Page 12 of Tender Entrapment
Luigi took a deep breath and exhaled exaggeratedly. A broad smile spread across his face. “I wish my son would learn some manners from you.”
“He’s actually sweet,” Brooke replied, “and good to me.”
“If he was anything less, I’d disown him,” Luigi declared.
The small party laughed.
Luigi turned to Mr. Williams. “I must apologize for the short notice of our invitation,” he said. “I just couldn’t wait to meet.”
“It’s okay,” Mr. Williams assured him.
“Where’s Camille?” Mrs. Williams asked Brooke at the same time her daughter started to ask Luigi about Paolo. The band struck up a stirring piece just then.
“Come, let us dance,” Luigi said and took Brooke’s hand.
Her father and mother linked hands to join the dance. Soon, half the guests were on the dance floor.
While they danced, Luigi made light conversation with Brooke. She seemed like a shy girl and was clearly younger than Camille. It was easy to conclude that she was the kind of impressionable woman who would make a good wife for Paulo.
However, Luigi was not one to come to hasty conclusions. He was Luigi, after all. Most young women would be shy around him. Even at 46, he was still handsome, with a head full of ebony black hair. The tales most women had heard about him through the grapevine were usually enough to keep them bashful around him. He still had to observe her behavior around Paulo.
It was only after the dance that he got the opportunity to speak with Camille. By then, Paulo and the rest of his henchmen were down. The trap had been sprung.
“Are you still mad at me?” Luigi asked Camille.
Camille shook her head. “No. I think I may have overreacted that night.”
“And you didn’t call to tell me that?”
“You didn’t leave me a number to call,” Camille protested.
“You didn’t think to come over?” he pressed.
“I’d already…” Camille heaved a sigh. “Doesn’t this feel weird? Paulo and Brooke? You and I?”
“It doesn’t to me,” Luigi said. For three annoying nights, he had agonized over whether to reach out to her or ignore her. Now, he was on the verge of losing her.Was it the fight?he wondered.
The band was striking up the first notes of new music.
“But if you do find it weird,” Luigi said, “then I’d understand and leave you alone.”
“Dance with me?” Camille asked.
There were a number of people hovering around, hoping to get Luigi’s attention. He ignored them completely now and took the hand she offered.
* * *
Just after Paulo and Brooke cut their engagement cake, Donald came to Luigi. The blankness on his face told Luigi everything he needed to know even before the consigliere bent to whisper the news in his ear: Weinberg had raided the pickup points and arrested his men.
Luigi instructed him to go up to his study with his lieutenants and wait. As they followed orders, Luigi went out to his estate’s security post to leave strict instructions. “Do not letanybody in or out of this property except by my leave,” he told them.
As he walked back to the house, he made a call to John Campo: “More than a dozen of my staff have been arrested at the wharf because they went to pick up sacks of flour.”
“Flour?” John asked in bewilderment. “Why would the police arrest them for that?”
Luigi grinned. “Beats me. Anyway, I need you to get them all out immediately. Threaten those cops with everything you can think of. Whatever happens, my men are all getting out tonight.”
“Of course,” John replied.
