Gun Moll (16 page)

“Miss?” the woman
asked.

“Yes?”

“He’s idiot.”

Melina didn’t even
smile. “Yes, he is an idiot.”

“But he’s idiot
with good taste because he pick you.”

Mac grinned when
Melina passed him a burning glare.

“That’s just about
the one thing he’s got going for him right now,” Melina muttered.

Hey, Mac would
take it.

Mac sipped from a
to-go cup of hot coffee and leaned against the window of the salon. Across the
street, the unmarked police car sat running with the two fools from earlier
inside. The detectives chatted back and forth while watching the business and
Mac.

He understood
Melina’s annoyance at the fuckers. They were like blood-sucking mosquitos that
a person wanted to swat with their hand and kill, but could never quite catch
in time before the pain of the bite.

Bastards
.

In his pocket,
Mac’s phone rang. He answered the call on the second ring.

“Mac here.”

“
Soldato
,”
Guido greeted.

Mac frowned. “Skip.
What’s up?”

“Just checking in
to make sure you’re ready for tonight.”

“Of course.”

“Good. You know,
Anthony will be at the dinner as well.”

Mac’s irritation
level climbed higher. “Is that so?”

“
Sì
.
Tonight is the perfect time for you to try to acquaint yourself with the Capo
and perhaps some of his men. Use the old Maccari charm. Your father knows how
to use it well enough when he isn’t drunk off his ass. I’m sure you’ll be even
better at it.”

Mac’s jaw clenched
so hard his molars ached. Obviously, his Capo was still on the kick of ridding
his rival in the Pivetti Cosa Nostra. Mac had very little interest in being
involved in Guido’s plans for Anthony, but it didn’t seem like he was going to
be given a choice in the matter.

“I’ll see what I
can do,” Mac finally said.

“Good, good. And
your girl? How is she?”

“Well.”

Mac could
practically see the leer that Guido was wearing when the Capo replied, “I look
forward to seeing her again. Any woman who can aim and shoot like that one has
got to be a wild thing in the sack. Broads like those are hard to find
nowadays.”

Respect.

Mac chanted the
word over and over to keep from barking at his Capo to shut his disgusting
fucking mouth. Jealousy was an awful, terrible monster. He was finding that the
more people looked at Melina like she was a piece of meat, and the more words
people said about her, the worse his jealousy got.

He didn’t want
other people looking at his girl like that.

Except she wasn’t
his at all.

“Melina will be
her usual self at the dinner, Skip,” Mac forced out.

“Perfect. Tonight,
then. Pivetti mansion at seven. Do not be late, Mac, or you won’t like what
happens.”

“Seven it is.”

Guido hung up the
call without another word.

More frustrated
than ever, Mac shoved the phone back into his pocket. He couldn’t help but
check on Melina, just to be sure she was still enjoying herself inside the
salon. After she finished getting her nails done, he had made sure to add that
she was to have whatever else she wanted added to the tab, including her hair
and makeup.

Mac knew that
Melina was going to be pissed off to the heavens when she found out that she had
unwillingly been invited to a dinner at the Pivetti boss’s home later that
night. He sincerely hoped a day of pampering would soften her up just enough to
get her to agree.

Well, it wasn’t
even a matter of Melina agreeing or not. She had to go. Mac simply preferred to
have the nicer side of Melina come along, rather than her angry side.

Not that an angry
Melina wasn’t a fun one.

Mac liked that,
too.

Dammit
.

Pushing those
thoughts away, Mac caught the unmarked police car in his sights again. One
detective nodded to the other one before getting out of the car. The fool
started a trek down the street towards the coffee shop. It was noon and that
place was packed, so it wasn’t likely that the detective would be back anytime
soon. The other detective rested back in the passenger seat and closed his
eyes.

Lazy asshole.

Mac grinned, an
idea setting in and refusing to let go. As much as he believed in turning the
other cheek and being the bigger person, he figured the two detectives needed a
lesson in humility.

For five minutes,
Mac watched the detective in the car until the guy’s mouth popped open in what
looked to be a snore. Sleeping on the job. Lazy, indeed. These fools could use
a lesson or two from a Cosa Nostra Capo on what happens when a man falls asleep
during a scheme.

Keeping one eye on
the sleeping detective in the car, Mac strolled across the street. He casually
tossed his hands into his slack’s pockets as he rounded the back of the
vehicle. Checking to be sure the other cop wasn’t coming back down the
sidewalk, and the other idiot was still sleeping, Mac pulled a pocketknife from
his pants.

When a gun
couldn’t be carried, a knife was just as good.

The street was
quiet, even with the few people strolling on past. No one ever paid anyone else
any attention on the streets of New York. It was almost like an unspoken rule
that people needed to mind their own damn business.

Bending down, Mac
left a two-foot long scratch across the back of the trunk with the tip of his
knife. Then, as he strolled past the car to cross the street again, he stuck
the blade into the tire and jerked the hilt a bit to let the air out. When he
pulled the knife from the tire, the air hissed as the tire began to deflate
slowly.

Smirking at the
sight of the sleeping fool in the passenger seat, Mac quickly crossed the road
again. In this part of town, businesses didn’t have cameras on the outside.
Most of them didn’t even have them on the inside.

Mac took his place
leaning against the window again. It took a whole fifteen minutes before the
other cop returned. Instantly, the fool must have known something was wrong,
given the way the car was leaning hard to the left.

The detective found
the scratched trunk and the slashed tire. Mac watched, entirely amused, as the
two detectives shouted at one another. Then, the cop that had gone to the
coffee shop looked across the street. His eyes found Mac’s instantly, narrowing
with angry understanding.

Suspecting and
proving were two different things.

Mac smirked,
lifted his cup of coffee as an acknowledgment, and then disappeared back into
the salon.

How’s that for an
option, boys
?

“Beautiful,” Mac
appraised.

Melina smiled
coyly as Mac ran his fingers through her blown out waves. Three hours later,
and she now sported cherry red and deep violet highlights throughout her dark
chocolate hair. It wasn’t a combination he would have thought of, but it looked
damn good on her.

“Thank you for not
arguing too much about the pampering,” Mac said.

Melina shrugged.
“It’s not usually my style to let a man spend money on me like this, but I have
a feeling you would have tied to me to a chair.”

“Maybe.”

“Thank you. It was
nice.”

“You’re welcome.
Like I said, men who care about their women should show them.”

“
Their
women,
huh?”

Mac chuckled. “I
know. Don’t bite my fucking head off. I’m just saying. Besides, what man spends
half of an afternoon in a salon with a woman if he’s not interested in her,
right? It was a good show for the detectives, if nothing else. And if anyone
else happened to be following you today, then they probably got the message,
too.”

“Is that the only
reason why you did this?”

“No,” Mac
admitted.

Melina huffed. “You’re
trying to get me into bed again.”

“No on that front,
too, doll.” Mac ticked two fingers under her chin. “And not that I have to
point it out, but we both know if I wanted to get you in bed, you would already
be there.”

Goddamn, she tried
to hide her shiver, but she couldn’t. Mac took that as a battle won and left it
alone.

“Why do this,
then?” Melina asked quietly.

“I told you that I
wanted to know you, Melina. I’ve given you two weeks to get your thoughts in
order. Sometimes women like you need a good shove to get you out of your crazy
head. Maybe that had a little bit to do with it.”

“But not all.”

“No, not all,” Mac
confessed, blowing out a heavy breath. “We have one more thing to do this
afternoon.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, you need a
new dress.”

Melina’s brow
furrowed. “Why?”

“To go with your
new hair and your beautiful face, doll. Something sexy as sin to show off your
legs and curves when I take you to dinner tonight at Luca Pivetti’s mansion.”

The rebuttal and
denial was on the tip of Melina’s tongue. Mac could see her argument and
refusal forming right before his eyes.

“Before you
start,” Mac said, lifting a single brow to keep Melina quiet, “… this is not an
option, Melina. This is a formal invitation. Remember those rules I told you
about?”

With a tight jaw
and a heated glare, Melina nodded. “Yes.”

“This is one of
them. You never shun a Don, babe. Let’s go pick you out a dress.”

Melina scowled.
“It better be a nice one.”

“Anything you put
on will be perfect.”

“I didn’t think to
mention it before, but you have a nice ride,” Melina said.

Mac flashed her
with a grin. “Oh?”

Just to make a
point to her statement about his Challenger, Mac revved the engine when he
shifted gears. The engine roared in response and Melina laughed.