“I’m fairly certain Benito Valdez, the president of the Demons, who is the one causing all the problems, hasn’t made his move to come here yet, Lucia, and I can get Taviano to bring me out there. I can stay with you until things really start heating up, and then I’ll come back and see what I can do to help.”
“Do you think that’s wise? Shouldn’t you stay with your husband?”
“Don’t call him that,” she objected immediately just as Taviano slipped through the door.
His eyebrow shot up. He walked across the floor, not even making a whisper of a sound, took the phone out of her hand and grinned at Lucia. “She should stay with her husband.” He winked at Lucia. “How’s my second-favorite woman in the world?”
“I’ve been downgraded, I see.”
“It is true, but only one small degree.” He laid a hand over his heart. “You will always have a piece of my heart.”
“I will concede,” Lucia said, and blew kisses to him. “I love you, Nicoletta. I will see you soon. Take care of each other.”
“Wait.” Nicoletta nearly leapt off the chair. She got tangled up in the blanket as Lucia hit the disconnect button. “Damn it. Don’t let her go. I have to talk to her.” She knew she sounded desperate, but it was because she didn’t want to be alone with Taviano. She couldn’t be alone with him. “Can you just drive me to wherever she is? That would just be better. I can stay there.”
“No, tesoro, you can’t stay there. You’re coming home with me. What kind of message does it send to the family if my new wife runs home to her mother the first night of our marriage?”
“Taviano.”
“Nicoletta.”
She sighed. “I’m really tired.”
“Then let’s go home.”
“I have to remind Stefano to talk to the family lawyer about a prenup. You didn’t have me sign one, Taviano. That could be a really big problem.”
He caught her hand and hauled her out of the chair when she’d withdrawn back into it, almost like a turtle. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her tight against his side. “First, there is no divorce. I went over the terms and I was very clear on that, so there’s no need for a prenup. Second, if you did leave me, you wouldn’t remember you were ever married to me no matter how many people pointed it out to you.”
“Great,” she muttered. “Sounds great to me. You’re going to be sorry. I’m good at spending money.”
“You’re lousy at spending money, Nicoletta. I know everything there is to know about you, and you don’t spend anything. Every penny you earned working you turned over to Lucia—which, by the way, she put in the bank for you. You didn’t even buy new clothes.”
“Because Lucia insists on giving me clothes all the time.”
They were at the elevator. Taviano waved to his brothers and Emmanuelle, and Nicoletta lifted her hand, acknowledging them. She wasn’t certain just what to say or what had been accomplished in their meeting.
“She loves to give you things.” They stepped inside and the doors closed, leaving them alone once again.CHAPTER SEVENTaviano’s home was a modern estate built in the hills overlooking the city. Like his brothers, he owned several homes, but he didn’t bother to mention that to Nicoletta, knowing it would just freak her out more than she already was. He hadn’t told her the ring on her finger, the one she continually turned back and forth and clearly loved, was worth a small fortune and then some, because she would have taken it off and never put it on again. Some things were just better left unsaid as far as he was concerned.
She’d been acting strange ever since Vegas. Clearly, she was afraid of being alone with him. He hadn’t expected that. It had occurred to him, as it had to Stefano, that she might have problems when Stefano demanded a family meeting of the riders, with all the brothers in the close confines of one room. He thought he was completely tuned to her, ready after years of waiting for her to grow up, but now, he realized, even without the terrible trauma she’d endured, he didn’t know everything there was to know about her.
Nicoletta slid out of the car the moment it pulled up to the house, not waiting for him or the bodyguards to get there first. He was going to have to talk to her about that, but since he was certain it was safe, he let it go. She had her head tipped back and was looking up, as did most people when first encountering the architecture. He had as well.
He had found the estate while looking for land; he had wanted acreage, not necessarily for an actual house. He had houses. He wanted land he could surround himself with, to give himself a little bit of a buffer from the rest of the world when he needed it, especially there in their chosen hometown. The family loved Chicago. They loved their neighborhood and the people in it, but sometimes, especially after they had to pore over the reports of a particularly ugly investigation and learn every aspect of those involved and then serve justice, retreating to somewhere peaceful was imperative.