It was another dinner without Ats or Orion. They’d both left to go deal with business in Italy. It really sucked to not see Ats, but what he was doing was important. Papa would never have sent him otherwise, not while he was on probation.

  Mars was talking to Calli and I raised a hand to my lips to keep my sister from making any noise as I snuck up behind my brother. I slipped my arms around his waist and squeezed as hard as I could which only made him forcibly exhale.

  He tensed and then immediately rexed, and pced his rge, warm hands over mine.

  “Ciao principessa come stai?” He asked.

  “I’m doing great,” I said with a grin. I released him and he turned towards me.

  “Oh? That’s good to ehar. How’s your new job?”

  Calli had draped herself over my shoulder and was doing something to my hair that I ignored.

  “Amazing. It helps me feel close to Nonno, and it definitely helps that my boss is eye candy that I happeend to have a date with tomorrow night.” I couldn’t hide the excitement in my voice, despite the utterly dumb thing I’d just done.

  “A date?” Mars narrowed his eyes. I pat his arm and just smiled. I hadn’t meant to tell any of my family about it—except my Nonna—they all got insanely overprotective. They were the same way with Calli.

  Neither one of us could mention a boy without getting interrogated by our brothers under Papa’s watchful eye.

  Calli squeezed my shoulders and then jumped on Mars. My red-haired brother let out a shout and fell over. I quickly slipped by, sending a quiet thank you to my lovely sister.

  Nonna was sitting at the dining table already, no one else had arrived in the room yet. I gave her a quick hug.

  “Good evening, Aurora,” she said, patting my arm.

  “How are you, Nonna?” I sat down in the chair next to her.

  “Oh, I’m quite well,” she replied. She picked up her cup of tea that sat in front of her and took a sip. “You seem excited.”

  It was impossible to hide anything from Beatrix Gionatti. Even at her age, she was as sharp as a whip. Nothing ever got past her. She was also the person that I was most comfortable talking to about anything.

  “I am.” I then quickly told her about my job, new boss, the lunch we’d had, and then his agreement to the date.

  “What’s his name?” she asked.

  I gnced around, making sure that we were still alone. “Mikhail.”

  “Last name?”

  I blinked and searched my memory. I…had no idea. He’d never told me and I’d never asked. My paystub just said the shop’s name. My face must have shown that because Nonna just chuckled.

  “I’ve been so enamored with a boy that I didn’t ask for a st name. Why, that’s how I ended up with my Winston.” A soft, sad smile graced her refined features.

  Nonno had only been dead for three years,a nd he’d left a huge void in all our lives. I reached over and squeezed Nonna’s hand. She blinked back a few, unshed tears and pat my arm.

  Mama walked into the dining room at that point and paused when she saw us. Her entire face lit up and she rushed around the table to pull me into her arms.

  “Rory! You’re actually early!” She nuzzled the side of her face into mine.

  “I got off work early,” I told her. Mama nodded and then moved away. I gnced up at her and knew who’d just walked in.

  “Hi, Papa,” I said as I turned. Nobody would ever be able to say that my parents didn’t love each other. They always looked at each other like they were the only people in existence. That was the kind of retionship I wanted. The kind I’d thought I would have with Matt eventually.

  Okay, that was a lie. I’d known that retionship was doomed to fail, but I’d been deep in denial. I was gd the fucker had broken up with me—not that I’d ever admit to that out loud. Besides, if he hadn’t I wouldn’t be going on a date with Mikhail tomorrow.

  Papa walked behind me and pced a hand on my head, and ruffled my hair. I scrunched up my nose and sent a mock gre in his direction.

  “Papa! I’m almost thirty, not six,” I protested.

  He scoffed and messed up my hair more. “You’ll always be my little girl, principessa.”

  I rolled my eyes and then shrugged., My two present siblings walked in then. Mars narrowed his eyes at me again and my own went slightly wide and I quickly, subtly shook my head.

  My heart sank at the smirk on his face.

  “Did Rory tell you about her date?” He asked, looking towards Papa.

  Fuck. Me.

  My father turned towards me with both his eyebrows raised. He didn't say anything, but he didn't have to and he knew it.

  “Yeah, I have a date tomorrow,” I said, raising my chin. I was an adult dammit. I should be able to date who I wanted without worry that the men in my family would run him off.

  “With?” Papa urged. He took a seat in his chair at the head of the table and rested one of his arms on the surface.

  I chewed on my bottom lip, but caught his stare and refused to drop it. “My new boss.”

  “Ah, that's right. Ats mentioned you have a new job. Where at?” Hurt briefly fshed across his face and I immediately felt guilty for not having told him and him having to find out from my oldest brother.

  “Redline Auto Garage,” I muttered.

  His gaze turned sharp and the silence in the room thickened. Calli looked around, her dark browns drawn together. She ran a hand through her bright green hair. She had no more idea than I did why Papa and Mars had tensed.

  “What?” I demanded.

  “Sis, do you know who owns that?” Mars asked.

  “I don't know his name, but it's Mikhail's father.” I shrugged.

  “His name is Andrei Ivankov,” Papa said, watching me closely.

  I felt my face drain of colour at the reveal. Andrei Ivankov was the leader of the local branch of the bratva. That meant Mikhail would most likely be his heir. I wasn't sure if there were any other siblings, I'd never bothered to check, not while we had a tenuous peace with the Russians.

  Papa drummed his fingers on the table and then smiled. “This could be a good thing. It could help us keep an eye on what they're doing.”

  I bit my tongue to prevent the retort that I wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t a bad idea, and it wasn’t like I wanted a retionship with the man. I just wanted a distraction, so I nodded my agreement.

  The masked man was back, and now I’m sure he’s watching me—following me. The design of his bacva still seemed still seemed to damned familiar but I couldn’t quite figure out why.

  I was coming back from my run after dinner and he was standing in the shadows of my apartment building. The man didn’t move when I approached him. There was no way it was a coincidence that I was seeing him again.

  Blood thundered in my ears as I stared up at the mask, his eyes hidden in shadow. I knew this meight be the same person that had been leaving me flowers, that had texted me, but he didn’t feel dangerous. I’m not sure why, but I was certain that he wouldn’t harm me.

  “What do you want?” I demanded. He didn’t respond, made no indication he even heard me. I crossed my arms and frowned. One of the few things that could set my temper alight in an instant was being ignored.

  So, I did something rather stupid. I pushed him. He barely budged and just tilted his head to the side. I repeated my question, but got the same response.

  I moved to push him again but he caught both my wrists in his glove-cd grasp and shook his head. I jerked from him and turned, storming up the steps and into my building.

  I should probably be more worried that he’d follow me up, but I’d love to see him try.