Page 78 of Ties That Bind Us

He clenched his jaw. “I’m angry because I’m still in fucking charge around here, Nick. You should have talked to me about this before you went ahead and did it.”

“What, so you could tell me not to?” I scoffed.

“No,” he hissed. “So we could figure out the best course of action to get the wedding moved up. We, at least, needed it to look like we were working with Alessandro instead of you running off and getting married in a foreign country!”

“You actually did it?” Leo appeared, a goofy grin plastered on his face, holding a bag of bagels.

“You knew about this?” my dad bellowed.

“Well, um, yeah. We’ve been working with Vince and—” Leo stuttered, looking back and forth between me and our dad, trying to figure out what he was supposed to say.

“The two of you have been working with Vince Moretti?” My father’s voice hinged with suspicion.

“Yeah. He’s been feeding us information about Alessandro. That’s why we knew that Nick needed to get Ava out of the country.” Leo set the bagels on the desk and wandered over to the empty chair next to me.

“Somebody better start explaining what the fuck is going on and why I wasn’t made aware of it,” my dad growled, trying his best to remain calm.

“Look, Dad, Alessandro was never going to let the wedding happen. Vince said he’s gotten himself into some deep shit with the Asnikovs and he can’t deliver. His only hope was getting Ava into our family and using her to feed the Russians information. When he started to see that Ava and I actually loved each other and he wasn’t going to be able to control her anymore, he changed his tactics.”

My dad tapped his fingers on the desk, processing what I had just told him.

“The treaty has always been a cover. He wanted to hand us to the Russians on a silver platter, but he realized his plan wasn’t going to work.”

“He’s been trying to drive a wedge between Nick and Ava from the beginning so that they would end things and he could be kept out of it,” Leo added.

We both sat silently, waiting for some kind of response from our dad. He looked intent, mulling all of this over.

“And so you married Ava before he could stop you?”

“Yeah. Vince tipped us off a few weeks ago and we’ve been careful about it since. We had to be sure Alessandro was actually spying on me before we could do anything, so when Ava and I left, we sent a guy to sit in a hotel room in Chicago booked under my name. Alessandro sent a bunch of hookers there to try to make it look like I was cheating on Ava.”

My dad frowned. “Why the fuck wouldn’t he just say the deal is off? Why go to all this trouble?”

“Because he’s trying to save face,” Leo said. “He needs the Russians to believe he is doing everything he can to help them infiltrate us, and if he calls off the deal, he goes down as the bad guy. The Asnikovs will eat him alive.”

“That’s what the shooting was about,” my dad said flatly.

I nodded. “Mrs. Moretti took his car that day. Vince thinks that the Russians thought it was him in there, not even realizing it was a wedding boutique, and were trying to send him a message.”

“Did you explain all of this to your new wife?” My dad turned his attention to me.

“More or less. I left out some of the details, but I told her that he was trying to set us all up.”

“She must be devastated.” He sighed, rubbing his chin.

“She’s having a tough time with it, but I think she understands. She knows that Alessandro is using her as a pawn and doesn’t really care what happens to her in the process.” It sounded even more harsh as I said it out loud, reigniting my anger at him.

“I’m still pissed you two decided not to tell me about this.” My dad glared at us. “But I understand why you did it. We’ll just need to be prepared for whatever is to come. Alessandro won’t take this lying down.”

“I know,” I agreed. “But I wasn’t going to take any chances where Ava’s safety was concerned. That’s why I want to get men on her immediately. He’s going to try to see her now that we’re home.”

“And she hasn’t told her family that you’re married?”

I shook my head.

“Let’s keep it that way for now,” he said. “I’d like to feel all this out with Alessandro.”

I didn’t want to wait but I wasn’t really in a bargaining position. I had already lied to my dad about most of this, so I knew he’d be keeping me under his thumb for a while.

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