Shadow Keeper (Shadow #3)

“Have you set a date yet?” Emmanuelle asked.

All eyes turned to Sasha. She squirmed under the spotlight. Giovanni brought her hand up to his mouth and bit down on her fingertips. She took a deep breath and shook her head.

“A fall wedding would be really nice,” Emmanuelle ventured. “What do you think, Sasha?”

Giovanni shook his head, worried about Sandlin. Sasha would want her brother there, and after the report Stefano had shared, he was concerned her brother could go at any time. His seizures had gotten worse, and the surgeon had admitted that even if they went in to relieve the pressure on his brain, that could kill him, and the fix wasn’t working.

“I was thinking earlier. In a few weeks.” Before Sasha could protest, he brought her hand to his heart and pressed it there. “I planned to go by the Center today and ask Sandlin officially for Sasha’s hand and maybe talk to him about the when. We’ll consult with the doctors about the where because we want Sandlin with us.”

He willed Sasha to understand that he wasn’t pushing her. As much as he wanted to marry her, he was worried about her brother.

She smiled up at him. “Thanks for including him. I definitely want him with us.”

Giovanni took a drink of his coffee and sat back, waiting for her to finish. He liked watching her eat. She didn’t pick at her food or shove it around her plate. She enjoyed food the way she did everything else in her life. When she was finished he stood up and held out his hand.

Stefano glanced toward the smaller table where several bodyguards were eating. “Take Emilio and Enzo, Giovanni.”

“They guard you,” Giovanni protested. “I can take—”

“Emilio and Enzo,” Stefano repeated, icicles dripping off his voice.

Giovanni wasn’t going to argue about it; after all, the two very experienced bodyguards would be looking out for Sasha as well. She took his hand and rose. She looked up at him. “So that man, last night, was after you, not me. Was he after you because of me? Or do you have multiple enemies?”

He gave her a quelling look. She just laughed at him, and somehow that lightened his heart. He tucked her hand in the crook of his arm, and they left Biagi’s with Emilio and Enzo, one in front leading the way, and one behind them. Giovanni was so used to bodyguards he didn’t think anything of it. He’d grown up having them around him. He might be well-versed in the art of protecting himself, but riders were too valuable to the family and they were guarded at all times. Riders were nearly revered. The bodyguards took their jobs very seriously.

Sasha clearly was uncomfortable, but she didn’t say anything. Giovanni matched his steps to Emilio’s as he bent his head toward Sasha. “I probably have multiple enemies, especially now that our engagement has been announced, but yes, last night, that man attacked me. He was a hit man, hired anonymously. He didn’t have much information. He was called, the arrangements made, the money provided in a Dumpster. He came to the club to kill me and, I quote, ‘Fuck the woman up.’ What that means, I have no idea.”

“Has the world gone insane? This kind of thing didn’t happen in Wyoming. The horses or cattle never got jealous or murderous.” She slid into the backseat of the car, and he followed. “Well, occasionally, one did, but it was easy enough to stop them. We ate the steer that gave us trouble and worked with the horse until it behaved.”

Giovanni laughed. “Well, I don’t think Aaron or the hit man would like it if we ate them.”

“I guess not.” She sounded glum. She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I’m beginning to be afraid for you. I’d feel better if you really could disappear into the shadows.” She glanced at Enzo, who was driving, and put her hand over her mouth. “Sorry.”

“Emilio and Enzo are very aware of what we do as riders. They’ve been guarding us nearly their entire lives. Nothing is going to hurt me.”

“I wish I was as certain of that as you are.”

“Sandlin is extremely vulnerable,” Giovanni ventured. “Right now, your stalker is angry at me because I’m fucking with his fantasy, but if he turns that anger toward you, he’ll start ramping up his threats. You have one brother, one person he can get at you through.”

“Sandlin is very childlike,” she said, rubbing at the frown lines between her eyes. “He would take someone at face value. If they came to him and pretended to be his friend, just like before, he wouldn’t question it.”

Giovanni wasn’t so certain. “He can still read lies when his shadow connects with someone else’s. I don’t think he’s vulnerable that way. I don’t like the fact that the Center has so many staff and volunteers. Even the security force we’re using could be penetrated.” He was thinking out loud, trying to figure out a way to better protect Sandlin. Even if he assigned one guard to be with him at all times, how would the guard discern between someone who wasn’t supposed to be there and one of the staff?

“Other patients, too. They all share the common rooms and are encouraged to interact with one another,” Sasha said. “If Sandlin was kept away from the others, he would be so sad. I don’t want him to have to live like that because of me.”

“It isn’t because of you,” Giovanni denied. “The stalker is doing this, not you and not anything you’ve done.”

“Do you have an idea who it is?”

He sighed. “I’ve thought a lot about it and I just can’t conceive that it would be Aaron. I think he’s being set up to take the fall. Most likely the stalker thought we’d go to the cops and they’d be doing all the investigating. Aaron would be taken in for questioning, and as the evidence piled up against him, the only question would be, where’s the money? He wouldn’t have an answer, and they’d think he was being cagey.”

“But you don’t go to the cops. You handle it as a family.”

He nodded. “Technically, this entire mess should be handed over to my cousins in New York. We’re too close and we don’t normally take chances that anything can ever be traced back to us. If Aaron disappeared or ended up dead somehow, there’s a link to us.”

“Why hasn’t it been handed over to your New York cousins?”

Emilio glanced back at them. Enzo looked at her in the mirror. Giovanni looked down into her too-innocent eyes. She really didn’t know. “My cousins might not be as close to this as we are, but it would be personal to them as well. You’re one of us. You’re considered family. Sandlin is family. No one hurts our family, Sasha.” He picked up her hand and kissed the ring. “They know I’m in love with you. I don’t try to hide it from them. They see the way I look at you, the way you make me happy. My brothers, sisters and cousins are not going to allow anyone to take you away from me.”

She sat back, her eyes on his. All that beautiful blue shining up at him. His heart did a weird stuttering thing he was beginning to recognize whenever he looked too closely at her. He definitely was attracted to her looks, but more than that, he found himself wanting to be in her company because she made him smile. She didn’t have to do anything to make him happy. He just was happy because she was in his world.

Sasha glanced at the two men in the front seat. Both were facing forward again. A mischievous look slid over her face. Sexy. His cock jerked hard. “What are you up to, baby?”