Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Gaetano chuckled. “No, of course not. But you know how she is.”
“Has she told you that she’s expect—”
“Shut up,” Cat warned.
There it was.
One claw.
Dante smiled. “You haven’t told him?”
Catrina eyed her husband from the side, the fire burning brighter. “I was going to before I left. We had things to discuss first.”
“It’s kind of important, Catrina. I think Gaetano would understand and maybe, he’d even get why I showed up tonight.”
Catrina tapped her jeweled, manicured fingernails to the table and with a jerk of her head, the booth cleared of men except for Gaetano. Dante watched the men go and his brothers followed behind to keep them from returning.
“What am I missing?” Gaetano asked.
Catrina frowned. “Dante—”
“We agreed, Cat.”
“No, you demanded,” she argued hotly.
“And you agreed,” he said simply.
“I did not!” Cat scowled and added, “I am not fucking disabled, Dante. I’m not doing anything wrong. There’s nothing problematic that might cause me harm, bello. We’re having a conversation about an issue that came up between a few men and a couple of the girls. That was all. I need to handle these things.”
“Gaetano handles those things. That’s why he’s situated in LA. Isn’t that what you told me?”
Cat smacked her hand to the table. “You don’t understand, Dante. It isn’t like Cosa Nostra—they take advantage when someone they’re frightened of isn’t around. There aren’t rules to this. You know all of this, so why you’re fighting with me, I don’t understand.”
“We’re not fighting. You’re fighting. There’s a difference.”
As he spoke, Dante kept his tone level, quiet, and calm.
No doubt, that just pissed his wife off more.
While Catrina knew how to push every button Dante had, he knew how to push hers even more.
“You could have called,” Catrina muttered.
“I did. Check your phone.”
“It’s turned off.”
Of course, it was.
That was also why he couldn’t get a decent location on her GPS.
In a blink, Catrina smiled and turned on the charm.
She should have known better.
Dante never fell for that shit like every other man in her life did.
“Dante, give me a few and we’ll go home.”
“No,” Dante murmured.
“Bello—”
“No.”
Cat sucked in a breath, a heat pinking her cheeks.
Dante didn’t take his eyes off his wife for a second as he said, “Gaetano, could you leave, please? I need a moment with my wife. Clearly she’s more interested in acting like the Queen instead of Catrina Marcello tonight, so you’ll need to step out.”
Gaetano looked all kinds of uncomfortable. “All right, regina, give me a call tomorrow or something.”
“Sit down and shut up,” Cat ordered.
The man sat back down in the booth, shooting Dante with a wary look.
It wasn’t the first time that Dante had pulled rank between the two and forced Gaetano out of a situation so that he could have a proper discussion with his wife on something, be it life, family or business related.
“Are you going to make this hard, donna?” Dante asked.
Cat sneered. “No bella this time?”
“We both know you’re beautiful as sin, Cat. But right now, you’re just a woman who is seriously pushing your fucking luck tonight.”
“I am fine, Dante,” Cat said. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Protective,” he corrected.
“Over-protective,” she shot back.
Maybe so.
Maybe he was.
“I get that right, Catrina,” Dante said. “You know I do. Right now, I have every damned right to protect you however I see fit.”
“I am not disabled,” she repeated.
“Were one of the problem men here tonight? You said there was an issue with a few men and a couple of the girls. Were any of the men here at this table?” Dante asked.
Cat shot Gaetano with a look that kept him quiet.
Dante didn’t need an answer with that.
“One of them was, huh?” Dante’s anger edged higher, sharpening like the blade of a knife. “Fantastic.”
“It was important, Dante,” Cat said softly.
“Then you could have asked me to come along.”
“I needed to be here as me, not as your wife.”
“That is exactly who you are!” Dante practically roared the words. Anyone in their vicinity would have heard it. Quieter, he growled, “My wife, Catrina. A mother, too, and an expecting one, for that matter. You even had the nerve to lose the enforcers trailing you tonight because you knew we’d discussed you taking a step back from this for the next few months.”
“Expecting?” Gaetano asked.
Catrina waved her fingers in the air nervously. “Yes, but—”
“Cat,” Gaetano hissed, “this was fucking serious tonight. Mick was pissed off and you were poking at him like you were trying to make him react.”
“I would have handled him,” Cat replied blithely. “That was the entire point, Gae.”
Gaetano nodded, standing from the booth. He gave Dante a clap on the shoulder as he passed. “I get it, really. Good luck.”
“Gaetano,” Cat snapped, standing as well.
“Sit,” Dante demanded.
Cat glared.
Dante didn’t budge.
“Sit back in that both, Catrina, or I will pick you up and carry you out of here with your pretty ass high in the air for anyone to look at while we walk away. Sit down right now.”