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Giada raised an eyebrow at me. “Then what was your grand plan?”
“I’d simply keep her here until she didn’t want to leave,” I supplied.
She snorted. “Ah, the Stockholm Syndrome backup plan? Nice. Anyway, to what do I owe this honor?”
“Any luck finding the Castillo stronghold? I refuse to believe they aren’t hunkering down somewhere to make their shitty plans.”
“These guys are paranoid. It doesn’t help that you’ve been cutting holes in the ranks left, right, and center.”
I shrugged in response to that accusation.
“Anyway, I’m coming up empty right now.”
“I need to find them,” I reminded her. I'd been wanting to wipe out the Castillos from Atlantic City for months. There hadn’t been a time limit to flush them out before. Now there was. They’d threatened my property - my future wife. I wouldn’t allow them to live.
“I’m on it. In other news, I came across something interesting earlier.”
“What is it?”
“When I was monitoring the usual traffic from the property, I found something. Actually, I found three little somethings. Now, the signature on these is minuscule. If you weren’t searching for it, it wouldn’t present as anything to worry about. But…I still remember what it looked like the last time someone tried to get a bug in here.”
“Someone brought a bug in here?”
“Yes, indeed. Probably yesterday. I need to scan to find its exact location.”
Charlotte and her sudden, out-of-character kiss filled my head. The little minx had been jumpy and nervous. She’d also been poking around my office for no reason.
“There’s one in my study, maybe in the potted plant,” I said, immediately knowing I was correct. I’d completely underestimated my reluctant bride if she was capable of sneaking into my office, distracting me by letting me eat her cunt, and walking out without a hint of guilt. I wasn’t sure whether to be worried or impressed.
One thing I was, however, was furious.
Detectives Vane and Whitely had been a thorn in my side for months, and now they thought they could use Charlotte against me? They dared try to manipulate my wife?
It was time for this particular game to end and another to begin.
This time, it would bemygame, and I didn’t plan on losing.
20
CHARLIE
“The Boy I’m Going to Marry” played over the speakers as I stepped into La Leonora. It was loud as hell and echoed around the beautiful building. The happy song contrasted sharply with the air of tension that hung over our small group. The music was the icing on the cake. Was Renato fucking with me?
Today, the casino was dressed up in the most opulent fashion. Apparently a De Sanctis wedding was not a discreet affair, and from the tank-like cars lined up on the strip and the groups of lethal-looking bodyguards swarming around, it seemed like the guest list boasted some of the most notorious kingpins on the East Coast.
Despite the general air of violence in the atmosphere, it was odd to realize that I felt safe. Surrounded by Renato De Sanctis’s guards, on his property, I was untouchable. It was a sharp contrast to the days before he’d taken us to Casa Nera when I’d been jumping at shadows and running from the Castillo cartel.
I entered the building with an entourage of guards, gripping Lucy’s hand in mine. Giada stood on her other side and every now and then reached out and squeezed her shoulder. A friendly reminder that a crossbow-wielding psychopath was her designated babysitter.
La Leonora had a chapel on site. I was appalled at the very thought of getting married in a church, considering what kind of wedding it was, but no one cared about my protests.
“Now, you have a couple of hours to transform into a beautifulsposaand turn that frown upside down. I don’t want wedding pics of a long-faced bride on the mantel,” Giada quipped, directing me and Lucy toward the bank of elevators.
We were flanked on all sides by Sonny, Vinny, and a few other men.
There was no escape.
We got ready in a penthouse apartment. Vito had a whole army of assistants running to follow his every barked instruction. Lucy sat in the window and stared down at the city. Sonny and Vinny laughed and joked, seeming jovial. Giada watched us all with hawklike cunning and alternated between slicing razor-thin slices of peach and sharpening her blood-red talons with a paring knife.
