Page 29 of Unrelenting
Smart girl.
“I don’t know.” Damiano laughs. “I don’t go around drugging women.”
He’s more of a club them over the head and drag them back to his cave type, but there’s no sense telling Giulia that.
“You’d better not start with my woman,” Matteo says as he strolls into the room. Olivia follows close behind.
“What’s going on?” Olivia looks confused.
“Lorenzo wants Giulia to sample his new Chianti, but she seems to think we’ve poisoned it,” Damiano explains.
Scowling, Giulia raises the glass to her lips. I guess she wants to prove she’s not afraid we might have done something nefarious.
“You’re not meant to drink it straight away,” Olivia chides. I’ve noticed she projects a certain animosity toward Giulia. I guess it’s jealousy. Olivia and Matteo are close. She probably doesn’t like him giving so much attention to another woman. “You need to assess the color and clarity first.”
We coach Giulia through the process of tasting the wine, but it’s clear she’s unimpressed. I guess she’s not much of a wine drinker. I imagine a very different reaction from Lucia. She would savor the Chianti. She’d pick out the cherry flavor and the subtle note of tobacco.
Despite being a heathen when it comes to wine, Giulia seems to be a good fit for my cousin. Watching their interactions, I see how at ease they are with one another. Matteo shoots us a look over the top of Giulia’s head, an unsubtle hint for us to get lost.
“I like her.” I express my approval as I walk out of the room, patting Matteo’s shoulder on the way past. “Let me know what you think of the wine, Giulia. If you enjoy it, I’ll bring a case to your wedding.”
Damiano and Olivia follow me from the room, and Matteo closes the door behind us so he can enjoy some alone time with his woman.
“I need to speak to you,” I tell my brother as we head toward the stairs leading down into the main production area.
“Livvy,” Damiano says, “why don’t you go wait in the car.”
Olivia scowls. “Why don’t you kiss my ass?”
“Save the sweet talk for Reznov,” Damiano advises. “And do as you’re told or I’m grounding you.”
“I’m not a child.” Olivia’s tone directly contradicts her assertion. She performs her signature hair toss and flounces off downstairs.
“She’ll probably slash your tires,” I tell my brother as she leaves.
Damiano snorts derisively. “Probably. Fuck, I cannot wait until Reznov takes her off our hands.”
“You think he will?”
“I think he’s about done playing with her. Expect wedding bells imminently.”
“Yeah, can’t wait.”
Damiano leans against the railing at the top of the stairs. “You didn’t want to talk about our cousin’s love life.”
He’s right. As entertaining as Olivia’s dealings with Piotr are, I have more pressing matters to deal with.
“I spoke to Alberto Ricci this morning.”
“Did you get anywhere?”
“Maybe. It turns out he has a granddaughter.”
“You’re shitting me.” Damiano rubs the back of his head. “How come we didn’t know about this?”
I shrug. Someone on my team is going to answer for their failure to uncover something so important.
“She’s illegitimate. They’ve kept quiet about her existence.”
