Gian (Trassato Crime Family #1)(59)

I wrapped my fingers around his muscular forearms, breathing in him in and shuddering with relief. “I love you too.”





CHAPTER





THIRTY-TWO


Gian



“Gianluca,” my dad croaked.

He looked like shit. His skin was ashen rather than the usual deep olive hue. His hair had started to grow back in uneven patches, and he couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred and thirty pounds. It killed me to see my once-strong father like this.

I settled into the sofa next him. “Dad, what happened tonight?”

He brought the straw of a clear plastic water bottle to his lips. “Alix Trincher and his son stopped by earlier tonight.”

“What the hell? Why did you let them inside the house?”

He jammed the water bottle between the sofa arm and his leg. “I didn’t want to scare your mom.”

“Alix is a loose cannon. He could’ve shot you or Mom or Carmela, and don’t get me started on his son. I’ve heard he’s worse than the father.”

“I sent your mom and sister on an errand.” He dragged a hand down the side of his sunken cheek. “And honestly, I wouldn’t have fought too hard if he tried to kill me. A bullet to the head is preferable to this slow death.”

My stomach dropped like I swallowed a brick. “You don’t mean that. Something could change.” Neither of us believed my words. Barring divine intervention, which wasn’t likely given my dad’s long list of sins, he was going to die sooner rather than later. The fact his death was imminent didn’t eliminate the feeling that someone had lodged an ice pick in my chest when I thought about never seeing him again.

He raised one eyebrow, drawing my attention to his eyes. They were dilated and cloudy from the liquid morphine he ingested regularly to keep the pain at bay. “I didn’t ask you to come here to talk about my death.”

Clearing my throat, I rubbed my hands down the fabric of my pants. “Then why am I here?”

“The Russians, Alix in particular, want access to your territory.”

I curled my hands into fists. The f*cking Russians. First they tried to kill me. Then they hurled a brick through my front door, and now they thought they were entitled to special perks for being *s.

“Tell him to take it up with Nico,” I snapped.

“He did,” my dad replied. “Apparently Nico wants you to work out the details with Alix and present them to him.”

“Really? And why does he think I’d be his advocate? He’s been f*cking with me for weeks.”

He jerked his head toward me. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to get into it. I have things under control.”

He nodded absently. “Do Nico and your uncle know about this?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” I slanted forward, balancing my elbows on my thighs. “Like you said, Nico thinks I should make a deal with the Russians, but I don’t think it’s necessary. They’re pushing me because I’m new. In a couple of months, they’ll back down, and everything will go back to normal.”

“I don’t think so.” My dad shook his head, the corners of his mouth curving downward. “He said you have something of his, and he wants compensation, or he wants it back.”

“What the f*ck? That doesn’t make sense.”

“Yeah, well, he wouldn’t elaborate.”

I stood and rubbed the back of my neck. “So what happens now?”

He took another sip of his water. “You’re meeting him tomorrow afternoon to discuss the details and see if you can work this out. You’re supposed to take that fiancée of yours.”

“Excuse me?”

“Take Evangeline.”

“No.”

Dad flinched from the sharpness of my voice. “It’s non-negotiable. Apparently, she’s wrapped up in this shit somehow, and if you don’t show up with her in tow, we might as well go to war. Nobody wants that. We’ve barely recovered from that bullshit with the DiTonnos and Rocco.”

Fuck! If Kevin had lied about his debt to Alix being satisfied, I’d rip him apart with my bare hands. It’d be totally like that self-centered ass to promise something that wasn’t his. Something to do with Evie.

“You’re keeping something from me.” It was a statement, not a question.

Dammit. High as a kite and riddled with cancer, and I still couldn’t get a lie past my father. He was a human lie detector.

“Nothing important, Dad.”

“Don’t hide shit from me, Gianluca.”

I bristled under his scrutiny. “Fine. I don’t know if it means anything, but Evie’s ex owed Alix a half a million dollars.”

“I assume he didn’t pay him back or you wouldn’t be mentioning this.”

“As I understand it, he paid some of it back and did him a favor.” I rested my chin against my chest. “He told me Alix considers the debt paid in full now.”

“What does Evangeline know about this?”

My head jerked up, a nauseated feeling swirling inside my gut. I’d never asked her anything, because I didn’t want her to worry about shit she couldn’t control. “As far as I know, she doesn’t know a thing.”