Her father nodded his agreement, slashing a hand toward Alexi to silence the man when he objected.
“And Liam,” she continued, “I want you to teach Sofia how to shoot. Tomorrow.”
“Anything for you, Ginevra,” he promised her.
I followedGinevra out of the office, leaving Liam and Cormac to negotiate the details of security arrangements for the next few days. She paused to lean against the wall on the way to the kitchen and scrubbed tears from her eyes, not realizing I was right at her heels.
When she saw me, she straightened and wiped the misery from her face, replacing it with a pleasant smile, despite her flushed cheeks and red eyes. “What can I do for you, Rian?” she asked.
“I’m your bodyguard for the next few hours. Have you had lunch?” I asked, pretending I hadn’t seen her crying. I fought to quash down the intense guilt I felt for her pain, physical and emotional. If I’d paid more attention, kept her with us, neither Ginevra nor her sister would have suffered today.
Ginevra took a deep breath and then smiled. “Let’s go make sandwiches.”
She led me to the kitchen and then began rooting through the cabinets for fixings. In short order, she’d made ham sandwiches for the two of us. I found potato chips and sodas, and just like that, we were eating in the kitchen while the rest of the family argued over security arrangements.
I wanted the silence to be companionable, but Ginevra was lost in thought, ignoring me as if I really were nothing more than her bodyguard.
“Princess,” I said, once we’d both cleared our plates. “We need to get the contracts signed.”
With a rueful smile, she nodded her head and chugged the sugary sweet soda. She ran the back of her hand over her mouth to catch stray drops, and my groin tightened. Ginevra was one of the sexiest creatures I’d ever met.
“Lunch tomorrow,” she said. “We can go over my changes, then. And set a date for the commitment ceremony.”
She hopped off the kitchen stool and raised an eyebrow when I didn’t follow. “I’m going to work. You coming?”
Like the lovesick puppy I was, I followed her when she beckoned.
Ginevra had taken over a guest room at her parents’ house. The forest green and mahogany furniture suited her somehow, making her seem like an exotic creature stalking through an elegant forest.
She grabbed a clean shirt and bra, then disappeared into her bathroom. When she emerged, she once again looked like the high-powered and successful executive she was, as if the traumatizing events of the morning had never happened.
Ginevra turned and faced me where I sat at the foot of the bed, my elbows propped on my knees. “What happened this morning? That was bullshit.”
It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t talking about the shooting.
“I have asked for very little over the past few days as I whored myself out to ensure my family’s security, and so you can benefit from the Russo name. A little goddamned respect would go a long fucking way, asshole.”
“Princess, it was just a game,” I said, trying to figure out where this rage was coming from.
A bark of laughter escaped her before she could stop it. “Just a game? Rian, do you speak Italian?”
“No.”
“Do Liam or Cormac?”
“No.”
“Do any of you three know all the players, their families, and the politics?”
“Do you?” I snapped back at her. “You’ve been gone for ten years.”
Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Was I right about Alexi?”
I nodded, ceding the point.
“What else might I be right about, if you’d let me in? You didn’t hold the gun that shot at Sofia and me this morning, but freezing me out of conversations regarding my father’s business will have the same effect. I don’t want to end up dead because I don’t know where the fucking danger is coming from!”
“Princess, calm down—”Crack!The bitch slapped me.