Elie wasn’t certain how to feel about Dario giving him a bad time in that voice with absolutely no inflection. Dario rarely teased anyone, only Val and Emme, but somehow he’d managed to make it into that rare inner circle. He forced himself to keep a straight face when he wanted to break out into a huge smile.
“Brielle is a pain. She’s got a lot of sass,” Elie had to admit.
“As bad as Emmanuelle?” Valentino asked.
“Oh, yeah. Putting the two of them together might be courting disaster,” Elie said.
Dario sighed. “I knew it. Anytime it seems as if Emme is doing some good deed, take another hard look at it, because she has an ulterior motive and you’re bound to be the loser. Two of them will only double our chances of getting in harm’s way.”
Emmanuelle dusted her fingernails on her sleeve. “Nice to know you fear me, Dario, and you should be afraid.”
Valentino burst out laughing. “You walked into that one, Dario.”
“I guess I did.” Dario gave Elie a faint grin as if he couldn’t care less that Emmanuelle had gotten the better of him. “We’ll take care of your wife, make her feel part of the family,” he assured him.
Elie nodded, not certain what to say. Had Valentino reassured him, his response would have been easy, but Dario wasn’t a man to include others in his circle, so having him suddenly admit Elie was part of those he considered “his” mattered. That put Brielle under Dario and Valentino’s protection as well. That was huge.
“I love these floors, Dario,” Emme said. “What kind of wood is this, or do you even know?”
That was Emmanuelle, causing a distraction when it was needed.
“Mahogany, you little snip. Are you implying I don’t know everything there is to know about the house I bought?”
“I don’t know why, Dario, but it didn’t occur to me that you would be that interested in actual things like what the floor is made out of. I knew you would know everything there was to know about entrances and exits and how the sun hits the house at what hour for security reasons,” Emmanuelle confessed, “but things like whether you had granite countertops or mahogany floors is beyond anything I expected you to know. I don’t know that kind of stuff about my own house.”
Dario nudged her with his shoulder. “Yeah, well, babe, you know where the cutting boards are in the kitchen and I don’t.”
She burst out laughing. “You know exactly where they are. You know where everything is.”
Elie loved her for her honesty. She really didn’t know anything about floors and countertops and she readily admitted it after teasing Dario.
“The property came up for sale a few years back,” Dario admitted. “Long before the break between Giuseppi and his brother Miceli. I bought it, but never moved into it. The house is a little over five thousand square feet. I renovated it, adding several security measures. There’s a full basement, which was a huge draw for me. The three-car garage and boathouse were also something I could tie into security as well as the steel barn. At one time, the property was used as an operational lavender farm.”
“That’s why all the lavender,” Emmanuelle said.
Dario nodded. “I snapped it up when it came on the market. It was right next to Val’s property and you just never find a place like this one for sale on the lake. It’s a long way outside of the city, but in order to keep you and Val safe, I have to be close anyway. Since he insisted on my taking this bullshit position in the family, taking over the territory, I needed a place close to you, so I could still eat with you and see to your security, but get away when you’re driving me crazy.”
Once more, Dario managed to sound annoyed with Emmanuelle, but Elie would never believe that tone again. He was coming to understand Dario.
Valentino heaved a sigh. “You need a housekeeper who will cook for you. You have a kickass kitchen.”
“I have a cleaning crew. That’s enough of an invasion. Emme can cook for me.”
“You aren’t my head of security. You have a huge territory to run.”
“I’ll always be your head of security. Your personal protectors will answer to me.” Dario sounded bored.
Val’s intense green eyes met Elie’s over Emme’s head. Val shook his head. “He’s never going to change. He’s got an entire territory to run, the one Miceli screwed up. He’s putting it back together, finding out who he can trust and who he can’t, but he’s worried about my security, not his own. Do you have any idea how many death threats you get on the daily, Dario?”