Chapter One Hundred and Five
The edge of the sink bit into her thighs as she supported most of Matteo’s weight against her. His forehead was pressed to her shoulder, his rough breathing fanned her chest. He lifted his head and sank his teeth into her shoulder as he pulled out of her. She gasped at the loss of him and her head fell back against the mirror. Matteo kissed along her collarbone and down her chest between her breasts. She was still furious. He had a lot of making up to do and she looked forward to the continuous punishment they would inflict on each other in retaliation.
Matteo took her hand and helped her down from the sink. His hands remained on her waist as her knees wobbled. He gave her a prideful smirk and she rolled her eyes. She stumbled into the nearest stall while he tucked his shirt and gun back into his pants. After cleaning herself up she walked out to find him staring down at his phone sporting a grin big enough to bring that damn dimple out.
“What are you doing?” she asked, trying to take a peek at his phone.
He pulled it just out of reach. “Nothing to concern yourself with,” he assured her with a wink. She narrowed her eyes but decided to let it go. Matteo took a step toward her and kissed her gently on the lips. “Wait outside for me. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“You’re still in the ladies bathroom, remember?”
He gave her a mock expression of scandalous disbelief and glanced around before he wiped it clean and smiled down at her. “You can be my look out,” he whispered, kissing her one more time before walking past her into the stall she’d just left.
His soft laughter followed as she left the restroom shaking her head. She stepped to the wall across from the bathroom door and leaned back against it with a heavy sigh that released much of her pent up anger. The man was fucking crazy. What the hell was she thinking when she chased after him? She shook her head and smiled. Maybe she was crazier than he was.
Laughter sounded down the hall, drawing her eyes. She inwardly groaned when she recognized Guerra. Guerra’s eyes connected with hers and the smile on his face grew. The man beside him gave her a once-over as he walked into the men's room. Instead of following his associate, Guerra strutted over to her.
He was still chuckling from whatever him and his friend had been discussing. “I see the rumors are true. Where is your lover?” he asked with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.
“Not here,” she said.
“Pity. Do you know Mr. Russo?” Guerra asked, gesturing to the man who had gone into the bathroom. Gen shook her head. “Maybe your sister would know him better. He is Dane’s younger brother. Did you know Dane?”
Gen’s stomach curdled at the memory of Jada’s previous boyfriend who put her in the ER. “I had the displeasure of meeting him a few times,” Gen confirmed.
“He’s the reason I got into the business, you know,” Guerra informed her, widening his stance and getting close enough to where the tips of his shoes brushed the toes of hers.
Gen detected movement down the hall. She discreetly glanced to the side and noticed Leo leaning his shoulder against the corner of the hallway. Keeping her hand down by her waist she signaled for him to stay back.
“Were you a family member?” she asked, looking back at him though his eyes were focused on a spot on her dress near her knee.
“Hmm? No, no I was a mutual friend of the family though,” he informed her. “I’m originally from Boston.”
“Are you? A name like Luca Guerra, one may assume you’re from Italy,” Gen said with a tilt of her head.
“Never been,” he admitted with a raise of his shoulders.
“So Dane got what he deserved. His family called you and…”
He shrugged. “They asked me to step in.”
“Step in and do what exactly? Dane’s family is in New York, yet you got your success in LA. Am I missing something?”
His smile turned somber and the expression he wore seemed so familiar. “I had to leave the East Coast. Too many players on this side of the country. Too well-established. The Accardis and Galantes for instance? You know they arrived on a boat in the early 1800s?”
“I’ve heard something like that,” Gen confirmed, feigning boredom while trying to remember each and every word for later.
Guerra shook his head. “The ones in LA? They come and go like the fires that rage around that God forsaken place. Burn up, someone new rises from the ashes. Much easier for me to infiltrate.”
“Infiltrate? Odd choice of words.”
“Is it?” he asked, brushing his hand across his five-o-clock shadow. “You do this long enough, you’re bound to have a few slip ups. Especially in the presence of a beautiful woman who is only ever attracted to scumbags. You have a really bad instinct for men, don’t you?”
“Excuse me?”
“I mean, we all know how bad Accardi is. Paul? Phew, what a piece of work. Then that Brian guy who would make you rub his feet every day after smacking you around?” Guerra shook his head while Gen stood straighter against the wall.
“How do you…”
“You have a problem, Gen. You don’t know your worth. You’re in the wrong line of work. Your accounting firm is a testament to that. I mean, you were, what? Two weeks away from bankruptcy? Yet, here you are now talking down to mafia lords and funneling money to your accountant firm while reporting one of your own clients because she forgot to write down a couple extra zeroes on her taxes.”
Gen’s stomach felt like it was in her throat. Her breathing was rapid as her eyes swiveled back and forth between Guerra’s, trying to decipher what he was doing.
“I knew you were a fucking cop,” Gen whispered. The realization that her initial instinct was correct made her feel giddy, yet, terrified.
He smiled. “Once upon a time. My sister got into some trouble though. She’s always hacking systems and such.” Guerra rolled his eyes. “When my buddies caught her the first time, I made her a deal. I’d keep her out of jail if she fudged a few of my records. Just enough for me to get a leg up.”
“A leg up.”
He rolled his eyes again and sighed heavily. “I cannot begin to tell you how boring it is to be a beat cop in Boston. Do you know what my day entailed?” he asked. He held up his hand and ticked off a finger for each annoying call. “Bar fights, domestic disputes, liquor store robberies and noise complaints. I needed more, Genevieve. My sister helped me get a call from the FBI. Now this job is way more fun. All it took was one call from Dane’s family, we went to college together, you see, and suddenly I’m donning a whole new persona and taking over the LA criminal underworld in a matter of months!” Guerra started to laugh and shake his head. He looked back up at her with tears in his eyes. “I didn’t even mean to do that. ‘Donning.’ Get it?”
Gen stared at the man as if he’d suddenly grown two heads. “Why the fuck are you telling me this?”
It took a moment for Guerra to stop laughing. He dabbed at his eyes and sighed. “Cause I promised her I’d give you a heads up. Accardi knows, doesn’t he? Why else would he invite me here tonight? What’s funny is, this event will be enough to bring the Accardi family down for good. I’ve been itching for an invitation since I started. Every family head talks about it. The girls, what they’ll do, how little they’ll do it for.” He bit his lip as his eyes raked over her body. “Turns out she was wrong about you. She said you would never be stupid enough to get this involved. You’re a fucking whore, Genevieve. It’ll break my little sister’s heart.”
“Who the fuck are you talking about?” Gen spat.
Guerra’s brow scrunched down. “You haven’t figured it out? I could have sworn she would break the moment she saw you a few weeks ago. I guess I should have given her more credit.”
“Who?”
“Becca,” Guerra said, baffled she hadn’t figured it out herself.
Gen’s world tilted on its axis. Suddenly everything he said made sense. “Becca,” she breathed. Her eyes shot up and she could see the resemblance. If his hair was dark, she would have figured it out so much sooner. “You’re Becca’s brother, Noah.”
“Half\-brother,” he corrected.
The men's bathroom door opened, revealing the hulking figure that had accompanied Guerra down the hall. His eyes narrowed on her. Unlike every other man in her vicinity that night, his eyes stayed laser-focused on her face as if he were picturing what it would feel like to bash her tiny head against the wall.
“Is this the other whore?” the man sneered.
Guerra… Noah smirked and gave a nod causing the man to lurch forward. Just before his hands could touch her, his wrist was seized from behind. Gen heard a loud crack and then a thud. Gen looked first at the body crumpled on the floor then up to the man who had just snapped his neck. Leo’s face seemed completely unphased as he rotated his shoulders.
“Problem?”Matteo asked from the bathroom door.
Gen’s eyes moved to where he leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom. His hands were deep in his pockets, the sleeves of his tux had been roughly shoved upward, his hair looked like someone had run her nails through them and a cigarette hung limply on his lip. His voice was deadly but his expression and posture told the world he’d just fucked some lucky girl in the bathroom. Gen smiled.
“No problem,” Noah said, his smile still focused on Gen. “In fact, I’ve gotten everything I need. I’ll be seeing you all very soon.”
Noah turned on his heel and sauntered down the hallway. Once his shadow disappeared into the throng of people in the banquet hall, Gen turned back to Matteo who watched her with a raised eyebrow.
“We need to get back to the apartment,” she urged.