Invisible, just like I usually aim to be.
That makes me more than a little nervous because she can reappear as quickly as she left.
And I still don’t have any trust in the bullshit she fed me last night.
We have unfinished business, in more ways than one.
Then again, so do me and Anya.
And she knows it as well as I do. Everything in her expression confirmed it…not to mention the way her body was plastered against me for those few stolen seconds.
Jesus Christ…
Without my real work occupying me, all I have is time to think. And thinking is dangerous.
I’d much rather act.
I had one job to do while I was in New York, and all I have are loose ends and a severe case of blue balls.
“You know what, Aisling? Women are the fucking devil. I hate to be the one to break that news to you since you’re gonna be one of them, but they are. They have this witchy way of distracting men from things that are really important, and then they escape out a fucking window,” I mutter, leaning back on one hand.
I really need to let that go. Part of me believes I let her get away without talking because I’m actually losing my edge, and that pisses me off to no end.
I haven’t completely lost it. I mean, I think Miguel Rivas would agree with that.
But it’s slowly morphing from a sharp, serrated blade to more of a blunt-edged butter knife.
That’s bad news, not only for me but my family.
But it wasn’t the missed opportunity for sex that grates on me.
It’s that I let myself lose focus and without the information I need, I can’t do what Matteo expects – to protect the family.
I can’t protect anyone from an invisible threat.
I’m much more effective with tangible ones.
Aisling claps her hands and keeps splashing.
I sigh. “Good talk, kid. Just file it away for later.”
“What, exactly, are you telling my daughter to ‘file away for later’?” My brother Matteo drops next to me in the pool and picks up Aisling, holding her up and blowing raspberries onto her belly. I stifle a smirk. The girls around us have to be creaming in their bikini bottoms right now watching us with the baby.
That, or they think we’re gay.
“You’re in a bathing suit,” I say to Matteo. “What gives?”
He shrugs. “I figured I needed a little break.”
“When does the boss ever take a break?” I say with a mock look of shock on my face.
“This place is Sergio’s baby,” he says. “Not mine,” he says, nuzzling Aisling’s cheek.
It’s true. Sergio, one of my other brothers, runs the Excelsior. But Matteo is still the boss, and he never lets any of us forget it.
He also never comes out to the pool. It’s his wife Heaven’s grand plan to stay out here in Vegas. Matteo hates the heat — dry or otherwise.
“You know, I am so fucking tired of hearing how people say dry heat isn’t as hot,” he grumbles, almost on cue. He says some variation of this every time he comes outside, and only seconds later, he finds some excuse to dart back in the air conditioning.
But today, he’s in board shorts.
That tells me he’s sticking around, something that makes my gut knot a bit. I see a cocktail waitress walk toward us and I flash her a big smile.
She grins back and leans down next to me so that I can get a clear view of her tits popping out of her bikini top. “What can I get you, Mr. Villani?”
“I’d love a Tito’s and soda. Actually, make it three.”
“Three?” Matteo asks, his eyebrow lifted.
“Yeah,” I say with a snicker. “One for you and two for me. If you’re out here, I figure I’m gonna need to be double-fisting.”
“And a water, too, please,” Matteo says with a smile. “Thanks.” He rolls his eyes at me. “Why do you insist on coming out here? It is so fucking brutally hot, you can’t breathe!”
“I think you can breathe just fine,” I say. “You just don’t like to sweat because you think it makes your hair frizz.” I waggle a finger in front of Aisling’s face and she grabs it, stuffing it into her mouth, getting it nice and wet with baby drool. I tickle her under her chin with my free hand and flash a bright smile at her. “Tell Daddy that Uncle D is right, because he’s so vain about his hair.”
“My hair doesn’t frizz,” he grumbles. “I just hate being outside in the fucking desert. It’s hot and I’m sweating, even sitting here in the damn pool.”
“Just let the tension go,” I say, dragging my fingers through the water past Aisling.
“She shouldn’t be out here. Look, she’s already getting red.”
“She’s fine. You can’t keep her in a plastic bubble. She needs to get exposed to the elements and be like a normal kid, especially since nothing else about her life will be even remotely close to normal.”
Aisling smashes her fist into the water, splashing Matteo, and sure enough, the first place his hand goes to is his hair.
So fucking vain.
“Okay, so what gives?” I ask. “You’re not out here to tan. What, you don’t trust me with the kid?”
“I trust you more than anyone,” he says. “Or at least, I did until you came back here and told me you couldn’t close the deal in Brooklyn.”
“I said someone beat me to it.” I smirk. “That deal is most definitely closed.”
“But you didn’t tie up loose ends. Or stuff shit down the throats of loose cannons,” he grumbles.
“No,” I say. “You’re right. Conor is still at large with his wide fucking pie hole open.”
“We need to find out what the hell he’s up to, Dante,” Matteo says, dropping his voice.
“Look, I know you think shit will blow our way, but will it really? I mean, with Vigo dead, maybe the debt will be cleared. Besides everyone knows Heaven has been on the outside for a long time. Why come for her?”
“You of all people should know how these people operate. They go after everything and everyone.” He shakes his head. “I’ve got a hell of a lot to protect, and I don’t want any of Conor’s scams to rain hellfire down on us, especially if Volkov thinks Conor may have been the one to kill Vigo.”
Hellfire.
There’s that word again.
Makes me think of Anya.
She was hellfire.
I could see it.
I could feel it.
And fuck, I could taste it.
But I also need to forget about it. There’s a bigger fish named Conor I’d love to gut before frying him. That’s the only way I get my life back.
Matteo would second that death sentence, that’s for sure.
He’s hated Conor ever since the guy tried to kill Heaven right before their wedding, and if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s her blood, I know for a fact that Matteo would have had him sunk to the bottom of the Hudson without a second thought.
But much as Heaven despises him, she’d never want her family to suffer that loss.
To me, it’d be a gain, but hey.
Not my family. Not my call.
“That’s why you have me. You know I’ll do anything to protect this girl. And then once we’ve taken care of the ‘problem’, I go back to what I do best,” I say, lifting her into the air and dipping her toes into the water only to bring her back out again. She loves playing this game.
Matteo’s expression darkens slightly, but before he has a chance to respond, a smooth female voice croons into my ear as a tanned, lithe body sinks to the step beside me.
“Your baby is so cute.”
Evidently, the water-toe game makes a lot of fans.
“Thanks, but she’s not mine,” I say, nodding at Matteo. “She’s my brother’s.”
Her eyes brighten up at that. “Oh, so…you guys aren’t together, then,” she murmurs, sliding closer.
“Most definitely not.”
Matteo snorts. “What, like I’m not a good catch?”
I shrug. “I need someone who’s less vain about their hair than I am.”
The girl giggles and twists so I have a full view of her tits.