Dance or Die (White Oak - Mafia Series Book 3) (24 page)

“So the governor is best friends with the mafia family I just pissed off.”

“What the governor claims and the truth aren’t always the same. His hiring Dan for Park security was either a message the Doctor wasn’t controlling him, or he’s bought and paid for by the Spadoni family.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Trying to cipher mafia bosses’ true intentions is harder than reading tea leaves. However, when they publicly declare someone their dear friend, that’s a sure sign they aren’t. And when the Doctor gave him two million for the ATV parks, his surprise looked real.”

“Was that some effort to buy him?”

“Not sure yet what the Doctor’s motive was in doing that, but I guarantee you, those two just publicly laid down their gauntlets.”

“I missed that entirely. I really thought they liked each other.”

“Well, this isn’t your specialty.”

“But it’s Dan’s and yours,” she said softly. “And my grounds crew’s?”

“They love their current assignment, which is good because it’s pretty much permanent.”

She had known from the first they were here to protect her. But now the facts started to line up. Their continued presence even after Benito and his sons died wasn’t just that they loved the job, but because there were other mafia families who still coveted Benito’s businesses. “Did Benito happen to list me as the recipient of his businesses?”

“In a round-about way.”

“Which makes me a prized pig with assets for other families.”

“’Fraid so.”

“And is Mr. Sedita running those properties in my name?”

“The legal components. The illegal portions, he has shut down. But if one of the other families got hold of your assets, they could restart distributions within days.”

“I bet that pisses my step-mother off.”

“Enough to hire two assassins.”

Tess paled. “Two people have been hired to kill me?”

“No. She hired two of your crew, who were wired and she’s waiting in jail for her trial.”

“Why wasn’t I told?”

“That was my decision as your substitute father. You were going through enough, what with Steel dropping his charm act and trying to send you spiraling down.”

“You could have told me afterward.”

“I’m doing so now. You just married a good man, you’re doing a spectacular job on the woods—Helen would be damn proud of you—and you’ve developed your own sense of power. Now I will tell you whatever you like.”

“Are you mafia?”

He smiled. “Walked right into that one. I married into the mafia by accident. I was FBI back then and we eloped. Looking back now, I should have questioned her hurry to marry, but I was blind with love.”

He stared up at the skies. “Not so blind I didn’t yell at her when I found out the truth. Her father sat me down and we had a talk. He explained his family did not sell drugs or guns. They ran construction businesses.”

“What type of construction?”

“Road construction, lumber mills, and gravel companies: all legit, providing excellent service. He said his dream was to rid Chicago of the other families and wanted me to remain in the FBI so I could do just that.”

“But leave him alone,” she added.

“Since he only ran legit businesses, I had no reason to target him. So I didn’t see a conflict.”

“But that was just to lure you in…”

He tapped her nose. “In a short while, he would ask me to clean up messes, which I could usually figure out how to do within the law. Then Eddie Campinelli used my wife as a shield to escape from the Feds. She wasn’t supposed to be there. She had promised me she wouldn’t attend. Then she changed her mind.”

“During the raid, Eddie grabbed her as a shield. My partner of eight years shot her. Purposely. Three times in the chest. He was trying to get a bullet through to Eddie.”

Tess burst into tears and held onto Cobbs. “You don’t have to talk about this. It hurts too much.”

He breathed in and trembled before regaining his strength. “Not something you should hear on your wedding night. Let’s just say, I quit the FBI and worked full time avenging her death. When I killed Eddie, it caused the Campinelli’s to leave Chicago and I followed. I sought out and trained good men to help me destroy the family. And for a while, it looked as if that was going to happen but mafia families are like octopuses. Cut off limbs, they’ll grow back, or another octopus will take over the territory.”

He sighed and rubbed her back. “Since Benito died, other families began to sniff around, and their easiest ticket in looked like you.”

“Is Dan at risk?” she asked.

“He is, but not as much as he was three hours ago. However, by turning those companies over to Sedita, you took yourself out of the lion’s den.”

“Hold on. I turned over my executor responsibilities for Grams’ will to Sedita. I wasn’t the recipient of any companies.”

“True, and as executor, he sent funds to the charities and people like Andy as soon as feasible. However, he took his time to distribute to family members, so nothing had yet gone out when Benito died. According to Benito’s will, the businesses all went to Jeffrey, and when Jeffrey died, they all went to his only child, whom he had never been able to acknowledge: you.”

“I don’t want them,” she said.

“Which is why they are being managed by a trust. And I promise you, they are completely legit now.”

“Grams couldn’t have known they weren’t legit.”

“Helen knew enough that she used them to keep you safe from Benito all those years. She was a very good woman, but she would have done anything to protect you, even making a deal with the devil.”

Tess wanted to insist he was wrong, but Grams loved her beyond all reason.

Suddenly, warm loving hands squeezed her shoulders. “Cobbs, are you making my wife sad on her wedding night?”

She leaned back and smiled at him. “You want to cheer me up?”

He lifted her into his arms, causing her to squeal. Now everyone smiled at them.

“Continue the party as long as you like. I am taking my wife to bed.”

“Have fun,” Malcolm yelled out and all the men chuckled.

Dan set her on her feet so she could walk through the kitchen closet and down the stairs.

“Smart man.”

“When your safety banged against my ego, your safety won,” he replied.

Once down the steps, he snatched her into his arms and carried her to the hall where he stopped. “Which room shall we make ours?”

“Mine.”

“Sounds good to me.” He carried her inside using his leg to knock the door shut, then settled her upon the bed.

Before he could crawl on top of her, she stopped him. “Terribly unromantic, but I need the bathroom.”

He laughed. “But very practical.”

Once she relieved herself, she stepped into the shower so she would be clean. When she returned to her bed, Dan was gone.

However, she could hear the shower running in his room. Sorting through her drawers for something that could possibly be conceived as sexy, she saw lace and pulled it out.

While the lace teddy was definitely sexy, she was positive she’d never bought it. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she worried that Sheriff Cobbs had acquired it. He’d bought her wedding dress…

Hoping beyond hope that Dan had purchased it, she pulled it over her muscular body. She then pulled out a hairdryer and attempted to dry her hair, constantly turning it off so she could hear if the shower next door was still running.

Five minutes later, the shower stopped, so she abandoned her drier and threw herself on the bed, trying to form a sexy pose before Dan returned.

When he didn’t come directly back, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

***

Gentle kisses woke her. She smiled and opened her eyes upon Dan’s handsome face.

“Where have you been?”

“I’ll tell you later. First, I need to discuss children.”

“What about them?”

“Do you want some?”

She smiled. “They’ll be a handful, but I do want them.”

Her answer clearly pleased him as he grinned from ear-to-ear. He then pulled off his T-shirt and removed his pants, leaving him naked and erect.

“Don’t you normally wear underwear?”

“Yeah, but I threw on my pants, thinking they wouldn’t be on for long.”

He straddled her thighs. Her fingers wrapped around his cock, but he gently unwrapped and kissed them. “I’d like to do this right.”

“Have we been doing it wrong?” she teased.

“No, but without a condom, I could come too soon.”

She curled her hands around the wrought iron headboard. “Okay. Do with me what you wish.”

A half-hour later, she regretted her words and took them back. She gripped Dan by the hair and stared into his black eyes. “Stop torturing me with pleasure and give me release. Now!”

He laughed and kissed her, but thankfully, he drove so deep within her that she felt as if it reached her soul. Never had she felt such pure and intense pleasure in her life.

Her scream of relief was echoed by his own and a short while later, he collapsed to her side as she covered his face with kisses.

She panted through recovery. “If you hadn’t beaten me to the punch, I would ask you to marry me. That was unbelievable. Was it because there was no condom?”

He returned her kisses then met her gaze. “Perhaps a little, but knowing you’re mine, that nothing can come between us now…that removed my futile attempts to contain how much I love you.”

His words surprised and saddened her. “You purposely weren’t giving me a hundred percent before?”

He gathered her hands and kissed each finger before pressing them to his heart. “There were so many hurdles to cross before we could become permanent that I tried to hold back, fearing in the end that I’d lose you.”

A heavy pain settled in her heart. “You didn’t believe I truly loved you?”

“I did. But there’s been a great deal of troubles I’ve kept from you.”

“Why?”

“Because you were so happy. I didn’t want you to worry about things you couldn’t solve. I wanted you to stay focused on your woods.”

If she had no control over these problems, then she appreciated his silence, but she needed to be convinced of that. “What were the problems?”

“First, there was my job. I asked permission to marry you and was told if I did, I’d be fired and another agent would be given the job of protecting you.”

Tess frowned. “I thought you were on unpaid leave. And why do I need to be protected?”

“The leave of absence was only a cover. We needed Spadoni to believe that I was with you indefinitely. We hoped he’d then give up.” His brow furrowed. “This plan occurred before we made love. At that point, I gave my bosses an ultimatum and it wasn’t a hard one for me to live with. There was no way in hell I would ever leave you, so either I was put in charge of assisting the FBI and Sheriff Cobbs in removing the bad seeds in Iowa, or I’d resign and remain here with you, hopefully, as your husband.”

She slapped his chest. “Then why’d you let me believe you’d be returning to Secret Service in three months? Do you have any idea how that was killing me?”

“I’m sorry, but we thought one of the guys was feeding information to Spadoni.”

“No!” she pleaded. She loved her guys.

“Don’t worry. They proved solid. It was someone else.”

“Who?”

“You’d treat him different if I told you.”

She sighed heavily. That was probably true, but she still wanted to know. “You said there’d be no more secrets between us.”

He sighed. “We now think it was Tom Barkman.”

“No,” she whined and buried her face in his chest.

“We could be wrong, but Tom has been on our radar since Frank turned out to be Benito’s man.”

“But Frank could have fooled him, too.”

“I said we could be wrong.”

“I think you are. What makes you think there’s a leak?”

“They knew Steel was gone.”

She grimaced. “I may be your leak. I told several people that Dr. Castile had been injured and had decided to return to England.”

“Do you remember who you told?”

“Brandon for one, plus I put a note on the cabin door to any other interviewees who showed up.”

“Brandon… of course. Thank you for telling me.”

“I would have told you before had I known it was important, or better yet, I wouldn’t have told him anything.”

He pulled her tight against him and nuzzled her neck.

“That feels good, but you still haven’t told me what other troubles we’ve been having.”

“You really want to discuss this on your wedding night?”

She pushed back and stared at him. “No, but if we don’t, I’ll never get to sleep.”

“Spadoni decided to marry you, virgin or not, so he could take over Benito’s businesses.”

She sat up in fear. “Can we put a wedding announcement in the paper?”

“Sheriff Cobbs has promised it will be in Sunday’s paper with a picture.”

Tess chuckled. “He told me I’d hate my wedding picture if I didn’t go change. Glad I listened to him.” She then straddled him. “Any other problems?”

“That’s all I can think of with you sitting on me,” he grinned.

“And these problems have all been resolved now?”

“Yes. You are married, Benito’s assets are locked away in a trust fund, and Secret Service agreed to our marriage; that I will still protect you with the help of your amazing grounds crew; and that I will remain undercover working for Tom so I can keep an eye on both him and the governor. Your step-mother will be going to jail, which should be a sign for the remaining ladies to give up on any ideas of revenge they might have.”

He caressed her cheek. “All in all, you are probably safer from the mob now than you’ve ever been in your entire life.”

She sighed with happiness. “Then allow me to personally and intimately thank you for solving all those problems before telling me.”

His eyes sparkled. “Marrying you was the greatest gift I could ask for, but please, reward me as often as you like.”

The End

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