“Adriana, I do not want an up-do.” Screw tradition, I liked my hair down.

“Are you sure?” Evelyn smiled kindly as she walked into my room.

Tying the robe around myself just a little tighter, I smiled before standing up. Adriana left us quickly to get the dress that hung in the deepest, darkest part of my closet.

“I prefer it down,” I stated when Evelyn walked up to me looking me up and down then nodding. Reaching over she pulled the pin out of my hair and took a simple step back.

“Well, I must say you do look even more beautiful with it down.”

“Thank you, Evelyn.”

“Mel, please look at me,” she asked, and when I did her palm came right across my face so quickly I never saw it coming.

Shocked, I touched the side of my cheek, unsure if I was dreaming or not.

“What the fuck!”

She didn’t even flinch. “So, I’m guessing this is the real Melody Giovanni, the girl who had the balls to step into my house, destroy my Jackson Pollock, and then shoot my fucking husband?”

Now I was starting to get angry. Standing straighter, I glared into her eyes. She got one slap and that was it, the next time she raised her arm at me I was going to break it. Before she could move, Adriana stood behind her with a gun to her skull.

I grinned, wiping my cut lip thanks to her fucking ring. “Evelyn, you should know better.”

Evelyn glared back not even a little bit scared. “I come to you as a mother coming to a daughter. Had it been any of my sons who had put a bullet in Sedric, I would have taken them out of this world so quickly they wouldn’t even know it was me. I may not walk the same line you do, nor do I wish to, but you should know that when it comes to my husband, I will not hesitate to kill anyone. You crossed the line.”

Look who has a spine. Nodding over to Adriana, she took a step back and walked over to the bed pulling out my dress.

“Noted,” I said, not even a least bit threatened. I was too amused for that. “Sedric is off limits. He wasn’t my target anyway; your idiot son was.”

She glared once again before smirking. “It took me a long time to shift Sedric’s view on women when I first met him and again when he first learned about you.”

What?

“Sedric found out about me the same time Liam did.” Didn’t he?

Evelyn beamed. “Like I said, I may not choose to walk the same path as you, but that doesn’t mean I’m naïve to the inner workings of this family. Everything Sedric has ever done he has told me. The moment he knew what you were, he believed you were the best thing for my idiot son, as you so elegantly put it. He kept it a secret from him to let him deal with the information as he saw fit. I will commend you on your acting and will expect it whenever you are in public with me. What you and Liam do is none of my concern. I just wanted to make sure you knew where you stand.”

“And where is that?” I wanted to bust her smug face in. It reminded me of Liam for fuck sake.

Evelyn pulled out a small box setting it on the table. “Today, you become my daughter; I will love you, stand by you, and when necessary put you in check. You may very well have the world in your hands, but you are still young and that makes you just as stupid as my son is at times. I like you, Mel, so I hope the next time we speak in confidence it is more civil.”

I said nothing as she looked over to the bed and grabbed my new white shoes.

“Christian Louboutin.” She smiled before turning back to look at me. “When we go to Paris in the spring you, Coraline, Olivia, and I must go shopping. You have impeccable taste.”

“That would be Adriana, but I shall take the invitation all the same,” I replied, and she nodded before walking to the door.

“Well, I will leave you to it. The girls and I will come back later if you don’t mind.” It didn’t seem like a question, but I nodded anyway.

When she left, I smiled as I finished the rest of my wine. I was starting to like Evelyn.

My moment of peace didn’t last long, however, before Liam walked in dressed in nothing but silk pajama bottoms as if we weren’t getting married in a few hours.

“What is with you people and not knocking?” I glared at his chest before pouring myself more wine. I would have to make sure it was close by if I was going to make it through the rest of the day.

“What did my mother want?”

“The better question is what do you want?” I asked him, stepping forward. He towered over me, and the fact that I was in my underwear beneath the robe was not lost on either of us.

“Adriana, leave us.” She froze, looking to me.

Rolling my eyes, I nodded, and she stepped outside, the moment she did he kissed me, opening up my robe so he could cup my ass. Pushing him away, I slapped him across the face.

“Just because we fucked already doesn’t mean we need to jump each other every time we make eye contact,” I snapped at him. Despite the fact that he did look rather sexy, I didn’t want him getting used to the idea that my body was his to do anything he wished with when he was horny.

“Maybe if we did, you would be kinder.” I just snorted and turned away from him to the items on the bed.

“Callahan, seriously what is it you want? We have the wedding of the decade to go to soon,” I replied, stepping into my shoes.

“Those shoes make it hard not to have you right now,” he said, staring at my legs. “However, I will take pleasure in that later tonight. I just wanted to let you know Vance and his son, Amory, will be attending.”

What the fuck?

“You do know this would be a perfect moment for him to strike back at you for what you did to the plane.” I crossed my arms over my chest, and his eyes went to my breasts. Jeez, you would think we hadn’t had sex all night. If it weren’t for Sedric’s call, we’d both still be on that boat.

Stepping forward, he let his hands trace up and down my sides. “Well love, as our new personal contract states, we now work together. My plans were to either beef up security and enjoy the evening, or take a moment out of our night and poison the bastard right then and there.”

I frowned at the thought. “First, do not call me love. Second, when Vance falls, I want him to watch his empire burn around him and know that he was outsmarted, outgunned, and fucked over. Drowning in the soup seems . . .”

“Too easy.” He agreed. “Then the first option it is. I’m shocked, Mrs. Callahan, did we just agree on something? Can it really be this easy?”

He cupped my breasts, and I gripped his dick tight enough to cause him pain. “If that’s all, sweetheart, I would like to spend my last few moments as a Giovanni by myself.”

“Bitch.”

“You, too.”

“I should have—” He stopped himself before stepping up behind me. “You look beautiful. See you at the altar, and try not to flinch at the holy water.”

“I won’t, if you won’t,” I replied as he kissed me where my shoulder met my neck.

He said nothing else before leaving, allowing Adriana to come back in. I sat down again, and she finished making the waves in my hair as I stared into my own reflection. His kiss brought back all his touches of the night before. He was amazing and had stamina that was unheard of. My body cried out for his, and my mind both hated and loved that. I loved being dominated in such a beastly sexual way, how his hands, lips, and tongue all grabbed on to me. He was the best partner I had ever had, but I didn’t want him to know that. I didn’t want his head to become any bigger than it already was.

I also didn’t want him to think that just because he was a great fuck, that he held the key to making me bend. He said he understood, but the Boss in me told me that everyone lies. People lied about how much they drank, how much they were in debt, how many people they had killed—people were liars. I always thought I was good at reading liars. I could see it in their eyes, and if I did, I would kill them. However, with Liam, I was lost. It was like I was blind. He seemed honest, but he was just like me—a master liar.