The Boss Vol. 6: a Hot Billionaire Romance by Cari Quinn, Taryn Elliott Page B

likely be fitting for me as it was for him.” I offered Dante a smile of my own, pretending I hadn’t heard Grace gasp.
    I didn’t know if she’d be coming home with me tonight. If she’d want to sleep in my bed.
    If everything we’d been building in fits and starts would have been crushed in the reality I’d lived with since I was a boy.
    I was tainted goods, born to someone on the wrong side of the law. And when it had suited me, I’d escaped one death sentence to trade on my chance at a life in the light.
    “And you came here to talk to Dante now,” she said, curling pale fingers around the stem of her wineglass. “Out of the blue, you called him up for a meeting that was to take place during our supposed date .”
    I smothered my grimace and slid a hand along my tie. The knot from this morning that she’d given me was wilting a bit, but she’d seen to it outside the door of La Cucina.
    I had a feeling it was the last seeing to she’d be doing to any part of me for a while.
    “No.” I was tempted to take a drink of my own wine, but it would’ve been the coward’s way out.
    Maybe I could take that route when it was only my life on the line. Not when Grace’s was at stake as well.
    “I came here to talk to Dante because I told you my father was acquainted with…Annabelle Stuart.” It would be Grace’s choice if she decided to out Annabelle as her grandmother. Without the last name in common, their connection wouldn’t be instantly recognizable to Dante, even if he did happen to know the Stuart name. “I have reason to think he was acquainted with Philomena Stanwick too.”
    Dante leaned back in his chair and looped an arm around the back of the chair beside him. “So you think I kept track of my father’s social calendar, as well as your father’s. Sorry to disappoint you, but I have other things to attend to.”
    “I’m well aware of that. I also know that you know everyone in this town. Being based in Las Vegas hasn’t mitigated your family’s reach at all.” I lowered my voice, though the chances of us being overheard were almost nil. Only a few scattered diners remained, and none of them were close to our table. “If Robert and Annabelle and Philomena were involved in something based in Brooklyn, something involving the Empire Design Company on Trawley Street in Flatbush, you’re saying you wouldn’t know about it.”
    Something flickered through Dante’s dark eyes. “You really want to get into this in front of the missus?”
    “I’m not a missus . I’m a grown woman who is entitled to be part of conversations. And I’d say he does want to get into it, since he started this line of inquiry.” Grace crossed her arms. “So?”
    “I don’t know the name Annabelle. But as you know, there’s a lot of women in the world.” His shrug and charming smile fooled me not even a little. “Philomena, however, now that may ring a few bells. She’s older. Older than Pop, older than your father.”
    I nodded, not chancing a glance at Grace.
    He tapped his fingers on the table then smiled again, tighter now. “Since we’re old friends, let me do some digging for you. See if I come up with any buried treasure.”
    The brief hope I’d had that maybe we’d start to get some real answers deflated faster than it had come. I started to reply, but before I could, Dante’s gaze flicked behind me and I shifted in my chair.
    Violet’s brother Danny and his wife Marina were on their way toward us. Where had they come from? I’d thought the place was nearly deserted. I had my back to part of the room but I was sure I’d kept an eye on our surroundings.
    “Blake, Grace.” Danny smiled and glanced between us, barely sparing a look at Dante. “This is a surprise. What brings you to the city?”
    “No more a surprise for you than it is for us, I assure you.” I rose and extended a hand to him, then offered a quick smile to his wife. She stood behind him, her eyes shuttered, her mouth pursed.