Page 55

He looked over his shoulder and lifted the pizza box out, letting the door of the fridge swing shut. “You think I’d rather have you laboring over a stove than hearing about your day?”

“Here, let me heat that up.”

“I’ll eat it cold.” And he proceeded to do so. “So, how was your day?”

I watched him as he took a swig of beer. He’d unbuttoned more buttons of his dress shirt and exposed that strong, tanned column of his throat.

I got distracted for a moment. “We cleaned the rooms. That Sloane is an interesting character.”

He sat back against the barstool. “You seem to get along.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“You’re settling in, then?”

“I don’t know.” I schooled my features and looked directly at him. “Griselda showed up and thinks she has a run of the place.”

Every line in Sandro’s body stiffened and his face grew scary. He dropped his half-eaten pizza back in the box. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“Are you serious? You had a man bleeding in your study. I don’t know what happened, but you clearly had bigger problems. That said, since we’re talking about our day…”

I did my best to shrug it off, but I couldn’t. Remembering Griselda was here made me want to foam at the mouth all over again. I didn’t know if it was being possessive of Sandro or just this place and the people around me.

He considered this briefly. A muscle twitched in his jaw before he asked, “What did Griselda want?”

“She needed to pick up her earrings from your room.”

He muttered an expletive that sounded likebitch. “She uses this place sometimes, but I’m telling you now, I haven’t fucked Griselda since that time I threw her out the night you called me from Queens.”

“Six years ago?”

He nodded. “I owe Al and Arnie a lot and you know I grew up with Tommy. She’s a good club manager, and it’s impossible to avoid her. But make no mistake, I’m making it clear where she stands when it comes to you.”

“She said she has the keys to your kingdom.”

“It makes it easy to move things in and out of the club. But I was going to get my keys back from her anyway.” His voice lowered. “I want you to have them.”

Or change the locks on every property that Sandro owned. I hated that Griselda stirred a pettiness inside me. “Miller and the guys didn’t know how to handle her.”

“Where was Sticks? He wouldn’t have let Griselda pass.”

“He was on an errand.”

“Dammit, all right.” He resumed eating his pizza, but it seemed like he was running through different checklists in hishead. I didn’t want to add more to his problems. I could handle Griselda now that I knew Sandro had my back, and that I wasn’t stepping on any organizational hierarchy. And he hadn’t slept with her in years. I brought his attention back to business. “So what happened tonight?”

“We’re trying to get clear of the drugs,” he said without hesitation.

This was good news. And that he was open about what he was doing might make living with Sandro easier to swallow. I was figuring out my objection to the made-men culture was keeping the women in the dark about mafia business. “This is good.”

“Yeah. Tommy and I are checking over the financials with the accountant tomorrow. Make sure there are no hidden streams coming from human trafficking too.”

“You could talk to Dom if you want other options for revenue.” The De Lucci crime family steered clear of two things: drugs and human trafficking. Other businesses were fair game.

Sandro drained his beer before answering. “Right now, I’m on the De Lucci shit list.”

“Any news you can tell me?”

“Renz is scheduled to be discharged tomorrow. Your dad is blowing up Luca’s phone.”