I rounded on him more in shock than anger. That must be the longest speech Dante Luciano ever made in his life, and it was definitely the first time in history he ever stood up to me.
I got ready to rain fire and brimstone on his disobedient head, but the sight of Ariana curled up on his chest stopped me. These weren’t any ordinary foot soldiers I could order around. These were my cousins, and they cared about Ariana as much as I did—maybe more.
Ariana would never cuddle up to me like that. She must be starting to soften to the twins. She would never soften with me.
I gritted my teeth. How dare they steal her from me? How dare they come between me and her like this? I had only myself to blame for that, but I had to take out my turmoil on someone.
“I gave you one job. If she wanted to dance, you should have waited until I came back.”
“We did wait,” Dominic argued. “We had no way of knowing how long you would be. You could have been gone all night. What were we supposed to think?”
“Don’t give me that shit!” I spat. “You could have gotten into a knock-down, drag-out fight with fifteen guys on that dance floor, and she would have been caught in the middle of it. You aren’t doing a very good job of protecting her, Dominic.”
I knew I made a mistake the minute I said it. He narrowed his eyes again. “Say that again. I dare you.”
“Listen,” Dante cut in. “Those guys were just townies. They wouldn’t have gotten through us. We never would have let anything happen to her.”
“How the fuck do you know you didn’t leave the table before the families saw her?” I asked. “You could have destroyed my plans.”
Dante’s eyebrows shot up. “So…didthey see her? Did they think you were with her?”
I clenched my teeth. I didn’t want to stop being mad at them. “Yes. Michael Vittorio saw her on the security camera feed. He congratulated me and said I should invite him to the wedding.”
Dominic snorted. “Now I’ve heard everything.”
“My point,” I snapped back, “is that you could have taken her away before Michael saw her. If she hadn’t been in front of the feed, he wouldn’t have seen her, and the whole exercise would have been for nothing. You put her at risk for no reason. Stupid screwups like this could cost us everything.”
The twins exchanged glances, and Dante looked down at Ariana’s sleeping form. “I’m sorry, Padrino. It was a bone-headed mistake.”
Dominic compressed his lips and looked out the window. “What about you, Dominic?” I demanded. “Are you going to apologize for disobeying my orders?”
He didn’t look at me. He mumbled under his breath, “Yes, Padrino. I’m sorry, Padrino. It won’t happen again.”
I almost demanded that he apologize for fucking Ariana when he was on duty guarding her, but I stopped myself in time. That would push him too far, especially with his brother sitting right there.
Dominic would never apologize for fucking Ariana. If anything, telling him to apologize would only make him rebel against me more than he already was.
I looked down at Ariana too. She looked even more intoxicatingly beautiful curled up and asleep on Dante’s chest like that. She looked so inviting and precious. I would give anything to put my arms around her right now.
My heart almost burst when Dante raised one beefy arm and draped it around her bare shoulders. He hugged her into him, but she didn’t stir. She didn’t hear a word of our conversation.
The limo pulled into Archhurst and parked in front of the big entrance. Dante started to unpeel himself from Ariana and lift her up. “No,” I commanded. “You two are on a stake-out tonight. I’ll take care of her.”
Dominic spun around. “What? No!”
I locked eyes with him. “Do you have a problem with that, Dominic? You admitted you screwed up. You and Dante go over to Chelsea and follow Michael and Alessandro. See where they go, and gather information about how many troops they have hidden there. Go on.”
He snorted and got out of the car. I shifted over to his spot and pried Ariana off of Dante. She flopped off him and fell against me. She wrapped her arms around my waist and sprawled across my lap.
Dante shot me a dangerous look and then followed his brother. A minute later, Dante’s car pulled out of the drive, and silence fell over Archhurst. I was alone with Ariana.
I sat still feeling this tornado of emotion burning me up inside. Here she was, asleep with her arms around me, but I couldn’t read too much into that. She wouldn’t hold onto me like this if she wasn’t drunk out of her mind.
I could sit like this all night. I didn’t want to disturb her—or myself. I wanted to cling to the illusion that she really wanted me enough to hold onto me like this.
It couldn’t last, though. This was nothing more than a trick of my mind. I finally pulled her arms off me, but she was too out of it to sit up by herself.
I pivoted onto my knees and picked her up in my arms. She slumped on my shoulder, and I carried her inside. The twins were nowhere around. I had the house to myself.