Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56831 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 284(@200wpm)___ 227(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
A few minutes later, Dante and Charlie arrived, and the poker game got underway. As usual, Adriano and Dante got way too into it, and the rest of us joked around and practically turned it into a drinking game.
At one point, Dante got a text and glanced at Marcus, and I asked, “Is everything alright?”
“Everything’s spectacular,” he assured me. “I’ll tell you about it later.” I assumed he didn’t want to discuss whatever it was in front of Timothy.
Jack ended up beating all of us, by a lot. When the game ended, we started to relocate back to the living room, but Timothy told me, “I should get going. Mind if I leave the surfboards here for now?”
“That’s totally fine. I’ll bring them to our first class.”
I walked him out to the front porch, and he gave me a hug and said, “Thanks for letting me be a part of your family poker night. That was a lot of fun.”
“You’re welcome to join us any time.”
As he started down the stairs, he glanced at me over his shoulder and said, “The other reason I dropped by tonight was to tell you there’s a smoking hot man who’s been coming to the restaurant every night this week. He always makes a point of sitting in my section, and I really think he’s into me, Romy.”
“And you’re just now telling me about him? I need details!”
“There aren’t any yet. All I know is that he looks damn fine in his expensive suits. I’m willing to bet he looks damn fine out of them, too.”
He grinned at me and waved goodbye as he started down the hill. I loved the fact that our home was walking distance to both the pink Victorian and the gorgeous Edwardian Adriano had recently bought for himself and Jack.
When I went back inside, Marcus smiled at me and said, “Good news. Dante’s people finally tracked down Norton Gileki.”
I took a seat on the arm of Marcus’s chair and asked, “Where was he?”
“The slippery old fucker had run all the way to London.” Dante looked very pleased with himself as he leaned back on the sofa and draped an arm around Charlie’s shoulders. “He’d obviously already heard Marcus is under our family’s protection, but I wanted to make sure he got the message in person, just so there’s no misunderstanding.”
“Impressive,” I said, which made him puff up even more. “How’d you track him all the way to the UK?”
“It was easy. I’d had people monitoring his accounts, and he finally slipped up and used the wrong credit card—one that was under his real name,” Dante explained. “I had a team of…let’s just call them local, independent contractors rolling up on him less than two hours later.”
“Is he still alive?”
Dante nodded. “All they did was put the fear of god into him. Apparently that resulted in a lot of sniveling, begging, and the possible soiling of some drawers. Gileki now very thoroughly understands he owes us a huge debt for letting him live.”
He tried to keep his expression grave, as if all of this didn’t absolutely delight him, but the sparkle in his dark eyes told a different story. It reminded me just how glad I was that he was on our side, because you did not want Dante Dombruso as an enemy.
“So, that’s all of them,” Marcus said. “You managed to track down every last one of Art’s former associates. Romy’s right, that’s impressive.”
Charlie was grinning as he got up and took his husband’s hand. “You’re sexy when you go all mob boss,” he told him. “Let’s go home and celebrate your victory.”
Dante leapt to his feet. The heat between them was so intense that I almost expected them to start groping each other right then and there. “We’re out of here. Thanks for hosting, Romy and Marcus. That’s now your job forever, by the way, because those snacks were top notch.” As they headed for the door, he called, “See you at Nana’s for Sunday dinner. And Adriano, don’t try to count tonight as a victory, just because your fiancé won. He’s the poker prodigy, not you.”
Adriano finished his glass of wine, and then he and Jack got to their feet. “We should go, too. Dante’s right that you guys need to host every poker night from here on out, because you nailed it.” As we walked them out, he told me, “Don’t drown during your surfing lesson, and if you see a shark, punch it in the face.”
That made me grin. “Great advice.”
“I’m serious. I read that somewhere,” Adriano said. “Marcus, I’ll see you tomorrow for our video conference call with the architect.”
My boyfriend nodded. “See you then.”
On their way out the door, Adriano grinned and added, “By the way, I’m definitely claiming tonight as a victory over Dante. I may not have won, but since my brilliant fiancé did, I get partial credit.”