Page 82 of Mafia Billionaire's Surprise Baby
“It’s a deal,” I stick out my hand.
We shake, and Gabriel sits back. “Well, I suppose I should be getting my new business partner and her… bodyguard out of here,” he says, surveying Sal.
I don’t look because I can practically feel the menace radiating off of him. “Please. We’ll see you soon. I’ll call you with the details about the shipments.”
“And this time, you’ll call?”
I laugh. “This time, Gabriel Durand, I’ll actually call.”
“Bon. It’s settled then. We shall escort you to your ship and send you on your way.”
“Much appreciated, Gabriel.”
“Oh, it is very much my pleasure, amour.”
That word lingers in the air. It’s a tease, a meaningless thing for him to say. I don’t care about it at all.
But, as I watch Gabriel walk away, I know there’s one person who really, really does.
* * *
We’re safely on the yacht and a good hour offshore when Sal finally turns to talk to me.
“What the fuck was that?”
I sip delicately at my martini. “You mean when I saved our asses?”
“How did you save them when you’re the one who created the situation to begin with?”
I blink, then bristle. I set the drink down and sit up.
We’re both on the leisure deck, and I was feeling pretty good about the boat ride in front of us before Sal opened his mouth.
I fix him with a glare. “Excuse me?”
“You slept with that complete sociopath, walked out on him, and left him alive? And then never wrapped him up?”
My jaw drops. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t saving myself for you from the beginning, Sal. You know I’m not some kind of pure, witless virgin.”
“That’s not what I meant. I meant that you made a stupid decision and it came back to haunt you at the worst possible time.”
“Haunt me? Um, I was able to talk us into not only getting onto this boat, but created an ally in the process.”
And scored a deal in which we’re going to import hallucinogenic jellies, which are going to go over like wildfire with the college crowd. People love shit that puts them in a different mindset that doesn’t show up on a drug test, and jelly laced with magic mushrooms is the perfect solution.
“You almost got shot, Gia,” Sal growls.
I wave my hand at him. “That? I was hardly almost shot. He was never going to pull the trigger.”
“You didn’t know that.”
“I did.”
“There was no possible fucking way to know that,” Sal grits.
“Well, maybe. But I know that Gabriel would at least want me to suffer a little, so I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to just pull the trigger and kill me outright. If he was going to kill me, he would have kidnapped us both and tortured us. Probably with a grapefruit spoon,” I say, wincing as I remember the whole eyeball incident.
“A grapefruit… Gia, that was fucking reckless.”