“Why did you scream his name.”
“It was a nightmare. Not real. And I don’t remember what it was about.” She flipped her long black hair over her shoulder. “Why do you care?”
“Because I won’t marry you until I know more. Is he your lover?”
She curled her upper lip, looking repulsed.
“What did Ricco do to you?”
“He locked me in a cell!” Her head whipped up, and her eyes, blazing with fury, locked onto mine.
I jerked back. A haze of red settled over my vision, and I had to take several breaths through my nose, trying to calm the hell down before I spoke. “What happened?”
With a shove to spin the barstool, she jumped down then stood so her back was to me while she looked out over the Caribbean Sea.
I didn’t like it. Without seeing her expression, I couldn’t read her beyond listening for her inflection. Not willing to risk it, I joined her by the sliding glass door. After I unlocked it, I pushed the slider open. Resting my hand lightly on the small of her back, I guided her onto the patio and to the area where we were yesterday.
Once she was seated, her hands digging into the seat’s cushion, I took the chair opposite her. A small table separated us, as did the wall that hid her emotions. But a hairline fracture had split the nearly impenetrable surface with her revelation of what Ricco had done. It was a small nick in her armor but enough for me to work with.
“If you want me to help you, I need to know everything. Or else you’re giving people like Ricco an advantage, and I doubt that was your goal in approaching me with the marriage proposal.”
Her eyes closed, and she seemed to come to a resolution as the tension slowly ebbed from her stiff posture, lowering her shoulders by an inch. “My father planned to marry me to a politician. I don’t even know what his name is.”
It wasn’t a horrible idea, nor was it uncommon, but I wasn’t going to say that.
She frowned, her gaze crawling over my face. “I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. Even if he thought he’d gain more power, which I get, my life would be hanging in the balance. A politician couldn’t protect me. Not from the Mafia, and you damn well know that.”
True. I nodded because it sounded like her father wouldn’t have taken precautions with security, based on her fear of the arrangement. Even so, marrying an outsider wouldn’t shield her in case of an ambush. She would have to fight, which I had no doubt she had the skills to do, but her husband would probably be worthless. Worse, he would jeopardize her life.
“That’s why you’ve been MIA, because of an arranged marriage?” I studied the stubborn tilt of her chin before catching a flash of what looked like pain flitter across her features.
“It didn’t help. I overheard my father discussing it with Ricco. Something was brewing with Ricco, and it wasn’t long until I found out what.”
“Don’t tell me he wanted to marry you?”
She snorted. “He threw his hat in the pot, but my father wasn’t having it. So Ricco did the next best thing—in his eyes, anyway. He brokered a deal with Guido.”
“Guido lost his status as the Amato underboss. What would Ricco gain from you marrying him?” It was a long shot unless Guido still planned to off his father then take over the family as boss.
“Right. But he and Ricco were working on a way to regain his position as underboss, and I think they might have been plotting against my dad in a long game.”
I leaned back in my chair, studying her. “Your marriage to Guido would tether the Tucci family, with or without Joey as boss.”
“It would grant Ricco more time, and I would be out of the way. He’s power hungry, cunning, and ruthless. Always has been. Underestimating him never ends well.”
“I understand what’s going on with the power struggle. Now, tell me about the nightmare.” The reason why she’d left was apparent, but there was more to it, evident in her rigid posture and the darkening of her eyes. “I won’t bind my family to you when you could be a risk. I want to know it all.” I frowned when her eyes went dull, not liking whatever caused the dimming of her fire and strength.
“Ricco ambushed me the morning I decided it was time to try to leave. Nothing good would happen, and I knew, aside from the Verretti family, I had no one in my corner. Even Dante wouldn’t be able to help me, not when he’d rejected my father’s proposition for an arranged marriage with me.”
“How far did you get before Ricco found you?” I didn’t like the picture she painted, and anger threatened to demolish my calm outer appearance.
“He got to me before I could leave the house and drugged me. I woke up in a windowless room that contained a cot and nothing else. Ricco came to gloat and tell me Guido was on his way. The drugs had begun to wear off, and as soon as I could, I picked the lock, killed the guard, and fled.”
“Was this before or after you warned Summer that Guido had found her?”
“After. I overheard Ricco and Guido talking one day. Ricco had helped Guido find where she’d gone. I thought I should even the playing field, sneak out from under my family’s watchful eye with the excuse of spending a few days at a spa and instead fly to Chicago. I’d found and hired someone who looked enough like me from a distance to confuse the guards.”
My respect for her went up a notch. While that would have infuriated me if she were mine, I admired her resourcefulness. “Why didn’t you approach me or anyone else in my family to negotiate protection when you were in Chicago?”