Epilogue

Gio

Clenching my jaw, I scowled at the slip of a woman walking down the darkened street. The lamps didn’t give off nearly enough light, and there were shadows everywhere, threatening danger. Yet she walked alone along the sidewalk, wearing her short skirt to show off a gorgeous set of gams encased in silky stockings with the tops hidden below the fringe on her dress. Her blonde hair peeked out from the cap she was wearing, curling around her rouged cheeks and lips.

She didn’t just walk either. She sauntered, she sashayed, as if she didn’t have a care in the world, despite it being after midnight on a deserted street.

I stepped out of the shadows in front of her, and she startled, stepping back rather than forward, her hand going to her chest. I glowered at her, crossing my arms over my chest as she squinted her eyes and peered at me in the darkness.

“Oh, it’s just you.”

She actually sounded relieved.

I was the nephew of Don DiNardo, one of the most influential mob bosses in the country, the son of the don’s consigliere, and she treated me like a toothless cur she’d taken a liking to. I ground my very substantial teeth together as I clenched my jaw.

“What are you doing out so late?”

What I didn’t ask was how she’d slipped her tail.

Again.

Paulie was supposed to be keeping an eye on her in the evenings, but this was the fourth evening in a row that he’d lost track of her. Granted, he was no Tomas, but he was one of my uncle’s most trusted capos and a pretty stealthy one at that. Given she was Hailey’s best friend, it was no surprise that my uncle wanted to keep an eye on his new daughter-in-law’s best friend.

I wanted to as well, though for entirely different reasons. Uncle Lorenzo wanted to ensure that Hailey was not somehow passing messages through Clara to her grandfather, Don Bianco. I was not at all worried about that—as far as I could tell, Clara’s only contact with the man had been when he’d brought her in to be Hailey’s maid-of-honor for her wedding. Her presence had ensured Hailey’s cooperation in making it through the ceremony. From everything I’d seen, she’d had no idea how much danger she was in the entire time.

Innocent to the point of idiocy—that was Clara.

Yet I was drawn to her. She needed a keeper. Someone to take charge of her, watch over her, and keep her out of danger.

Was that man going to be me?

I wasn’t sure.

Having a steady woman at this point in my life was not part of my plan… yet I couldn’t stay away from her.

“None of your business,” she answered me with a sassy little eyeroll that made my palm itch to take her over my knee.

My glower bounced off her with no obvious effect.

She tried to move around me, and I reached out, wrapping my fingers around her arm and bringing her to a halt. Blinking, she looked up at me, as if surprised I would dare touch her. Hauling her closer to me, I held her against me, and her lips dropped open in surprise.

It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to claim them with a kiss, but I wasn’t about to start something I couldn’t finish.

“What were you doing out so late tonight?” I asked again, letting some menace creep into my voice. I would never harm her—though I’d happily spank some sense into her—but she needed to start taking me more seriously instead of treating me like a pet.

“I was out dancing,” she responded irritably, pulling away and shaking her arm. I held on for a moment longer, just so she knew that letting her go was a deliberate move on my part and had nothing to do with her feeble attempt to get away. “Why do you care?”

“Because you’re walking home alone late at night, and Hailey would be upset if anything happened to you.”

“Mmm. Hailey knows I can take care of myself.” She rolled her eyes at me again and sauntered up the walk to the boarding house she had a room in as I watched. It wasn’t until the door was firmly closed behind her that I melted away into the shadows again, leaving the street apparently unguarded.

Sooner or later, I needed to make a decision about what I wanted to do about Clara.

Clara

Letting out a deep breath, trying to still my pounding heart, I leaned back against the front door.

That was close.

Giovanni DiNardo was becoming a problem.

Slipping by the goons he kept leaving to watch me was easy. I was pretty sure I could even slip by him if I needed to, but I wasn’t sure how he’d take it when he realized I had.

At least he kept taking my excuses about being out dancing.

Straightening up, I couldn’t help but smirk as I peeked out the window. The street was empty. Because he thought I’d gone to bed like a good girl, home safe from a night of dancing.

He thought he was so smart, but—just like every other man in my life—I’d pulled the wool over his eyes.

******

Gio and Clara will return in Daddy’s Bad Blood which will be published in the Morally Gray Daddies Anthology.