Page 49 of Entangled

“Yes.”

Wonderful.

“How nice of him to close it down for the day, just for us. That’s a great way not to draw any fucking attention.”

It was a great way to make a scene, by closing down a busy restaurant for a day, only to have two crime bosses of rival families show up for a sit-down together.

Fuck.

Gian hated Gabriel Canali for many reasons, including the woman hanging on his arm currently. The bastard could not be trusted.

Elena’s false smile grew as the woman wearing a standard black dress led them through the restaurant, closer to the front windows. His wife leaned into his side, her hand tightening on his arm with a fierceness that damn near hurt. Yet, her smile never faltered, not even when she first caught sight of her father.

Gabriel was a bull of a man, with his torso as wide as he was tall. Dark-eyed, black-haired, and with a soul as dirty as shit, the man was intimidating at first glance.

A Camorra boss of a clan that liked its violence to the extremes, and its money as dirty as it could get, Gabriel held no loyalties to anyone but himself. He didn’t follow the same kinds of rules in life that Gian, or other made men did, as Camorra clans were, simply put, out for the betterment of their own positions.

Gabriel had killed nearly every single one of his rivals off. All except for the Guzzi family.

Gian had too much pride to let a cocksucker like Gabriel force his hand more than he had already done. As it was, he’d married the man’s daughter, was stuck with her until the day one of them died, and that was more than enough punishment for Gian, regarding getting mixed up with the Canali Camorra clan.

Far more than enough …

“Gian,” Gabriel greeted, pushing his large girth up from the head of a table. “Beautiful day, isn’t it?”

Gian nodded, taking the man’s hand for a shake. “It is.”

Then, Gabriel turned his gaze on his daughter. “Elena, mia reginella.”

My little queen.

Gian felt his wife’s fingernails dig into his skin through his suit jacket.

“Daddy,” Elena greeted politely. “How are you?”

“Well, although not as good as your husband, seeing as how he’s free today. You only get one free day to have fun after a sentence, and then it’s back to work. I’m happy to see he’s spending it with you.” Gabriel chuckled darkly. “I can’t say I ever did that for my wife when she was alive.”

Elena said nothing, but she didn’t move from Gian’s side, either. She had her sore spots, and her father was one of them. In a way, Gian thought it might do him well if he cared less, that he had a colder heart, so he could send Elena right back to her father’s cruel hands to do with as he wished.

Fortunately for Elena, Gian was not that cold, callous, or cruel.

Even if he wished he was.

No woman deserved to be beaten, used as a toy, or traded for the pleasure of men and blackmail like Elena had been for the majority of her life under Gabriel’s demands. It wasn’t exactly a secret in their family. It was not freely talked about, either.

“Sit, sit,” Gabriel demanded, waving at the table. “The food is coming soon.”

Near to the second they were all seated at a table, food was brought out from the kitchen by a chef and a waiter, served to each of them. Gian was at least grateful to get a few bites of a decent meal shoved into his face before the Camorra boss began talking again.

“Are you ever going to give that husband of yours a bambino or two?” Gabriel asked his daughter. “I might like a grandchild, too, Elena.”

Elena kept her head down as she replied, “Someday.”

Gian forced the lump of food down his throat. “Not everyone wants children.”

“All good Italian men do,” Gabriel said. “Although, considering it’s been four years since the two of you married, is it more that you don’t want any or that you can’t have any?”

Elena stiffened in her seat.