaving me uncertain I actually saw it at all.

“That’s none of your business,” he tells me.

“What about college? You promised me I would be allowed to finish before we even discussed marriage.”

Pop gives an unconcerned wave of his fingers. “Lorenzo agreed to that as one of the conditions of your alliance,” he assures me, his expression turning sly.

Oh, shit.I know that look.

“Think about it,tesora. Lorenzo may not be your first choice—”

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