Born in Blood Collection Volume 1 - Cora Reilly Page 0,249

to hear.

I didn’t say anything.

Luca lowered his voice. “Is she alive?”

“Fuck you.”

“I take that as a yes.”

Aria was still speaking in the background.

“Tell your wife that her sister is fine.”

“Gianna is fine,” Luca said in a muffled voice, then to me. “When will you be back?”

“The flight leaves in less than two hours.”

“You’re flying directly to Chicago to meet Scuderi. Right?”

“He already called you, didn’t he?” I said. Stan and Carmine had definitely sent their boss a message after we’d caught Gianna. That meant, of course, that he knew about Sid too.

“Of course, he did. His daughter has been on the run for six months. This is big news.”

“Don’t tell me he’s happy to have her back.”

“No, at least not for the same reason Aria is. He wants to see her punished. She made him lose face and you too. From what I heard you caught her with another guy. You realize the news will spread like wildfire. Scuderi is eager to make a public show out of punishing Gianna. He expects you to help him with it.”

I gritted my teeth. “I don’t give a fuck. I’m not taking her to Chicago. If he wants to talk to her, he can come to New York.”

“You want to protect her after what she did?”

“Yes.”

“Matteo, this is Outfit business. She isn’t your wife, and nobody expects you to marry her after she went around fucking with half of Europe.”

“Careful,” I hissed.

“Damn it. Can’t you just get over her? Fuck her, it’s not like it matters anymore, and then hand her back to her father.”

“Is Aria still around to hear you talk about her sister like that?” I asked.

“No. I need to think about the Famiglia. Gianna brought this upon herself. You have to take her to Chicago, Matteo. I won’t risk war over her.”

“Fuck you, Luca. You are my fucking brother. Shouldn’t you be on my fucking side?”

“Not when you’ve lost your fucking mind.”

“Fuck you.”

Luca sighed on the other end. “Listen, I’m not saying that you should abandon her. Take her to Chicago and pretend you’re delivering her to her father. Then make a deal with him. She’s still promised to you, so he won’t refuse you. He’ll probably be glad to have her off his hands. Aria and I will be flying over there too. I’m emailing our pilot right this moment. You won’t have to deal with this alone.”

“Okay, I’m taking her to Chicago. But I’m not leaving without her, no matter what Scuderi says. She’s mine.”

“Alright, but I doubt there will be any problems. And believe me, I have no interest in letting Gianna get hurt by her father. Aria loves her sister, and I want Aria to be happy, so I won’t let Scuderi kill or hurt her. We will bring her back to New York with us, even as your wife if that’s really what you want.”

“You’ll go against Scuderi if he disagrees for some reason?”

“I will. For you and for Aria.”

“Swear it.”

Luca sighed again. “I swear it. You and Aria are going to be the death of me.”

I almost smiled but hung up. When I turned back around to Gianna, she was watching me with an anxious expression, which she tried to mask the moment I looked at her but she didn’t quite manage. Sometimes in the last few months I’d been sure I wouldn’t find her, that she was too clever; I was glad that I’d been wrong. “Tradition dictates that I hand you over to the Outfit and your father.”

Fear flashed across her face. Gianna wasn’t stupid; she knew what might happen to her if her father got his will. I wasn’t sure if Dante Cavallaro would intervene, and I didn’t give a fuck. Protectiveness washed over me. They had no right to decide about her fate. This was my chance to show her that she’d been wrong to run away, that I was the right guy for her. For a long time she stared at me, her face unguarded and vulnerable. This was a side of her I’d only seen twice before: when Aria had been drugged and when Gianna had been in the hands of the Russians. I was still angry at her, still fucking furious, especially because I knew she’d run away again if I gave her the chance, but part of me was simply glad to have her back.

“I will take you to Chicago, but I won’t leave your side, Gianna. I won’t give you the chance to run from