Giovanni (14 page)

Gio opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“A month before I flew to New York for your brother’s wedding, I turned twenty-one. My friends thought it would be fun to hit up a casino. I thought it might be a good show for them to see me count a few tables out of cash by weighing odds. I found myself in a back office with Franco. He knew who I was without me even having to say a thing.”

“Franco gave you the option right there?” Gio asked, confused.

“No, he put the marriage proposal on the table a week later. At that time, my father was involved. It would be a terrible disgrace for my family. My fuck up would cost them horribly. Oh, but there
was
a way to fix it.” Kim snorted, shaking her head. “All I was to him was the easiest way out of the pressure his father was putting on him. I was Italian and pretty. Catholic, an affiliated family, my raising. I can go on. He had a list about me and who I was, Gio. Franco knew me from the second I walked into that casino, and he wanted me.”

Gio was still trying to wrap his head around the fact Kim stole a lot of money from a Cosa Nostra family and made it out alive. Apparently his shocked silence wasn’t what Kim wanted.

“I suppose it makes a lot more sense to you now, Giovanni. The best thing you could do is walk away from me and dodge this bullet as quickly as you can. Not only am I a whore, but I’m a thief, too. Stupid girls like me, we deserve everything we get.”

Gio balked. “I—”

“Don’t bother. You’re the same as my father and Franco. You just have a different last name.”

With that, Kim turned on her heel, stalking towards the door. Gio pushed off the wall, covering the distance between him and Kim in two long strides. She squeaked in surprise when he caught her wrist in his palm and spun her around to face him. Gio pinned Kim to the garage wall beside the door in a second. Tears streaked down her cheeks.

“I am nothing like them,” Gio growled.

“Aren’t you?”

Gio’s teeth gritted. He was too close to Kim’s body, but he couldn’t move away. He moved closer; his leg stepped in between hers to widen her stance and keep her in place. God, she could piss him off just as fast as she could turn him on. Whatever this was making him heart and head sick over her was both appalling and appealing.

“I get it, Kim. I run around with bad men. Hell, I
am
a bad man. I’m a part of the world screwing you over. You see me giving Max respect, but I give it because he has earned it in the Cosa Nostra life. That doesn’t mean I have to agree with him, and it certainly doesn’t suggest that I give any of that respect to his fuck-up of a son.”

The wetness on her lashes fell. Gio used his thumb to wipe away the tears.  “Don’t cry,
Tesoro
. It kills me inside like you don’t even know. Beautiful things shouldn’t cry.”

“Stop saying shit like that.” A sniff escaped Kim when she turned away from his thumb the second time. “
Dio
, stop touching me, Giovanni.”

Gio hated his emotions betrayed him at her rejection as sadness flooded him. Something inside wouldn’t allow him to let her go.

“Tell me stealing was a mistake,” Gio said quietly.

“It
was
. My apology meant less than nothing to Franco. What difference does it make?”

Gio watched her closely, looking for any flicker of deceit. He didn’t find any.

“It makes a difference to me,” Gio finally said. “There are a million other things that could have been done to resolve it, especially on your family’s end. I’m sorry this is what Franco decided and that his father is letting him do it.”

Maybe Gio wasn’t old school enough to understand the concept, but arranged marriage for the purpose of punishing someone felt wrong.

“And I never once said I thought you were a whore for the things that happened between us, Kim. I wouldn’t ever, not about you.”

“Why are you still here in Vegas?” Kim asked again. “Tell me the truth.”

“For you,” Gio said, still watching her intensely. “Hate or ignore me if that’s what you need to do, but I can’t leave you here alone to be handed off to him as a prize. You’re worth so much more than his last name,
Tesoro
.”

“You keep calling me that and I wish you would quit.”

Gio laughed darkly. “Not going to happen. I think it fits. A rare treasure I’d like to keep.”

“Well, it doesn’t help whatever craziness goes on in my head whenever you’re around!”

“You do that to me, too, Kim. Get me high. Stupid. Reckless. You make me think I’m going crazy.”

“Make you crazy? Look at me, Gio! I’m supposed to be getting married in less than two months and instead the only thing I can think about is
you
.”

“Kim—”

“No,” she breathed out, finally pushing him further from her enough to step away. “We need to stop this. New York was one thing, but this is a mistake. A bad one. I don’t want to have to pay for it when I’ve already paid enough.”

Gio understood where Kim was coming from, but they couldn’t end like this. Not now that he knew what he did. “I can’t do that.”

Kim hadn’t even turned away from him completely before Gio had her back to the wall again. The words he needed to say wouldn’t form, so he kissed her instead. Punishingly hard, he covered Kim’s mouth with his own, wanting her to feel all the confusing mix of emotions she created inside him. How hurt and angry he’d been from her actions and the trepidation and desire that battled a constant war. The insane impulse to be closer to her, but at the same time, the urge to keep her away.

Fuck the rules. They never made a damn difference to him when he wanted something before. Gio wanted Kim. That’s all there was to it.

Kim responded to the kiss, her lips parting to allow him entrance into the sweet heat of her mouth. Gio could taste the flavor of coffee on her tongue. He loved the way her fingernails dug into his shirt, rooting him in place. Teeth scraped to her jaw. One of his hands weaved into her hair, his fingers tangling in the silky locks while the other lifted her right leg to wrap around his hip. The blues of her eyes darkened in the dimly lit garage. Her hands start a new trek under his T-shirt, her nails scoring to his midsection.

A flashback of the night before flickered into his memory. It was all too similar. They took stupid risks in a very bad place. All over, Gio felt overheated and dizzy. The sensation was instantaneous, and the only thing he needed to do was touch this woman to feel it.

“I can’t do that,” Gio said, repeating his earlier words stronger. “I don’t want to leave you alone. I’ve fucking
tried
.”

“Please don’t make this harder on me.”

“No. I want you.” Gio skimmed her cheek with his nose. “Deny you want me, too. Give me a reason to go if that’s what you really want.”

“I—” Kim clamped her mouth shut.

“You can’t say it,” Gio whispered.

Kim cried softly. “No, but that doesn’t make a difference and you know it.”

It did make it hurt.

Gio laid a soft kiss to her temple, feeling her shudder in response. “It does to me,
Tesoro
.”

When his breathing and body finally calmed down, Gio let Kim’s leg fall back to the floor. Using both his hands, he cupped her jaw and turned her face back to meet her gaze. There was still water in her eyes. Kim held onto his wrists as he kissed her tenderly.

“Give me one day,” Gio said, reluctantly pulling away.

Kim blinked, confusion lining her brow. “For what?”

“Us.”

“There is no us, Gio.”

“But there might be. I want to know if there could be. Just one day, that’s all I’m asking for.”

“And then what?” Kim asked.

Gio didn’t know; he just knew he had to find out. “Tell me you don’t want to know what this is, and I’ll leave tomorrow.”

Kim’s emotions wavered on her face. “Gio …”

“Just tell me.”

The door leading into the house opened and Gio couldn’t move away from Kim in enough time to make their position seem innocent. Not that it would have mattered. Gio knew exactly how Kim looked. Like he’d been all over her.

Shit.

“Kimberlynn, where in the hell are you? Franco’s looking—”

Ben’s words cut off at the same time the door closed behind him. Gio felt Kim’s fingers clench into his shirt. If it were possible, Gio was sure he heard her heart leap into her throat like his stomach was plummeting to the floor.

Shit. Shit.
Shit
.

“What in the fuck?” Ben hissed.

Gio turned to look at the man, feeling as if he was watching himself from above and not in the moment at all. A million thoughts tumbled through Gio’s mind in a nanosecond, but only one stood out.

Ben is not a made man
.

It was an important thing to know in the Cosa Nostra world. Being made or not could save a good man’s life or take away a stupid one. Gio didn’t need permission if something were to happen to the guy. He just needed a damn good excuse for doing it.

Gio zoned in on the finger pointing at his face. It felt like a loaded gun ready to blow. Briefly, he considered the people in the house. It was all men, and all were affiliated in some way or another to Maximo. Shit happened, and they wouldn’t talk.

“You are a dead man,” Ben spat. “I hope you enjoyed the whore, fucker.”

If Gio needed any other reason to do what he was about to do, Ben calling Kim a whore was it. Rage spilled into Gio’s blood like a poison, waking every inch of him out of the previous shocked stupor. He didn’t want Kim to witness it, though.

What choice did he have? None.

Gio’s fist struck out to the side with brutal force; his body lunged toward Ben at the same time. Kim hadn’t let go of Gio, so she fell forward with him. Ben didn’t have time to move before Gio’s fist cracked into his face, a sickening crunch following the impact of the blow. Knocked off his balance by Kim crashing into his side, Gio slammed into Ben, taking the man to the cement floor.

Kim scrambled backward to get away from the fight, the sound of her frightened cry reverberating in Gio’s mind. Gio focused in on the bloody face filling his vision. A booted foot landed to his ribs, taking Gio’s air, but the actual pain barely registered through his fear and anger.

Gio didn’t have time to play around. There were too many people inside the house and the idiot’s shouts were likely drawing attention already. If there was anything Gio was particularly good at, it was kicking somebody’s ass. Ben tried to hit back. It was pointless. Gio was already on top of him, fists landing down hard in two quick successions, causing the back of Ben’s skull to bounce off cement. Using all of his weight to pin the man down with his knees to his chest, Gio was finally able to catch air.

“I’m not the dead man,” Gio said as he fisted Ben’s shirt and pulled the dazed man up from the floor. “But you sure as fuck are.”

As Gio reached for the piece at his back, he knew there was no other way around it. It was going to be Ben or him. Ben or Kim. Gio knew as he brought the gun out, clicked off the safety and pulled back the hammer that he was going to have to talk his ass off to get out of this. But it would be worth it.

Ben or Kim? Shit. That was an easy choice.

Gio didn’t blink when he pressed the barrel to the man’s forehead. Ben’s eyes widened in fear. The trigger pulled back under Gio’s finger easy and quick. The kickback from the gun didn’t bother him at all. He was too busy watching the impact of the bullet entering between the man’s eyes, blood and matter splattering to the floor and up the wall as it exited. Gio felt nothing but numbness sweeping his senses. Somehow his fist released the hold on Ben’s blood soaked shirt, the body falling to the floor with a dull thud. The sounds of a half of a dozen feet running through the house hallways knocked some life back into Gio.

Enough to get him standing, anyway.

Wiping at his mouth with his arm to rid the taste of another man’s blood, Gio turned to see Kim sitting against the wall. Her hands were at her mouth; teeth bit into her knuckles. She hadn’t closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Gio whispered.

Kim shook her head frantically but said nothing.

The closer the footsteps, the tenser Gio became. “Act hysterical.”

Kim choked out a laugh. “
Act
?”

There was a distinct color of fear as she stared up at him. Gio couldn’t help but wonder if what she just witnessed him do was the one thing she couldn’t accept. If that were the case, Gio would let her go on with life as she wanted and under no circumstances would he allow her to hurt for his choices.

Kim stuttered over her words, still staring at Gio. “Y-you … you …”

“I’ll handle it,” Gio said, putting his gun back in its place. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. He’s …
dead
!”

“I’m sorry you had to see that, but if you don’t want the rest of the people in this house to know why I did it, you need to follow along and keep the fuck up right now. Okay?”