She let him suffer for a second longer, then grinned. “Man, you are so easy. I’m kidding, Juice.” She patted his trembling arm and leaned in. “Consider that payback for our last meeting.”
His bald head bobbed up and down. “Okay. Payback. I can handle payback.” He shot her a look of abashed admiration. “Boy, you Dantes play rough.”
Gianna gave a decisive nod. “Don’t you forget it.”
The next several weeks flew by. She and Constantine both decided on the earliest possible wedding date. Why wait? They’d been apart for so long and wanted each other so desperately that a lengthy engagement seemed not just pointless, but cruel.
After the big announcement, Gianna was instantly swept up in a whirlwind round of shopping and wedding preparation, while Constantine worked day and night at Romano Restoration to clear his calendar for the honeymoon. Between handling proposals for new projects and making the ongoing revisions to the Diamondt account, not to mention the various wedding demands on both their time, she often felt as though they never had a private moment to themselves. Fortunately the Diamondt account and Juice inadvertently came to their rescue.
“Remember when I told you that I might need to fly up to Seattle to meet with Gabe Moretti?” Constantine asked the question over an increasingly rare dinner engagement.
“Sure.” She pulled an abbreviated rundown from memory. “Diamondt account. Son-in-law. Deceased wife. Owns her share of the family business.”
He saluted her in admiration. “Impressive.”
Gianna topped off their glasses of wine. “I don’t suppose you’re going anytime soon?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Any chance you can break away from the wedding madness and come with me?”
She offered him a slow smile. “Every chance. As a matter of fact, I was about to ask you a similar question. I just got a lead on Brimstone. Juice contacted me about it today. He’s traced the Nancy doll to Seattle.”
He eyed her over the rim of his glass. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to go up there and mug some poor, unsuspecting little girl?”
She chuckled. “That’s the general idea. Assuming David hasn’t gotten there ahead of me.”
She didn’t dare tell him the other part of her arrangement with Juice and her brothers. If Constantine found out about that, he’d put a fast stop to a brilliant idea and she flat-out wouldn’t allow him to circumvent her plans. Besides, unlike her early morning swim in the lake, she wasn’t acting impulsively. She and Juice and her brothers were acting very, very carefully.
Darkness settled over Constantine’s expression at the mention of David’s name. “I gather you heard d’Angelo’s back in town.”
She nodded. “Keeping a very low profile from what I understand.”
“That might have something to do with the fact that rumors are running rampant around town about some monetary discrepancies.”
Gianna smiled without humor. “I guess that means no suite at the Ritz.” With luck, the next suite he occupied would be at the nearest penitentiary.
“What is your family planning to do about him?”
“I know what they’d like to do.” She also knew what they were going to do.
Constantine’s gaze turned bitter cold. “They’re not the only ones.”
“For now, we wait.” She stressed the we. “Juice is working the problem. Knowing him, he’ll find something that’ll hang David out to dry.”
She could tell Constantine wanted to act, find a way to bring David down himself. Fortunately Juice and Luc were already on top of that aspect of the plan. With luck, it would all be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction before much longer. That way she wouldn’t have to worry about Constantine taking matters into his own hands. The idea of his getting hold of David sent shivers down her spine. She couldn’t risk that happening. Not with Constantine’s temper.
He continued to chew on the information. “I heard the International Banking Association has rescinded the award they were going to give the d’Angelos.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer family.” She leaned across the table and caught Constantine’s hand in her own. Her engagement ring flashed with the same heat and fire that characterized The Inferno. “Forget about David. Let’s talk about our trip to Seattle. How long will you be hung up in meetings?”
His gaze sparked. “I’ll make sure we have plenty of private time. And speaking of private time…” He shoved aside his half-finished dinner. “I can think of far more important activities than eating. Food can wait. This can’t.”