Free The Care and Feeding of Unmarried Men by Christie Ridgway Page B

residence—he always managed to show up not long after to let her know he’d noticed. To let her know he was watching.
    â€œGood morning to you, too, Giuseppina.”
    No one called Joey by her full name, their late grandmother’s name, except Nino. Perhaps that’s why her little sister disliked him so. Joey didn’t know about thebeating Nino had given Eve when she’d broken up with him—that was a secret from all but Téa.
    â€œAnd Eve,” he said. He was closer now, but she refused to turn and look at him. “How are you this beautiful morning?”
    The words after last night hung in the air beside the question. “I’m well, Nino,” Eve replied.
    â€œWell-satisfied?” His olive-skinned fingers grazed her shoulder.
    She fought her revulsion as she fought to remain still. From the corner of her eye she could see the thick scars on his knuckles and wondered if any of those had come from the punch he’d thrown against the wall right before the punches he’d thrown at her face.
    â€œWhat do you want, Nino?” Joey barked out.
    His hand fell away and Eve breathed, blessing her brusque little sister at the same time. As part of the management team at La Vita Buona, their grandfather Cosimo’s legitimate business, Joey had more dealings than the other Caruso girls with their grandfather’s illegitimate side—and associates. But by and large she turned a blind eye to what she heard and saw. It was Joey who claimed all the crime business was a lot more talk than action, even though it was Joey who visited the various “uncles” and “cousins” who wound up doing stints in county jail or federal prison.
    Eve knew her little sister had a soft spot for men, especially those who had a dark and dangerous edge. Nino should have been right up her alley—he was as male, as gorgeous, and as deadly as they came—but Joey was smarter than her older sister, who had once imagined herself in love with him. Joey didn’t even try to hide her dislike of the man.
    â€œWe’d offer you something to drink,” she apologizedin an insincere voice, “but we don’t have any blood suitable for a vampire on the menu.”
    â€œThen I’ll just settle for Eve’s coffee,” he replied, seating himself between them at the table and pulling her cup his way.
    A flush rushed up Joey’s golden skin, and her brown eyes snapped.
    Eve had left Joey to her own devices once before and still hated herself for it, so she forced herself to turn toward Nino. The sooner he got down to business, the sooner he would get out and leave her safely behind at the Kona Kai. “Is there something we can do for you?”
    â€œTurn on your fucking cell phone.” He lifted her coffee and took a long swallow.
    She frowned. Nino liked to conduct his harassment in person. “Have you…have you been trying to call me?”
    â€œYour grandfather has.”
    Eve’s spine relaxed against her chair, the notion that Nino was on an errand for her grandfather making it that much easier to breathe. The fact that he wanted to move up in the ranks of her grandfather’s organization was what had kept him away from her after that beating, and it was what had kept him in check all these years. He knew that if she told Cosimo about those punches, the same would happen to him…or much, much worse.
    But she hadn’t been silent out of pity for Nino. She’d kept quiet because the inconvenient bastard Caruso daughter hadn’t wanted to bring more trouble to the family. It wouldn’t have been easy for her grandfather to hurt the young man he’d taken under his wing when he was in his teens. She hadn’t—didn’t—want to be the cause of that pain.
    Eve clasped her hands together in her lap to make sure they wouldn’t tremble. Even knowing why Nino was here didn’t make her any less wary of him.