Page 7 of His Vicious Vow
I nod. “Thanks.”
I’ve never been to Carlo’s place. He only ever came to Vegas. It’s huge. I cannot believe the fucker didn’t have his kids live with him. Instead he left them in a small three bedroom two bathroom house a fraction of this place.
The door is opened by a woman in a maid’s uniform. Cassandra, Carina’s mother, is a peek of what Carina will look like at her age. She’s pretty enough, although her forehead is heavily lined. Twenty-five years with Carlo, she started as the maid then became his mistress when his wife was dying from cancer. All this time and she remains a maid. Carlo is a fucker on a level I cannot fathom.
Her smile is hesitant. “Alessandro?”
No one has called me by my full name since my mother died. Eighteen years later and the pain is as sharp as it was the day she died. For a moment words fail me. I nod
“Please come in, Carlo is waiting.”
She shows me to the office and opens the door. Carlo is frowning at the sight of me. His eyes flick down to the file in my hand. “Sit,” he orders.
I don’t show my annoyance at the order. Sitting down in one of the leather club chairs in front of his desk, I lean back with the file in my lap. And then I wait, refusing to say a word first.
His frown deepens, he nods at Cassandra.
“Would you like something to drink? Carlo has scotch or I can get you iced tea or lemonade.” She asks.
“No, thank you.” I murmur with a small smile to her.
Returning my gaze to Carlo, I wait.
I don’t dare betray my pleasure at watching his jaw tighten. “Fine. You want Vegas, you can have it—after you marry Carina. Luca and Dominic are adamant you had something to do with how good Vegas is doing. I’ll give you a year to prove it. Carina will cost you five hundred grand and thirty percent of your cut for one year. After the year it will go down to twenty percent. The wedding is set for a week after her sister’s here in Chicago. It will be clear you head Vegas with my support. Celia will be back from her honeymoon so she can do all the bridesmaid shit or whatever it’s called. All I care about is she has someone to stand up with her. The girl doesn’t have any friends. It will be here at my place. You meet her today, go back to Vegas and come back out for the wedding.”
Once it’s clear he’s done, I open the file. I take out the picture of her snapped when she landed in New York. “No.” I shake my head. “I am not paying five hundred grand for her. One hundred grand, no to thirty percent as well. I will pay the twenty percent Luca’s been paying and not a penny more. I notice no mention of the breakfast and presenting the sheets after our wedding night. Because you are aware both of us would be embarrassed by the lack of anything on those sheets. The date of the wedding is no concern for me. It will happen in Vegas at the hotel on the strip.”
His grey eyes are hard as his jaw works.
“Yes, to all of it but the wedding happens here.” Cassandra is the one to answer.
Carlo growls at her. “Cassandra.”
She doesn’t even glance at him. “Luca mentioned you have a sister close to her age that you’ve been taking care of. You’ll take care of Carina? She’s really very sweet. She needs someone who understands she’s hard on the outside to protect her inside.”
Her sincerity and question reminds me of my own mother’s pleading as she lay dying in her hospital bed. “I will take care of her. From this day forward as mine, she will have all my protection.”
The relief on her face stings at how I resented being forced to marry Carina. “Wonderful, thank you.” She pats my hand. Then she turns to Carlo. “Don’t mess this up for Carina. You promised me.”
Something is going on between them. She leaves the room quietly, closing the door behind her.
He runs a hand over his face. “Fine. I agree. But the year thing isn’t up for debate. If after a year you fuck up or don’t prove your worth, you lose Vegas.”
I can’t help the chuckle that slips from me. Standing, I shake my head. “Try and take it from me and there will be blood.”
His face is hard as rock. “Go wait for her in the library, down the hall second room on the right.”
Without another word, I walk away.
* * *
Carina
The El from O’Hare is packed for a Wednesday afternoon. Not for the first time I wish I could say fuck it and take a cab from the airport. But it didn’t make sense to pay almost eighty bucks for a cab when the El will take me all the way to within a mile from home when I already paid seventy-five dollars for my monthly unlimited pass. Too late, I remember the money sitting in my account. It’s enough to take the cab if I wanted to.
Now that I won’t be using the money I’ve saved for both me and Celia I have even more possibilities for where to go. Before, I considered places in the states so Celia could practice as the veterinarian she was studying to be. But with me going it alone I could go anywhere.
I speak Italian, Korean, Japanese and I can get by in Mandarin Chinese. A few years ago, I would have gone back and forth between South Korea or Japan. Except I had researched and read everything I could about Korea and Japan. The information I found on how foreigners were treated was brutal. God forbid you were fat—it was heartbreaking.