“We have one week to get this right,” Alex said.
“No, we don’t,” Roman said. “Look at how far we’ve come already. I don’t want us to put too much pressure on ourselves. There’s no need to.” He forced a smile to his lips. “We’ll be ourselves next week. There’s no reason to panic.”
Alex frowned. “That’s a new … tactic.”
“Not a tactic. I don’t want to play a role to anyone else.” Roman let go of her hands and got to his feet. He watched as she stifled a yawn. “And you’re tired.”
“I’m fine. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”
Again, she tried to stifle a yawn.
“Go to bed, that’s an order.”
She rolled her eyes again.
“I’ll put that down on the board.”
She chuckled, and he looked toward the board at their names as well as their weaknesses. Roman walked over and rubbed it all off.
Making his way to the main house, he closed the basement door and found his friends in the small study, sipping bottles of beer.
“Sneaking it in again?” Roman asked.
“Someone has to. There is no hard stuff here but a can of soda,” Cash said. “Want one?”
Roman shook his head. He stopped drinking beer years ago. He was a scotch man himself.
“Alex suspects what we’re doing,” Roman said. “What I’m doing.”
“Which part?” Antonio asked.
“Manipulating her to fall in love with me,” Roman said.
“How?” Marlo asked.
“I don’t know how she knows, but I heard her talking to Millie today.”
“Oh,” Cash said.
“Yeah, oh. I can only guess that Liam has taught her to be cautious of everyone and everything.”
“You’re her husband. Can’t that be a good enough reason?” Marlo asked.
“You’d think so, only I don’t have the best track record when it comes to Alex. I wasn’t exactly a prince in the early days.” He sat down on the edge of an old, worn chair.
“So, what’s the plan?” Antonio asked.
“I don’t have a plan. I don’t know what to do.”
“You’ve got to keep doing what your dad told you to do,” Marlo said. “It’s important for everyone that this marriage works. It has been close to falling apart several times.”
“I know.”
“Why don’t you just fuck her and get it over with?” Cash asked.
“I’m not going to force her. She’s not ready.” Roman ran a hand down his face.
“If you guys don’t convince the Greco line, we’ll never find out who tried to kill her,” Antonio said.