Page 60 of The Fixer

He lifts my left hand and presses a kiss into my palm. “It looks good on you,” he says. “But more importantly, you really liked it. And when it comes to your happiness, principessa, two million is nothing. I would do far, far more. I would doanything.”

There are too many people around for me to say the words in my heart. And if I say them, I might end up crying. Instead, I shut the door and pull him closer. Leo’s eyes flare with heat as I unbuckle his belt and unzip his pants. “That was a very nice thingto say,” I say, tugging them down his hips and sinking to my knees.

“We have a houseful of guests.”

I trail my fingers over his rapidly growing shaft and look up at him through my eyelashes. “Are you really turning down a blowjob?”

“You’re right,” he says, a delicious growl in his voice. “I’m an idiot.”

I laugh and lick his head, then open my mouth wide and take him as deep as I can. His head falls back against the door, his face clenching with desire. “Fuck, this is nice,” he says. “Best birthday present ever.”

“This isn’t your birthday present,” I mumble. I twist my tongue around his head before taking his cock between my lips and sucking him again. His fingers tighten in my hair, and my insides twist with need. I’m giving Leo a blowjob, and it’s turning me on.

I moan deep in my throat, my fingers gripping his thighs as I bob my head on his length. “God, you’re beautiful,” Leo says, staring down at me. His voice—ragged, raw, uncontrolled—sends a fresh surge of heat through me. He’s close; I can see it in his eyes and feel it in the jerk of his hips. This is such a high. Leo is huge, all broad shoulders and bulgingmuscles, and he’s unraveling because of me. I feel powerful.

His cock hits the back of my throat, and I gulp down instinctively, taking him deeper. He groans. “I’m going to come,” he grunts. “If you don’t want to swallow?—”

I suck him deeper. He tightens his grip on my hair and comes, and I swallow every drop. Then I get to my feet, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand and finger-combing my hair back into some semblance of order.

“Where are you going?” Leo protests, a glazed look in his eyes. “I need to get my mouth on that sweet pussy of yours.”

“Later.” I link my arm through his. “As someone pointed out to me, we have a houseful of guests. Let’s go eat cake, orsacchiotto mio.”

29

LEO

Rosa slips upstairs to reapply her lipstick, and I rejoin the party, grinning like an idiot. A blowjob. Fuck me, that was hot. Andunexpected.Then again, Rosa’s always been able to surprise me. I tell her she has to marry me in order to save her brother’s life, and instead of freaking out, she replies that it’s no hardship because I’m easy on the eyes. I nickname her principessa to annoy her, and she retorts by calling me her teddy bear.

I’m a lucky, lucky man.

My smile fades when I see Hugh Tran. Rosa’s brother has been avoiding me since he arrived in Venice. I got him a job working for Tomas, but assoon as Hugh got here, he sent Tomas a message saying he’d found something else. That’s fine; I’m not going to force Hugh to work for the Mafia against his will. I’ve been trying to meet him to get a straight answer about the missing Spina Sacra money, but he refuses to take my calls, and he’s never around when I show up at his apartment.

And my hands are tied. Hugh is Rosa’s brother. I can’t snatch him off the street, throw him into an interrogation room, and beat him until he talks. I have to rely on my powers of persuasion, except I don’t have any. This is Dante’s area of expertise, not mine.

It’s not about the money. I just hate not knowing what’s going on, and I loathe being left in the dark. This situation is too similar to the one that led to Patrizia’s death, and I have a bad feeling about it. A premonition of doom.

Hugh’s talking to Valentina. I make my way toward them, determined to have this conversation with himtoday. He spots me and tries to inch away, but it’s too late. “Hello, Hugh,” I say calmly. “We need to talk.”

“Leo,” he says heartily. “Happy birthday, man.” He claps me on my back. “Valentina and I were justtalking about what a great house this is. So great.” He drains his bottle of beer and holds it up. “What do you know, I’m empty. You two talk. I’ll get a refill and be right back.”

I don’t think so. I pluck the empty bottle from his hand and lift it in the air. A waiter immediately materializes at my side. “Please get Hugh another beer,” I tell him. “Now that’s settled, let’s talk. Valentina, will you excuse us?”

“I was already leaving,” she replies. “Hugh, let’s get lunch and catch up. Sometime next week? I’ll text you.”

She drifts away. I fix my future brother-in-law with a hard look. “You’ve been avoiding me. What the fuck have you gotten yourself involved in, Hugh?”

His eyes slide away from me. “I’m not avoiding you, man. It’s my new job. Long hours, you know? It doesn’t leave much time for anything else. Ask my parents. I’ve barely been home.”

“You know Elaine and Ben will cover up for you, no matter what,” I bite out. “Do me the courtesy of assuming I’m not an idiot, and I’ll do the same. Why was Max Guerra in Venice, insisting he needed to talk to you?”

Hugh’s eyes widen with alarm. “Guerra is here? In Venice?”

“He was. He’s back in Lecce now.” I take a deep breath and soften my voice. “Hugh, listen to me. I can’t protect you if you refuse to cooperate.”And I can’t protect Rosa.“Talk to me. Tell me the truth about the money.”

He barely registers my words. “I already told you,” he says on auto-pilot. “Some of my investments didn’t pan out. What did Guerra say to you?”

“Just that he wants to talk to you.” I still don’t know how and where Guerra fits into this puzzle. I talked to the padrino when he got back from Paris, and he had no idea either. Valentina tried to put together a file on the man, but she’s been able to uncover remarkably little. Nobody connected to Guerra will talk. All we can find is that the Consultant has a fearsome reputation, and it’s unwise to get on his bad side. That’s not useful intelligence; I could say the same thing about half the people in this room.

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