Coming Home (Morelli Family 6)

“I don’t care. I want all of them. Unless you have a better reason than overkill, contract all four.”

Adrian’s eyebrows rise and he cocks his head slightly. “I mean, there is the fact that three of them were involved in the New York massacre. Personally, guys who already helped take out one mob family don’t top the list of people I’d want guarding mine.”

“Colin explained that. They didn’t turn on their employer; they were doing the job they were paid to do. Vince can’t afford a team of hit men, so I’m not overly worried about this being a Trojan horse.”

“Ben can,” Adrian shoots back.

“Ben doesn’t hire outside help,” Mateo returns.

“And you thought Vince wouldn’t go to Ben, which is why we didn’t check there in the first place. You’re wrong sometimes.”

Irritation flickers in the depths of Mateo’s brown eyes. “Colin has never let us down before. It wouldn’t benefit him to do so now.”

“We have enough of our own guys,” Adrian reiterates. “Why take the chance?”

Now Mateo finally turns his attention to me, but it’s just to goad Adrian. “Adrian is boring me. Entertain me?”

I grin, leaning in to give him a kiss. “Sure. Want me to blow you under the desk?”

“No,” Adrian says, firmly. “That will distract him too well. Tell your fiancé he doesn’t need an army of strangers guarding the wedding. Vince is one guy, and he hasn’t been back to Vegas since he left. There’s absolutely nothing to indicate he even knows this wedding is happening, let alone that he’s coming back to stop it.”

I raise my eyebrows, looking back at Mateo. “A whole army to keep Vince out?”

He subtly corrects me. “A whole army to keep you safe.”

“I really don’t think Vince wants to kill me,” I tell him, still with my arms wound around his neck. “He could’ve done that already. He’s reckless; if he wanted me dead, he would’ve just busted into Rafe’s that night and killed me before he could bring me home.”

“I know.” He nods, but my words have fallen on deaf ears. He’s as suspicious as I am trusting, so he’s learned just to ignore my assertions about people.

Adrian butts in again. “We also have eyes on Vince, so if he heads for Chicago, we’ll have adequate warning. Sal already said he’ll have his guys on standby. Between our families, we have it covered. If Vince could see you preparing for him like this, we would need to invent a new word for the level of his smugness.”

“I couldn’t care less,” Mateo states. “Everything that matters to me will be there and I have hoards of strangers and distant relations pouring in. I don’t trust anyone. I’ll be happiest when the whole goddamn thing’s over.”

Even though I understand what he means, my tummy feels a little shifty at him wishing our wedding was already over. I thought choosing ordinary details was stressful; I hadn’t even considered all the stuff Mateo would have to worry about surrounding it.

“No wonder you never married Meg,” I say, lightly. “This sounds like a real hassle.”

That snags Mateo’s attention. His sharp gaze drifts to my face and he seems to realize he’s dreading the day I’ve been dreaming about since it was an impossibility. Catching my left hand, he brings it to his lips and places a kiss on my knuckles, near the beautiful ring he gave me. “I never married Meg because she wasn’t you,” he states. “Making you my wife is worth one day of hassle.”

I beam, leaning in and kissing him. I can’t resist bringing a hand up to lovingly caress his strong jaw line. God, I’m a lucky woman.

Still holding my free hand, Mateo runs his thumb across my knuckles. “Speaking of hassle, I wanted to talk to you about a security matter. Remember when I said you’re no longer allowed to leave the house without someone guarding you?”

I nod my head.

“Well, I’ve given it further thought and updated that particular mandate. From now on, Adrian is your exclusive bodyguard. I don’t want you to go anywhere outside this house without him.”

I blink in surprise, glancing at Adrian, then back at Mateo. “But Adrian’s your bodyguard.”

Nodding once, his face tells me I might not like this next part. “Yes. So unless we go somewhere together, let’s keep it to one day a week. You can have him one day a week to go do whatever you want, the rest of the time…”

“I’m on lockdown,” I say, nodding.

“Or you could just stop ruining my fun and let me kill Vince,” he suggests casually.

“Nope.” I shake my head, injecting a little more brightness into my tone. “That’s fine. I like the house. There’s plenty to do here. I don’t spend enough time at the pool anyway.”

Mateo rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t argue. We both know he could take the matter out of my hands and solve it for me, but since it involves killing Vince, we also know he won’t. I lean in to give him another little kiss to express my gratitude for his restraint.