Giovanni (Benedetti Brothers 4)

I look over too. He’s right. I can smell that the sauce is stuck to the pot.

“That’s too bad,” he says, walking back toward me. He reaches out. I flinch, but he just tucks a hair that had come loose of my tight bun behind my ear and gives me a charming smile, baring his white teeth. “I’ll be seeing you again, Emilia Estrella.”

And with that, he walks out the door, his men following him. I slump against the wall and clutch my stomach and find the bullet hole in the baseboard, the one left by my gun when I dropped it.

I may have grown up in a cartel family, but this is the closest I’ve ever been to death.2GiovanniEmilia Estrella isn’t what I expect.

“Keep a man on her. I want to know about everyone she has contact with,” I say once we’re on the street. I look up and down the pretty, wealthy Upper East Side neighborhood. No way she lives here on a hotel manager’s salary. I take one more glance at the townhouse, at the windows on the top floor.

“Yes, sir,” Vincent says. He’s standing beside my car, holding the door open.

“Make sure it’s not some idiot. And if she meets with that piece-of-shit brother of hers, you bring them both to me.”

“I’ll take care of it, sir.”

I get into the car, take the key to her apartment out of my pocket, and slide it onto my own key ring. I want access to Emilia Larrea-Estrella, and it’s not just because of her brother. But now isn’t the time to think about that other thing, even if I can’t get the image of those strange, striking serpentine eyes out of my head. I should have been better prepared. It would have been easy enough to get one fucking photo of her. If I’d done that, I wouldn’t be sitting here dissecting this right now because I’d have been prepared.

She’s not my ghost. I know that. But fuck me, when I first saw her, it took me back.

What she did, standing up to me—most people would cower. I knew she had a plan the moment she went into the kitchen. I still wonder if she’d have had the guts to use the pot of boiling water as a weapon. She seemed pretty calm, but they’re usually the most dangerous kind. If you can stay calm in a situation like the one she just experienced, it means you’ve seen some shit very close to home. I’m curious about that shit.

Or hell, maybe I just want to fuck her.

I reach into my pocket, retrieve my cell phone, and dial Dominic Benedetti, my cousin and the head of the Benedetti family to which I’m loyal. He answers on the second ring.

“Find that son of a bitch yet?”

“Not yet, but I met the sister tonight.”

“And?”

“I think she’s telling the truth about not knowing where he is, but I’ve tasked her with finding him. Gave her some incentive to do so.”

Dominic chuckles. “Killian Black is a good resource, too. He has a man, Hugo Drake, he’s also reliable. I thought with old man Estrella’s assassination, we were done with this shit, but the son is worse than the father.”

“Isn’t that always the case?”

He’s silent for a minute, and I think about what I just said. How true it is for him and for me.

“You sound like my brother Salvatore,” Dominic says.

Salvatore is Dominic’s older brother. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I want this bastard.”

“No more than me. It was me he made the deal with. Me he thinks he’ll make a fool of.”

“Just make sure you bring him in alive. I plan on doing the killing myself, although I’m guessing there’s a fucking line out the door.”

It’s my turn to chuckle. “I’ll keep you posted. I plan on visiting the sister again tomorrow night.” I tell myself I’d be doing this even if she didn’t look like she does.

“I like your commitment.” He understands my meaning.

We hang up just as Vincent pulls into the garage. I don’t live too far from Emilia, and my building is about the same size as hers, except that I own all six floors.

I walk up the stairs and into the house, entering via the kitchen. While her apartment has a chic, feminine design, the decor in my house is completely modern. I make my way straight into my study to boot up my laptop. Tonight, I want to read all I can about the Estrella cartel, about Emil Estrella’s untimely death. And Emilia Estrella, who all but disappeared after that night.

I know enough about Alessandro. He’s a liar. A thief. And an idiot if he thinks he can double cross me or the Benedetti family. A fucking imbecile.

But it’s not him I’m interested in tonight. It’s Emil Estrella’s pretty, fiery daughter. The girl who looks like my past come back to haunt me.