Gian
“What the fuck do you mean ‘she’s gone’?” I growled, my impatience multiplying with every passing second.
Tony interlaced his fingers and inverted them, the cracking noise booming in the tight hallway of my house. “I don’t know, G. She told me she wanted to go out. Then she got mad that I was going with her, and she went to the bathroom. When she didn’t come out after twenty minutes, I knocked on the door. She didn’t answer, and I kicked it open.” He lifted and dropped one of his gorilla shoulders. “She was gone.”
“Obviously.” I glared at the still open window, the white shade flapping in the breeze. “What time did she go into the bathroom?”
“Around 9:30.”
I glanced at my watch. “That was an hour ago. She could be anywhere by now.”
He frowned. “She’s your fiancée. What’s the big fucking deal? She’ll be back. I think she’s got her panties in a bunch because you’ve been ignoring her.”
I clenched my teeth. “I’m not ignoring her. I’ve been busy. We have a lot of shit going on right now no thanks to you and your trigger happy finger.”
Dominick had lost his mind when Tommy Calvo turned up dead. As I suspected, the whole thing fell on my head despite the fact Tony had pulled the trigger. Of course, Carlo had been whispering in Dominick’s ear for the past three days, feeding him a pile of half-truths meant to take me down a notch.
He smirked. “Yeah, I’ve heard exactly how busy you’ve been with that new bartender at the club. Carlo told me she’s been glued to your dick for days.”
I rolled my shoulders, tamping down my anger. Tony needed to back the hell off. “I’m training her.”
“Right,” he scoffed, waggling his eyebrows like a circus clown. “Training her to suck your dick. I heard you took her back to—”
Hooking my fingers into the collar of his shirt, I yanked him closer to me. “What I do or don’t do is none of your business.” I pulled him fractionally closer to me, my nose not quite touching his. “Got it?”
I hadn’t done much of anything with the new bartender, Angela, and not for a lack of trying. She was exactly my type before I met Evangeline. Long blondish hair, curvy as sin, and a bubbly personality that promised straightforward, uncomplicated fun. I even dug the way her cute ass swayed from side to side when she strutted around the bar.
However, every time I tried to seal the deal, I couldn’t do it. My fucking fake fiancée popped in my head, and guilt twisted in my gut. I couldn’t explain it if I wanted to, and I didn’t—especially not to Tony.
Three nights ago, I invited Angela up to the apartment above the club for a drink. After a taking a few shots, she peeled off her dress and sprawled out the kitchen table. On autopilot, I wrapped her legs around my waist and crashed my lips against hers. And all I could think about was Evie.
It stopped me in my tracks for few seconds. Once I mentally shoved her image away, I spent two minutes groping, touching, and all around pretending, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel a thing. Not even a micro-twitch in my dick.
She tasted wrong. She smelled wrong. Her rock-hard hairsprayed hair felt wrong. Everything about her was wrong because she wasn’t Evie—the one woman who would never be mine. Disgusted with her and myself, I asked her to leave, and I’d been avoiding her like a communicable disease ever since.
Without question, the whole thing was stupid, and I hadn’t been thinking clearly. If word trickled back to Carmela that I touched Angela, no matter how fleeting, she’d likely rip my dick off.
The night in my office with Evie haunted me. Her scent. Her strawberry hair that looked like flames when the light hit it. Her long, toned legs. Her pouty lips.
And so much more.
All of it made me desperate to get Evie out of my head. Allowing our relationship to become intimate would be a huge misstep. I had been dodging my parents’ calls for days. They heard I was in a serious relationship, and my mom was over the moon. Generally, she never expressed much interest in my love life, which meant this thing with Evie could quickly spiral out of control, and I’d find myself exchanging vows with a woman I didn’t know anything about solely to keep my parents happy.
Tony raised his hand in surrender. “I’m not passing judgment. You can do whatever you want. I don’t understand why you’re so set on marrying this chick when you’re still playing the field.”
Feeling deflated, I shoved him away from me. “Yeah, well, I have my reasons.”
He looped his thumbs over his leather black belt with a shiny gold buckle. “I gotta admit your relationship doesn’t make sense. You’re still young, and it’s not like your old man is pushing you to get married.” He paused. “Or is he? I heard his treatment isn’t going well.”
I swallowed over the boulder-sized lump in my throat. My dad looked worse every day. He’d lost too much weight, and he spent most of his time in bed. While he claimed it was the chemo, I knew he didn’t have much time left.
I stuffed my hands into my pockets. “My dad doesn’t have anything to do with it. He’s got enough on his plate without worrying about my love life.”
“Yeah, I know.” He glanced to the side and cleared his throat. “I walked the block, and I didn’t see any trace of her.”
“Did you track her phone?”
He blinked. “Her phone?”
What an idiot. “Remember I installed that cell phone tracking app on her phone? As long as she doesn’t shut it off, we can tell where she is.”
He ruffled his hand through his hair. “I didn’t pay attention when you were explaining it. I didn’t get why you’d need to keep tabs on your fiancée. Most women don’t try to evade their soon-to-be husband.”
“Yeah, well, Evangeline isn’t most women, ya’ know?” I mumbled, padding down the hall to the study.
He snickered. “I see that now.”
I logged onto my laptop and pulled up the tracking program. A few taps on the keyboard and I had an address. I typed it into Google.
“She’s at the Marriott.” I pulled my car keys from my pocket. “I’ll be back within the hour.”
“What are you going to do? Break into her room and demand she comes back here with you?”
I shrugged. “If I have to.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “What’s really going on with this chick? You’ve barely given her a second thought all week. She looks like she sucked on a lemon every time I mention your name. You don’t sleep in the same bedroom. And now, she jumps out of the window and flees in the middle of the night. That’s not normal behavior for a couple in love.” He angled his head to the side. “Hell, that’s not normal behavior for a couple in like.”
“It’s complicated.” I scrubbed my hand down the side of my face, inhaling a deep breath through my nose, frustration coursing through me. Evie’s actions made it difficult to keep her safe. Tony’s suspicion didn’t bode well for my charade to keep Evie out of harm’s way. It was only a matter of time before everything blew up in my face.
“Complicated, how?”
My mind raced for a simple explanation for the treacherous game we were playing. The temptation to tell the truth weighed heavy in my thoughts. The minute I opened my mouth to confide in Tony, I stopped. If my father taught me anything over the years, it was that I couldn’t trust anyone, especially with my words and thoughts. According to him, they could become my worst enemy, and right now, I understood exactly what he meant. I made my bed, and I needed to keep my mouth shut and stay the course.
If I confessed to lying about my relationship with Evie, Dominick would lose it. Except now Evie wouldn’t be the only one with her ass on the line. Dominick would consider my lie a betrayal of the family, and in a matter of days, we’d both find ourselves on the Trassato hit list. My position, my dad, Dominick being my uncle—none of it would matter.
“We got in a fight. There’s nothing to tell.”
“A fight about what?”
“Nothing. Everything. I don’t know. Since when do I have to answer to you?” I opened the front door. “Fatt’ i cazzi tuoi. Now get out of here. I don’t need you anymore tonight.”
His dark brows snapped together. “I thought you still needed to take care of some stuff at the club.”
“Yeah, well, plans change.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “In fact, it’s the weekend. Go do whatever you need to do for a couple of days. I need some time alone with Evie.”
“Well, you watch yourself, got it? We don’t need any trouble with Carlo breathing down our necks.” He jerked up his chin and slapped my shoulder. “Let me know if you need anything, eh?”