Rosa nodded, ignoring the heat that rose in her face. “My father is Eduardo Hernandez.”
She saw that Gino recognized his name. Anyone who was anyone in organized crime in the Chicago area knew about the Hernandez cartel that operated out of Mexico.
“Tito met me at our family home when I was twenty-one, and took a liking to me,” Rosa said in a small voice. “My father wanted distribution networks through the Midwest. He gave me to the Battaglias for access to those the routes.”
Gino cursed in Italian for a long time, and oddly, she found it soothing. He was upset on her behalf. He pushed off from the wall suddenly and stepped into her space once more, pulling her into his arms. She wrapped hers around his waist and they clung to each other. She felt him take a few calming deep breaths and matched her breathing to his.
When he finally pulled back to look into her eyes, she could tell he had himself firmly back under control. “Your father’s an asshole. And I look forward to telling him what I think of him face-to-face one day.”
“Gino, no, you can’t!”
Gino shook his head, lifting a finger to press it gently against her lips. “Shh,cara. When that happens, it will be between me and him. Right now, I want to know what happened tonight, between you and those two men. Did you know them personally? What did they say to you?”
Rosa took a shaky breath and shook her head. “No, I don’t know who they are. They told me that now that Tito is gone, my father has demanded that I return home. He has another connection he wishes to make in this area, and I am to be part of that agreement.”
“I’m so sorry, Rosa.”
She gave him a small smile. “You can’t pick your family, right?”
Gino laughed softly, holding her gently, making her feel safe. “Not the biological one, that’s for sure. But you can pick the one you will stand with and know that they will stand beside you.”
She watched as Gino leaned forward, his eyes locked on her mouth, and she knew he was about to kiss her again. And she realized how much she’d been hoping for another kiss. The last one—
“Gino!” They both froze, their gazes locked together. “You got anything to say to the assholes that scared our Rosa? Or you okay for me to deal with them?”
Gino looked down at her with no small amount of regret in his expression. “Hold that thought.” She grinned when he pressed a swift kiss to her lips, then stepped back as he walked over to open the door.
Gino leaned out into the hall. “Be right there!” He took a step out then turned back to hold out his hand toward her. “You coming,cara? If you’re going to be a part of this family in truth, then you need to see all parts of it. The good, the bad, and the satisfying.” Gino waggled his eyebrows at her, and Rosa giggled, slamming her hand to her mouth to muffle the sound.
“Don’t hide that sound, sweetheart. It’s something beautiful the world needs to hear. Now, come on, let’s go and have a word with these boys and see if they won’t take a message back home to your father from me.”
Rosa placed her hand in his, much like she had a large portion of her heart, and followed him out the door.
****
Gino kept her hand in his as he walked into the room off the back of the bar. It was a room Gavriil had ordered modified, and it came with a healthy dose of soundproofing. From the looks of the two men Tony and Nico had corralled there, they had put up a fight before they got in there. He saw that both men took note of the way he held Rosa’s hand. The one on the left, a stocky son of a bitch who looked like he lived to work out, let his gaze drift over Rosa in a way that was very easy to read.
“I have this nasty habit of removing things that offend me.” He pulled Rosa closer, lifting their joined hands to his mouth, and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before leveling the man with a look. “You stare at my woman like that again,stronzo, and I’ll remove your fucking eyes.”
He held the man’s gaze, allowing every dark emotion he felt draw to the surface, and from the way the man paled, Gino knew he understood the threat was very,veryreal.
“You stay back here,cara mia,I don’t want to get any blood on your beautiful dress.” Gino felt a wave of satisfaction at the sweep of unease and fear that flickered over the men’s faces.
He gently released Rosa’s hand and stepped closer to them. “The first thing you need to know in this instance is that I only say things once. I won’t remind you of the question again. I will simply keep hitting you until you answer that question, or you lose the ability to speak, is that understood?”
The man to the right nodded his understanding immediately, but the stocky bastard to the left spat at him. Gino’s smile had nothing to do with humor and everything to do with anticipation as he drew back his fist and slammed it into the man’s nose. The crunch of the bone beneath his fist pleased him just as much as watching the prick drop to the ground, cursing with hands pressed to his face.
“Now,” Gino continued in a calm voice, “how did you know that Rosa was here at Marissa’s?”
“Don’ you say a damb thin’, Filipe!” the dumbass on the ground yelled at his friend. Gino drew back his foot, slamming it into his head and knocking him into unconsciousness.
“Filipe.” His voice remained even and calm. “If you want your thick-as-shit friend here to survive this night a little longer, you might want to roll him over so he doesn’t choke on his own blood.” Gino waited while Filipe moved swiftly to do as he suggested, then looked at him pointedly.
“Th-the Battaglia family know she is here. They told her father where he could find her. He sent us to talk with her.” Filipe shot a look back at Rosa. “He wants you to come home, Rosa.” The man switched to Spanish, no doubt believing that Rosa would be the only one in the room to understand. “Yourabuela,she is old and unwell.”
Gino’s heart clenched at the sound of distress Rosa made behind him.
“Sofia might die before she sets eyes on her beloved granddaughter once more. You need to—”
Gino swung his arm fiercely and backhanded Filip into silence. “You don’t speak to her, you hear me, Filipe?” Gino spoke in flawless Spanish to let him know he understood him before switching back to English. “You don’t deserve to speak to her, fuck, you aren’t even worthy of having her beauty in the same goddamn room as you. Rosa is not going back with you, but I want you to take a message to her father from me. My name is Gino Esposito.” He saw the spike of awareness and fear and in the man’s eyes. “Yeah, I can see you’ve heard of me. Every damn thing you’ve ever heard about me is true. Every. Fucking. Thing.”
Gino stepped closer to Filipe, pulling him up roughly by the collar. “I need you to get this word for word, and if you get it wrong, I’ll know and I’ll come looking for you. Are we clear? You understand me, Filipe?” He waited for the other man to nod, reveling in the fear that rolled off the man in waves. “You tell Hernandez that Rosa belongs to Gino Esposito, and I willneverlet her go. She is under the protection of the Carlisi family, and if he wants to go to war over her, then we will.”
Tony stepped in behind him, and from the whimper of fear that escaped Filipe, Gino knew he had his game face very much in place. “And if you know anything about the Carlisi family at all, you know that we protect our own. And Rosa. Is. Ours. Nico, why don’t you and I help Filipe here get his friend out to his truck so they can go take Gino’s message back to Hernandez? Don’t worry about letting the Battaglia family know you failed. We’ll do that ourselves.”
Gino caught the thread of violent intent in Tony’s voice and was one hundred percent on board with whatever Tony was planning. He shoved Filipe in Nico’s direction then turned back to Rosa. She looked scared, her face pale, and Gino’s heart clenched at the thought he might’ve scared her. He held out his hand to her slowly, every fiber of his being begging for her to take his hand, but sure that she wouldn’t. It felt like an age before she reached out her small hand and placed it into his.
As he walked out with her and through the bar, taking her back up to her room, he realized that she’d put her hand in his in moments of conflict twice now, and he was humbled by the trust she must have in him. He could only pray he would come to be worthy of it.
