Gun Moll (30 page)

“Now you sound
like the foolish women at this party. Your Mac is in love with you and a man
like him doesn’t fall in love indiscriminately. He saw something in you. That
you could be not only a lover, but a partner as well. Don’t let those who envy
you destroy what you have.”

“Easier said than
done.”

“I never pegged
you for a quitter, Melina. Don’t start now.”

Melina took
another sip of champagne. “I can’t. Mac needs someone to watch his back and no
one can do a better job of that than me.”

“That’s the
spirit. Now excuse me for a moment. I have to check on the progress of dinner.”

Melina nodded.
When Neeya had gone, she drank the rest of her champagne. Her hostess was
right. She had to grow a thicker skin. Mac needed her now more than ever. She
didn’t have time to let her petty insecurities get the best of her. Who gave a
fuck if they didn’t like her? She didn’t need their approval, nor did she want
it. She’d always been a rebel and there was no need now to do anything
differently. As more snickering whispers reached her ears, Melina smiled.

Let’s go, bitches.

There was nothing
they could dish out she couldn’t handle.

M
ac tossed his
hands in his pockets as he strolled down the hallway leading to Luca’s office.
Just a few feet from the large, ornate doors, Mac noticed they were opened a
few inches. It was enough that he knew no one inside would see his approach.
From his spot, he could already hear quiet murmurs coming from inside the
office.

Glancing back down
the hallway, he took note that no one was behind him.

Knowing that both
he and Melina had a target on their backs, it was tempting to listen in and see
if he could find out something that might push him in the right direction. Still,
Mac hesitated at eavesdropping on the Pivetti Don and his men. Luca had
obviously ordered Mac to his office, and knew he would be coming upstairs right
away. It was a demand from the boss—no man ignored one of those, or made a Don
wait.

Simple as that.

It would not bode
well for Mac to be caught spying, no matter his reasons.

Clearing his
throat loud enough for it to be heard from within the office, Mac strolled up
to the office doors and knocked. He waited to be permitted entrance, and it
didn’t take long.

“Come on in, Mac,”
Luca said, his voice slightly muffled.

Mac pushed open
the doors, and took in the people sitting around the office. Luca sat behind
his large desk, fingers drumming against the wood in what looked to be
irritation as he glared at another man across the room. Enzo, Luca’s underboss,
seemed to be completely oblivious to his boss’s glower. That, or he was terribly
good at pretending. Matthew, Luca’s consigliere, was shaking his head and
sipping from a glass filled with amber-colored liquid.

“You’re going to
press that issue, then?” Luca asked Enzo.

Enzo shrugged.
“Listen, Boss—”

“No.
Fermo
!”
Luca barked, his palm smacking hard to his desk. “I am not the one who needs to
listen between us, Enzo. You are clearly forgetting your place.”

The underboss
quickly tipped his chin lower, an action that Mac instantly recognized as a
submissive pose.

“It’s being seen
as favoritism on your part,” Enzo muttered quietly. “Consider that. It could do
him more harm than good.”

Mac wasn’t
entirely sure what he had just walked in on, but it didn’t sound good. It also
didn’t sound like it was something he should be in the middle of.

“I can come back
if this is a bad time, Boss,” Mac said, directing his comment to Luca only.

Luca’s cheek
twitched, but he didn’t give Mac a passing glance. He was still glaring at Enzo
like he wanted the man to melt into the couch he was sitting on.

“Maybe the idea of
favoritism is exactly what I am looking for people to think,” Luca said. “Did
you consider that?”

Enzo sighed. “And
you will get the young man killed for it.”

Mac stiffened,
taking in Enzo’s statement. Were they talking about him?

Who else, other
than Mac, could be getting what would be seen as extra attention from the
Pivetti Don? Mac didn’t believe that it was Luca who was making attempts on his
life. But could the Don be purposely doing other things to push someone else
into those attempts?

“I’m just going to
step out—”

“You will stay
where you are,” Luca interrupted Mac, cutting him with a single look.

That was that.

Mac nodded. “All
right, Boss.”

Luca jerked his
head towards the door. “Both of you, out. Mac, pour yourself a drink and take a
seat.”

“Luca,” Enzo said,
almost as if he was pleading with his boss for something.

“Do as I said,
Enzo. You follow my orders, not the other way around.”

Matthew pushed
away from the window, drink still in hand. “Come on, Enzo. We’re missing the
party. Let’s go find our wives, and see how drunk they’ve gotten since we last
left them.”

Enzo scowled as he
stood from the couch. “You’re playing with fire, Luca.”

Luca didn’t look
like he cared. “Maybe so, but I only want the best, Enzo. I know he is, so let
him prove it.”

“To what
sacrifice?” Enzo asked.

The boss didn’t
respond. He simply flicked a hand towards the door, silently demanding that his
men leave again. Mac stepped to the side as Matthew and Enzo strolled past him
to leave the office without another word of argument.

Enzo gave Mac a
frown as he passed.

That, right there,
was enough to tell Mac the conversation he’d walked in on was likely about him.
That being the case, Luca was pushing the buttons of several men by giving
Mac—an unmade man—private time and attention he wasn’t giving to his made men.

“Close the door
behind them,” Luca demanded.

Mac complied,
letting the heavy door click shut as quietly as he could manage. “I take it
that was about me, huh?”

Luca smiled, slow
and easy. “You’re a smart man. You don’t need me to say what you already know.”

Well, then …

Stuffing his hands
in his pockets again, Mac tried to seem unbothered. It was nothing more than
pretense. He didn’t want to be someone’s bait.

“Worry not,” Luca
said, glancing at Mac. “I can see that’s what you’re over there doing. Stewing,
thinking, and worrying. Don’t bother. It’s pointless.”

“From the sounds
of that conversation, it’s not exactly pointless.”

“It is, Mac,
because I expect you to come out on top in all of this, whatever it is.”

Mac’s brow
furrowed. “You don’t even know what’s going on, but you’re hoping that someone
will react to your …”

“Favoritism was
the word Enzo used,” the boss supplied.

“Fine, favoritism.
You’re hoping someone will react to it.”

Luca shrugged.
“Someone is messing with my people, Mac. Making moves and causing issues
without consulting me. I do not want the trouble that may bring. So yes, I am
hoping this will bring the fool out of the woodwork. Jealousy is strange in
that way. It makes the best of men greedy idiots.”

Mac still didn’t
like this at all.

The problem was,
he didn’t get a choice.

“You wanted to see
me?” Mac asked.

The question was
for show, and nothing more. He knew exactly why Luca had wanted to see him,
now.

“Pour yourself a
drink,” Luca replied, waving at a table filled with spirits in bottles.

“Would you be
offended if I refused?”

Luca cocked a
brow. “Why would you?”

“Because I don’t
drink if I can help it. My father and all.”

“Ah, I see. The
last time you were in here, you had a drink.”

“Refusing your
offer would have been, rude seeing as it was my first invitation from you,” Mac
explained.

Luca grinned,
pointing a finger at Mac. “See, smart man. Forget the drink. Have a seat.”

Mac took one of
the high back leather chairs closer to Luca’s desk. “What now?”

“Now we give it a
while, Mac,” Luca said, resting back in his chair. “How’s your girl?”

“Well.”

“Neeya was happy
to invite her tonight. I hear you and Anthony have worked out a solution to the
little problem of you owing him money.”

Mac kept his face
a mask of calm. “Yes.”

“Honorable men pay
their debts. I’m pleased to see that you are one of them.”

Always thank a
boss when he gives you a compliment.

“
Grazie,
Don.”

Luca picked up a
glass on the side of his desk and took a drink of the dark liquor. “Be careful
with Anthony. He’s the kind of man who isn’t as upfront with his motives as I
would like him to be.”

Mac nodded.
“Thanks for the heads up.”

“A good boss looks
out for his
famiglia
—his men.”

His men
.

Mac remembered
Luca’s words to his underboss and consigliere from earlier.

He wanted the best
men.

Did the boss think
that was Mac?

Mac dropped to one
knee and helped Melina slide her feet into sky-high stiletto heels. He fixed
the straps around her ankles, and let his hands skim the soft skin of her bare
legs as he rose up again.

“Keep that up and
we’ll be late,” Melina said, smirking.

He dragged his
hands a little higher under her bodycon dress, exposing her thighs and black
lace panties. She looked damn good with her legs a mile long and her curves
begging to be touched. “We can’t be late for something when I don’t even know
where it’s happening or how we’re getting there, doll.”

Melina wagged a
finger at him. “We were told to be ready by seven.”

Mac shot the clock
a look. It was ten to seven already. Anthony had texted him those simple
directions earlier that day. Nothing more.

“Ask me,” Mac
drawled, winking, “and I can make it quick.”

She opened her
pretty mouth to respond, but a knock on Mac’s apartment door interrupted them
both. Instantly, Mac was on guard. The building wasn’t entirely safe—wait long
enough and someone would come out and let someone in—or ring a bunch of buzzers
and make it quicker.

Still, he wasn’t
expecting anyone.

Mac nodded towards
the bathroom, not saying a thing. Melina followed his unspoken request,
disappearing into the bathroom and closing the door behind her. Another knock
echoed on the apartment door.

“Just a second,”
Mac called.

He grabbed his gun
off the couch as he strolled towards the door. Resting the weapon down at his side,
he looked through the peephole to find an unfamiliar man, wearing a tailored
suit, behind it. In his arms, the man held a long box that was at least four
feet in length.

“Who is it?” Mac
asked, knowing he would be heard through the door.

“Anthony Corelli’s
second driver, sir,” the man responded. “I was told to be outside at seven, and
to make sure this gift was delivered to a Melina Morgan before leaving.”

“You couldn’t give
it to us outside?”

“Those weren’t my
instructions.”

Goddammit.

Mac’s paranoia and
wariness were way too high for this fucking nonsense. Why couldn’t Anthony have
just said he was sending a man to the building?

“I will leave the
gift at your door, sir, and be waiting outside,” the man said.

Through the
peephole, Mac watched as the man did exactly what he said he would do. Five
long minutes later, Mac pulled open the door and listened. The only sounds he
could hear were the normal noises of the old building. He pulled the door open
the rest of the way, found the hallway empty of the man, and grabbed the box.

Once the apartment
door was closed, Mac called out, “All is safe, doll.”

Melina came out of
the bathroom looking less than impressed. “What was all that about?”

“Anthony’s
theatrics.”