Pink, page 18
His heart broke as Arely asked him why again, but he didn’t have an answer. He had no idea what was going on.
He’d soon fucking find out.
That was a promise.
• • •
Lev didn’t have to wait long to get answers. Between the texts from Gigi on his phone that he had left unread, and the call he got from his boss that in no uncertain terms told him to get his ass to the restaurant, well … things became painfully clear.
“What is this shit?” Andino asked, tossing three magazines to the top of his desk. He pointed a finger at the pictures splashed across the front of one of the gossip tabloids. On that one, it featured a photo of Lev and Gigi standing outside the bar, hugging one another while his face hovered close to hers. It was clear they were being … intimate. Another picture in the bottom corner showcased Lev walking down the street by their home holding his daughter’s hand.
The day before. Literally yesterday. That’s how fast they put that shit to print. The headline, though? That was the fucking killer.
GIGI REY’S SECRET CHILD.
On another one?
The headline read: GIGI’S SECRET MAN—PINK, INFAMOUS MOB ENFORCER.
Holy shit.
It went from bad to worse before Lev had even blinked. He didn’t even bother to flip to the magazine on the bottom to see what pictures were splashed across the front or what bullshit headline they plastered on top of it to increase sales.
“Pink,” Andino ground out, shaking with his finger still aimed at the magazines across his desk like a gun ready to blow, “you better start fucking talking, man. This is the kind of attention the Marcellos don’t need. You know better than this. What is going on?”
“I don’t know. I just …” Lev’s hands found the edge of Andino’s desk, and he prayed for something to steady him because the ground just wasn’t doing it. “I’m sorry, boss.”
Andino let out a hard breath. “How long have you been fucking with … she’s like a goddamn supermodel, Pink.”
He flinched. “I knew her before that … we just met up again while she was in town. For work, you know? It wasn’t supposed to cause any problems. We spent the night together and that was it. I was just at the park with Arely today and photographers showed up out of nowhere asking questions and—”
“Exactly!” Andino’s roar froze Lev to the spot. “Exactly,” his boss ground out again. “Asking questions. About you.” His finger jabbed down to the word ENFORCER in block letters on the tabloid’s cover. “About fucking business. What in the hell am I supposed to do about this?”
“Call your fucking lawyers and get them on their ass? I don’t know! Why are you asking me?”
“Pink.”
Lev met Andino’s stare and quietly said, “I know this is bad.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah, man. But it’s also bad for me, you know? And my kid. So I get you’re pissed off about your business being out in the public right now, but give me a chance to catch up and take care of my shit first. Okay?”
Andino straightened to his full height at the other side of the desk but said nothing more. It gave Lev the chance to drag in another deep breath, settling his overworked and already frayed nerves a little more.
He’d checked Gigi’s texts after getting Arely home and calling Nessa to come and sit with her while he ran into work.
Gigi was pissed. Not just because of the pictures, either. Obviously. Everything he hadn’t told her … well, he didn’t really need to tell her anymore. It was plastered across the rags, headlining every major gossip blog, and shit, he wouldn’t be surprised if something made the damn news.
Her last text?
My team is putting out a statement. We need to talk. ASAP.
Yeah, he bet.
Goddammit.
“Christ, Lev,” Andino muttered, falling ungracefully into his office chair with enough force to shake the floor. That wasn’t half as shocking as his boss using his name instead of simply Pink like he usually did. “You’re seriously fucking with that chick?”
“I mean … yeah?”
“Why is that a question?”
Lev laughed under his breath because what else could he do? “Look at her, man. If you were lucky enough to be fucking the woman who was listed as one of the most beautiful women in the world, wouldn’t you wonder how it happened too?”
Andino arched a brow, replying, “Well … Listen, happily married man here.”
“But?”
“No buts.”
Right.
No one could say Andino Marcello was a saint, but they certainly wouldn’t ever be able to say the man was unfaithful to his wife, either. He didn’t even look at other women in a way that suggested he was interested. It was one of the things Lev respected the most about the man because very little else was socially respectable beneath the surface.
“Fucking gross,” Lev snapped, picking up the one tabloid that called his daughter a secret. Just as fast, he tossed it into the trash bin beside the desk. “Just make up shit like that. Come on.”
Andino glanced his way with a bit more sympathy. “Really bothers you, huh?”
“Wouldn’t it bother you? You know how much effort I put into keeping my daughter safe from … everything I do. She doesn’t even know who Pink is, Andino. And now what? Are we going to have people outside our house with cameras every day asking if her father is connected to the mob? What if she goes to daycare and someone runs their mouth? Or shit, what about when she starts kindergarten and—”
“Okay, you’re just catastrophizing now. Don’t call on trouble that isn’t even here yet.”
Sure.
That was easy for his boss to say.
Lev found a chair and sat down in the same manner his boss had minutes earlier. Scrubbing a hand down his face and then massaging his temples with the pads of his fingers, he willed away the raging headache starting to form. “We were careful … she made it clear we had to be. It wasn’t supposed to be a problem.”
At first, Andino didn’t reply.
The silence was fine.
He needed it to think.
“When are you going to tell me?” Andino asked quietly.
Lev glanced up, meeting his boss’s stare head-on. “Tell you what?”
“That she was at the meeting I asked you to report on. I know everybody that was there—she was one of them. You didn’t mention it when you reported back about it. You didn’t think to tell me now that was how you ran back into her if you’re being honest about—”
“I am. Do you think we could have kept a relationship a secret for this long? Shit, I fucked her two nights ago, and they’ve already got pictures of my kid in the goddamn rags, Andino!”
“Lower your voice.”
Lev checked his attitude.
But only because it was Andino.
“I didn’t mention her being at the meeting because it didn’t matter … why should it? She was there to show off for Jensen Todrey. A way to show the guy he wanted to do business with what he could do. You know what I mean? I was more worried about her and what that asshole might be trying to pull with her than the fact she might be interesting to you. Forgive my ignorance. I won’t make the mistake again.”
Andino sighed sharply.
Lev rolled his eyes.
So, maybe his attitude was still there.
“This can’t be a problem,” Andino said, pointing at the remaining magazines on his desk. “Whatever you do with her from here on out, you make sure it’s not a fucking problem, Pink. Especially not one I will have to fix.”
“Yeah, I know. I got it.”
“I don’t want to see you in the tabloids again.”
“Well, I can’t really—”
“Try. And I’ll get the goddamn lawyers on their asses, too. Not that I suspect it’ll do any good except to maybe get the mafia out of their fucking mouths.” Andino shook his head, grumbling under his breath all the while. “Probably the least of my fucking problems now, honestly.”
That had Lev’s attention. “Why is that?”
Because, to him, this couldn’t get worse.
Right?
Andino passed him a look, shrugging. “What are the chances the other men at that meeting won’t see these magazines? Your face. Her. How long will it take for them to put two and two together and realize I had a man of mine watching their meeting to report back to me, huh? I haven’t even handled my associate from Cali yet. This is not good, Pink.”
Perfect.
A little more to add to his ever-growing plate.
“I was sporting a beard; let’s hope they don’t put it together,” Lev muttered.
“Lev, be real.”
Yeah, this was … bad.
Lev sunk into the chair; his chest heavier than ever. “She didn’t know.”
“What?”
“Gigi. She didn’t know about … any of this. The mob. My kid. Me.”
“So?”
Lev coughed out a laugh, wishing it could be as easy as him saying so like it didn’t matter at all. Because it was then that he realized he didn’t want those things that he’d kept hidden in his life to be the reason Gigi walked away. She did that once. For a different reason, sure, but he wasn’t sure that he wanted the same thing to happen this time.
And that just fucked him up even more.
“I gotta go,” Lev said, pushing up from the chair.
Andino grunted with a wave at his desk. “Take that shit with you. And remember what I told you, too. No more problems.”
Yeah.
It wasn’t like he could forget it.
EIGHTEEN
“PLEASE EXPLAIN to Gigi that we have now hired a second team to handle this mess—”
“Please explain to Marla that I couldn’t give a fuck what they’re doing about those lying rags,” Gigi tossed over her shoulder to Kayla. Who currently had Marla on the conference phone’s speaker so Gigi could hear the conversation while she paced the hotel suite. “And I am allowed to have a life outside of the confines of my contracts. The statement was made by the team—let them do what they want with it.”
“Gigi, I don’t think you understand how serious—”
That had Gigi swinging around on the spot to glare at the black, triangular phone where it sat in the middle of the large cherry-stained dining table. “Are you for real? Did you really just say that I don’t understand how serious this situation is when it’s literally me they’re talking about? My private life. I have been in this hotel for days now waiting for this to blow over, but I’m the one who doesn’t realize how serious this is? Give me a break, Marla. I’m going out of my fucking mind about it.”
“Well, I …” Marla sighed, the sound crackling in the speakers as she took a second to regain her usually calm composure. Gigi had a way of making the agent’s facade crack faster than anyone else could—or that’s what she liked to tell her every time a new issue came up. “Gigi, I know you’re upset because your private life was brought into the public spotlight in a way you didn’t like … but you have to understand on that side of things, it’s bound to happen. It isn’t the first time. Remember the trip to Maui—the pictures?”
Low blow.
That was a dark time in Gigi’s modeling career that she would really rather not fucking revisit but of course, now would be the time when her agent brought it up.
“Oh, you mean when my supposed best friend was selling private pictures of me to whoever would snatch them up for a couple of grand a piece? Because apparently, I should have known better then, too. According to you. Can’t trust anyone, right?”
“That’s not what I—”
“That’s exactly what you meant. It’s the same thing you told me then, too. If you’re trying to suggest Lev had us followed, you’re delusional. The man wouldn’t even know where to begin or how to make that happen.”
Or at least, that’s what she was hoping. Then again, the rags had brought up a lot of things about Lev’s personal life that Gigi didn’t know about, either. Like the fact he was apparently connected to the mob. Which made a lot of sense as to why he seemed to have a confident knowledge that Jensen Todrey and his friend at the lunch date were bad news.
Because Lev was bad news, too.
Right?
Were there really good men when it came to the mob? Except she also felt like she knew a part of Lev, or he showed her a part of him, that wasn’t bad at all. She had a hard time connecting the dots in her mind to fit Lev to the man the magazines called Pink. How had he even earned a nickname like that? Oh, they had facts. Pictures, too. Even named names.
And somehow, his connection to the Marcello mafia family and the boss running the show was the absolute least of Gigi’s concerns.
Why? Oh, yeah.
He had a kid. A child. A little girl named Arely. It pissed her off more than anything that the journalists—if one wanted to give those jokes of writers that kind of respect—thought not only was it acceptable to publish pieces calling the child hers, but they actually went as far as to name Lev’s daughter. Her first name only, sure, but still.
How had they even gotten that information? Gigi didn’t really wonder. Everything was accessible with the internet.
Why hadn’t he told her those things? Why hadn’t he been the one to tell her? That’s what bothered her the most.
It made Gigi think that maybe the feelings she had held on to for years where Lev was concerned weren’t shared by him. Why should he tell her anything about his personal life when the only thing they had shared together was a bed, right?
Yeah.
That shit hurt bad. Gigi just didn’t want to admit it.
Marla’s droning voice pulled Gigi from her depressing thoughts, but it didn’t make her feel the slightest bit better to hear what the woman was saying. Story of my life.
“It has been suggested we take legal action regarding the false publications and the damage it could have done. We’re looking into different routes on that topic. We’re also working on damage control elsewhere. What we really need right now, Gigi, is for you to remain out of sight and keep your mouth shut unless told otherwise. We may have you do an interview if it gets to that—”
“I won’t speak on any of this publicly,” Gigi said, drawing her hard line. “Because there are two other people in this equation who were dragged into this by no fault of their own. I am not going to get on a public platform and speak about them like I have the right to. I will not do it, Marla.”
Another frustrated sigh echoed from the phone. “Well … can you stay away from the gentleman, otherwise? At least until this blows over.”
Gigi made a face, knowing good and well she couldn’t promise that without it being a total lie. In fact, Lev was set to arrive at the hotel later that day because they had finally managed to pull together sometime to sit down, and he seemed willing to talk.
She was going to give him the chance to clear some things up. Where they went from there, or how it left them at the end of it, she couldn’t say yet. They would deal with that when they got to that point.
“Gigi?” Marla pressed on the call.
“Prepare for an onslaught of pictures of him arriving and leaving the hotel. I’m sure they’ll be everywhere by tomorrow.”
“Gigi!”
Kayla, Gigi’s assistant, snickered into her hand to hide the noise.
“I mean, I could have lied,” Gigi replied to her agent. “Is that what you would have preferred?”
“Well, no, but—”
“All you needed was the no, Marla. And hey, I just gave you some time to get ahead of the story. You should really be thanking me.”
With a wave of her hand in the direction of the phone, Kayla reached over and hit the red button to end the call without warning. At this point, Gigi just didn’t care. She had far more important things to handle.
“Don’t worry,” her assistant said when Gigi turned her back to the room, needing a sense of privacy even if she had finally, truly learned that she had none. “In a few days, somebody else will do something that blows up and takes all the attention off you.”
Maybe so.
That didn’t make this easier.
“Who tipped them off that I was going to be with him that night? We were careful, right? Extra careful, Kayla.”
Quietly, her assistant replied, “I don’t know, Gi.”
That was the problem.
Nobody knew anything.
Including Gigi.
• • •
Gigi pulled open the hotel’s door—the one that guests could use while she had the private elevator access—but the man waiting on the other side was not who she expected it to be. Jensen Todrey screamed casual and confident in his tan, cashmere cable-knit sweater, gray slacks, and matching loafers.
Lifting his attention from the watch on his wrist, the man smiled warmly at Gigi’s presence. She couldn’t quite say the same as the happiness she had previously felt about who she thought was behind the door quickly melted away. If he noticed, it wasn’t apparent.
“Gigi,” Jensen greeted, reaching out a hand that cupped her cheek with a soft touch before she could even react. It didn’t last long enough for her to tell him to remove his hand, because in the next breath, he dropped his arm back to his side. “You’re not busy, are you? I hope I didn’t … interrupt.”
As he said that, his body tipped to the side slightly right along with his head, like he was trying to get a peek inside the hotel suite behind her. There wasn’t anyone in her rooms. Kayla had left a while ago to handle things for Gigi and the agency. A new schedule had to be made for the upcoming appointments and events related to Fashion Week. All things Gigi didn’t care to get too involved with beyond showing up like she was told.
She wouldn’t say any of that to this man, though.
Instead of answering his question, the first thing out of Gigi’s mouth was, “How did you get past the hotel’s security … and mine?”
Because the three bodyguards that stuck close to her whenever she was on an official outing or working had a room two doors down from her suite and should have been called before anyone—but especially this man—was allowed up to see Gigi. That was the rules.
