Page 99 of Savage King

He bites into his roll, chews, and I swear this man is even sexy when he eats in the middle of a life and death discussion. I wait, kind of distracted by a small piece of jelly on the edge of his lip, which I'm dying to lick off.

"That, my sweet, is the hundred-million-dollar question we're still trying to figure out."

"We?"

He puts the roll down and wipes his lips with the napkin, ruining my chance to lick the jelly, but this conversation has just turned to something a lot more serious than my carnal desires.

"The other capos and I," he confides. Holy shit. He was serious when he saidno more secrets.

"Are you sure you want to know about all this? I assure you I have it handled," he says, eyeing me.

"I'm good. I love you. I want to know if there's danger and where it's coming from. Believe it or not, I do have some experience in intrigue." I do. After Dad was promoted to federal judge, he received a few invites to the governor's mansion and the homes of other high-ranking politicians. Dad never dated after Mom’s death—or if he did, he kept it secret—so once I was old enough,he took me. I never got involved in any of the intrigues, no matter how hard they tried to pull me in, but I kept my ears open. Just to help my dad, of course, not because it was kind of… intriguing—no pun intended.

"I promised you no secrets, but if this is too much for you, passerotta, you need to tell me, and I will stop."

I shake my head. "Never. I want to share my life with you. All of it: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I want you to talk to me."

He fills me in about the meetings he had with the others and what they know.

My mind is spinning with the information. Between Edoardo, Carlos, and the Venezuelans… there is a lot.

First things first, I decide. "Something tells me you're not going to be okay with Carlossimplygoing to jail."

He raises his hand and ruffles it through his dark hair, mussing it in the most sexy way. "Of course not. I have arrangements for what happens when he gets to jail."

"Oh," I put the puzzle together. "Oh."

"He'll get what he deserves. Unfortunately, it won't be me doing the deed."

Someone else is going to kill Carlos in a way that it won't come back to Antonio, and he'll still have his revenge. Genius.

Inevitably, our conversation returns to his dad. "You were close?"

He refills his coffee, holding it up to me in question and waiting for my head shake before he answers, "We were. Dad, Mom, Gigi, and I. We were very close."

"I'm sorry."

"We lost Mom three years before Dad was killed," he confides. I don't hurry him on; I’ll wait for him to tell me in his own time. "She was a wonderful woman. The best mother." He looks thoughtfully at me. "Just like you will be."

This is my opportunity. "So, you want kids?"

"Dozens," he laughs. "I always wanted a brother to help me with my sister."

I laugh, "Me too. I always wanted a brother or sister. But I don't know about dozens."

He gets out of his chair, "Let's start with one, then. How about it?"

My hand trembles as I reach for his face and place my hand on his cheek. "Okay."

His smile is all I need. My heart feels like theGrinch's, as if it is expanding inside my chest, growing in size. God, I love this man. "Let's toss those pills of yours?—"

I don't let him finish, aware that I haven't taken any of them since the suspicion of little jellybean first formed in my mind, because that wouldn't be good for it, right? It's right there; it's at the tip of my tongue to tell him that I think I might already be pregnant, but for some reason, a deep sense of righteousness settles over me. Funny, I wasn't mad at him for reading part of my journal, but I was mad at him for snooping through my stuff. That kind of ticks me off on a different level.

"About that." I narrow my eyes at him, "There’s still the small, illegal detail of you breaking into my apartment," I accuse.

No matter how hard I stare at him, there is not a trace of guilt on his face or in his eyes—only his trademark smugness. I feel my irritation rising.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about your choices of reading materials." He grins.

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