Page 12 of Ties That Bind Us

“You’re getting to the age where you need to become more responsible and think about getting married. You know, I have several nice men who would take care of you and be good for business.” He scratched his chin.

“You can’t seriously be suggesting an arranged marriage.” My stomach dropped. The thought made me sick. It was both antiquated and degrading.

“What I’m suggesting is that you get a hold of things yourself, or I will,” he threatened. “I won’t have you running around recklessly giving our family a bad name. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ava, you know I only want what’s best for you.” His face didn’t soften in the slightest as he made his way toward me.

“I know,” I agreed. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“See to it that it doesn’t. I’m serious, Ava, I don’t want to force you into anything, but I will to keep you safe and our family name clean. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir.” I wanted to crawl into a hole and die. What a horrible way to follow such an amazing night.

“Good.” He kissed my forehead. “I’m heading to the warehouse to meet with Gio. I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”

“Gio?” I asked curiously. My father generally liked to keep the women out of the Mafia business, but I knew enough to know exactly who Gio Caponelli was. He and my father were enemies, and if my dad was meeting with him, nothing good was going on.

“Nothing for you to worry about, Ava. Shut the door on your way out.” With that, he quickly ushered me out of his office.

Bella and Angie were still sitting outside, but I didn’t feel like facing them right now. My father’s ultimatum had left a bad taste in my mouth, and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed.

I guess if I was changing my ways, last night with Romeo was as good a night as any to go out on.

Chapter 4

Nick

It had been over a month. Thirty-eight days. Nine hundred and twelve hours since that woman had walked out of my hotel room and simply vanished into thin air. My best men had been scouring the area for her for weeks and there was nothing. It was a trail colder than the dead of winter. Zane had brought me a few pictures to look at but none of them had been her. None of them had been my Jules.

We had scoured the surveillance cameras, but somehow she had managed to elude them all evening and we couldn’t get a single usable picture. I had been at the restaurant every night since then, hoping she might stroll through the doors once again. That had turned out to be a big fucking waste of my time too. Leo was getting irritated with my crusade, and had suggested more than once I give up on finding her and take my frustrations out on another girl. It seemed like a good enough idea in theory, but I knew it would never work. Sleeping with someone else after her would be like having water after whiskey. I knew everyone would fail in comparison to her, at least until I could taste that sweet kiss again. This girl had my number, and she was off in the wind somewhere.

All week Leo and Zane had been bugging me about a party that was happening on a yacht docked at Chelsea Piers. Apparently, they thought it was just the distraction I needed. Kyle Archer was hosting the party, and he was a pompous asshole who owned a tech company in the city that provided security at our main office. Owned was a loose term, though. His father had started the company then handed it over to his son a few years ago, and Kyle had narrowly avoided driving it into the ground. He’d been bailed out by his father multiple times, but was never a big enough man to admit it. The guy wasn’t exactly my first choice, but the security product his dad had designed was unmatched. We needed the top of the line system to keep our records as safe from hacking as possible, but working with Kyle was an unfortunate side effect. Guys like that made my blood boil. I worked for every single thing I had, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let anything slip once I got it.

This party was about the last thing I wanted to do. It was on a yacht parked at the marina, and would no doubt be overflowing with hot, desperate women and strong alcohol. At least that would help with clearing my mind. Not being able to find Jules was only the tip of the iceberg. There were all kinds of issues at the warehouse, the biggest being the bastard who was shorting our shipments. It turned out he was working with a Russian organization that was making its way into the city, and his main focus had been trying to discredit both us and the Morettis to our biggest accounts. I’d spent the afternoon tracking him down and putting a bullet between his eyes. Hits were my specialty. I was the best shot in the entire group, and it was a highly coveted skill—one I would gladly give up, though. The blood of a lot of men was on my hands, and even though each one was deserving of death, there wasn’t a more harrowing feeling in the world than watching the life drain out of someone’s eyes at your hands.

The only good thing about this meant that we could stop playing nice with the Morettis and go back to our own business. We were meeting Monday to officially end the deal, and then it would be back to business as usual.

“I can see this shitshow from here.” Leo groaned as we pulled into the parking lot of the marina. He, Zane, and I had ridden over in the limo together. Early on, we’d found it was easier to suffer through these kind of things together.

“Do you think Kyle’s dad is paying for all of this too?” Zane scoffed, climbing out and stretching his arms over this head.

“Is there anything in this guy’s life his father isn’t paying for? How long do we have to stay? I’m already ready to go home,” I said.

Leo slapped my back. “Would you relax and enjoy yourself a little bit? Let’s go find you a pretty face in a tight dress to get you out of this funk.”

“Now that’s what I’m talking about.” Zane agreed, no doubt thinking that if I found someone else to occupy my time, I’d take him off of this wild goose chase he was on trying to track down my mystery girl.

“Let’s just see how the night goes, okay?” I conceded, not convinced.

There was a distinct chill in the air, signaling the coming of fall. It wouldn’t be long before the snow would come and parties like this would be history. There was no harm in enjoying it while I still could. The yacht was already overflowing with people when we boarded, and we had to squirm our way through to even find the bar. Kyle intercepted us nearly at the door with that stupid, sly grin on his face.

“Gentleman!” he greeted us, shaking Leo’s hand first. “Glad you could join us. There are some private tables in the back, a little quieter than this mess out here. I’ll be sure they set one up for you.” He winked like he was doing us some grand favor.

Play nice, Nick, I reminded myself. “Good to see you, Kyle. The boat’s amazing.”

“Isn’t it? The yacht’s perfect for landing some of my bigger clients, you guys should invest in one. I could give you the number of my supplier.” His voice hinged on the word yacht, as if he had been offended I called the damn thing a boat.

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