Page 84 of The Prices We Pay

“I doubt it.”

“Poor girl,” I add. “An arranged marriage is bad enough, but to be married into that family is another thing entirely.”

“Well, if it is an arranged marriage, her family likely knows exactly what they are getting into. They probably threw her to the dogs without a care in the world,” Dante snarls, his protective instincts flaring for a woman that he doesn’t even know. It’s one of the things I love most about him. It doesn’t matter if he’s known you for five seconds or fivehours. He has an innate ability to recognize someone’s true intentions. I assume it’s part of what made him such a good SEAL.

Hell, it’s what makes him such a good man.

“Anything else?” I ask Seb.

“Nothing that stands out, but I’ll keep looking.”

My hand lingers on Sebastian’s shoulder. Luca smiles softly, and Dante’s stare moves from my hand to my face. “Anybody care to fill me in?” he asks.

“Fill you in on what?”

“The hickey on your neck, your hand on his shoulder, and he”—he nods to Luca—“hasn’t said one thing about your handbeingon his shoulder.”

“Well, Big Daddy, aren’t you perceptive?”

“Enzo…” he and Luca both groan in unison.

“I can give you all the dirty details if you want?”

“Please don’t,” the two of them say together.

I wiggle my finger between the two of them. “Okay, I don’t like that. The two of you spend too much time together.”

“What can I say? We’re best buds.” Luca grins at me.

“That might just be the meanest thing you’ve ever said to me, Amico.”

“I’m sure I could think of a way to make it up to you.” His words may be innocent, but his stare says otherwise.

What are the odds that I could get him to fuck me over this desk?

“Okay, so you guys fucked?” Dante’s bold question prompts Seb to look up from his computer. Luca looks mortified that we’re even having this conversation, while I just sit here proud as a peacock. When none of us answer, Dante answers for himself, “Yeah, you fucked. About time.”

“Want to join next time?” I wiggle my brows at the giant man, and all he does is flip me off before recrossing his arms.

The three of us laugh under our breaths before Luca asks, “How’d the meeting go?”

“It went… good. Great actually. I told her about that night in college.” Most might miss it, but I watch Luca’s expression tense at the mention of that night. “I told her I’ve been sober ever since.”

“And what did she say about it all?” Sebastian asks.

“Pretty much the same thing this one said when I told him.” I nod at Dante. “Just a little less caveman-like.”

D rolls his eyes, but I see the smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Who would have thought?” Luca asks, sitting back in his chair.

“Thought what?” I respond.

“That Josephine Jenkins would have been the one to make everything feel so—”

“Whole,” Sebastian finishes for him.

“Yeah…whole.”