Page 45 of Hot-Blooded Killer

I hear the deep rumble of masculine voices coming from inside and recognize that Lorenzo is speaking. But I can’t make out the words, so I step in even closer. By the time I can understand what they’re saying, Lorenzo has fallen silent, and Pop is talking.

“I don’t see how that’s any concern of yours, boy,” Pop says in the tone he’s always reserved for underlings when he’s annoyed with them.

“Not my concern?” Lorenzo replies, and his voice is ice-cold. “You have promised my wife to families all over Las Vegas. I’d say that makes it my concern.”

Wait. What? What does he mean by ‘promised’ me?

What has Pop done?

I can’t see either of the men speaking, but I can picture Poppa waving his cigar in front of him in a dismissive gesture as he says, “None of those promises came with contracts. And you’re the one who’s married to her, so why are you complaining?”

I bite back a gasp.

My mind is reeling as I put together the pieces—something Lorenzo has clearly already done.

My father has been using me as even more of a pawn than I ever realized.

How many of the deals he’s made over the last several years have been finalized by promising me to various Mafia families?

But if he really did promise me as collateral, then why did he have me go through with the wedding to Lorenzo?

Something bangs in the office, and I jump, only barely managing to suppress a surprised squeak. Unable to resist my curiosity, I creep even closer to the door, putting my eyes to the tiny crack of the opening.

Pop is sitting at his wide oak desk, leaning back in his big leather chair—the one I used to love to crawl into as a child because it smelled like him, like cigar smoke and leather. Like safety.

A safety that, it turns out, was always a lie.

And I was right, he is holding a cigar, almost certainly gesturing with it as he speaks.

Lorenzo stands with his back to me, his palms flat on the desk as he leans over it. I can imagine him slamming his hands down onto the flat surface. That was probably the sound I heard.

“But you also promised her to El Toro, didn’t you?” Lorenzo’s voice goes soft and dangerous, and a shiver runs down my spine. Pop may not find my husband threatening, but I’ve seen a darkness in his eyes that my father apparently hasn’t noticed.

Pop confirms my theory when he laughs, setting his cigar down in the ashtray in front of him and interlacing his fingers across his stomach. “And if I have?”

That bastard.My teeth clench, and my hands fist at my sides.

The Colombian cartel is dangerous, vicious. If they think Pop has double-crossed them, they won’t hesitate to wipe out not only him, but our entire family, too.

“But they won’t come after you, will they?” Lorenzo asks in that same cold, toneless voice.

They won’t? Why not?

Pop answers my questions as readily as if I had been in the room to ask them myself. “As far as the Colombians are concerned, Gia arranged the match herself, following through when she heard about the bet I’d made with you. They think she chose the Beneventis over Los Kappas.” He picks up his cigar and takes several puffs, leaning back and blowing smoke rings up into the air.

I stand frozen outside the door, horror at what my father has done racing through my body.

All this time, I truly believed Pop was grooming me to take over the Rossi empire.

Instead, he was setting me up to cover his ass, using the promise that he would hand me over to some other family—many other families, it seems—to seal whatever deal he was trying to complete at that moment.

He hadn’t been lying when he told me he didn’t intend for my marriage to Lorenzo to last.

He just failed to explain that he was using me to set up the remaining Beneventi brothers to be executed by the Los Kappas cartel.

My heart breaks in that moment, shattering into a million pieces as I realize that the one man I thought I could trust turned out to be the most duplicitous of them all.

And in the next instant, my heart heals just a little as Lorenzo stands up straight, pushing back from the desk, and says, “Gia is far too good for you. I will deal with El Toro and his people. And once I do, my wife will be allowed to decide what she wants to do with the rest of her life.”

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