He tipped his chin down and leveled his eyes on her, and at the wrathful look in them, I stopped breathing again and fought against wetting my pants.

“You Stark?” Benny asked, fortunately taking Stark’s attention off Trish, and I could feel my man coming out of his chair.

“You Bianchi?” Luke Stark asked back after an affirmative nod.

Ben didn’t answer, but he did put out a hand.

Stark took it.

“Elaine! Can we get menus?” Trish called.

“Comin’ right up,” a waitress called back.

“I take it you’re Giglia,” Stark said, and I looked to Sal to see him up and giving Stark the once-over.

Sal also didn’t confirm his identity verbally. He just said, “At least you look serious.”

I didn’t know whether to moan or whimper when Stark replied inflexibly in his rough voice, “I am. Very serious.”

It was then Stark looked to me and his features softened.

Definitely moan-worthy.

“You’re Francesca,” he stated and, luckily, I was.

I stuck out a hand. “Yeah. Frankie.”

He took my hand, gripped it not too strong, not too light, and let it go.

He then looked to Herb. “You can go now.”

“Thank God,” Herb said, immediately pushing back his chair.

“What? What do you mean?’ Trish asked. “We haven’t had pancakes.”

“We had lunch two hours ago,” Herb told her.

“Well, now I’m in the mood for pancakes,” she told him.

“Herb,” Stark growled warningly.

“Right,” Herb said, then looked to his wife. “See that guy?”

He pointed and she looked so I looked and saw he was pointing to Sal’s guy outside the window.

“And that one?” Herb went on, and I looked back at him to see he was pointing across the other side of the restaurant.

I looked over my shoulder and saw he was pointing at Sal’s other guy.

“Those guys are this guy’s guys,” Herb went on, and I looked back to see him jerking his head at Sal. “And those guys and this guy means we are now done. We’re leavin’. We’re not gettin’ pancakes. We’re getting the hell outta here.” He looked to Sal. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Sal muttered.

Herb looked to Trish. “Let’s go.”

“Oh, all right,” she mumbled. Pushing back and grabbing her purse, she stuck her hand out toward me. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” I replied, taking it for a good-bye squeeze.

More of the same for Benny and Sal, then she hustled around the table, got right into Commando Stark’s space, patted his arm, and leaned up to kiss his cheek.

The fact Stark would allow this shocked me so deeply, I gave big eyes to Benny.

Benny didn’t see my big eyes. He was looking at Herb shaking Stark’s hand and was doing this not looking happy.

Herb and Trish took their leave as Elaine slapped menus on the table, asking, “Coffee?”

“All around,” Benny ordered for everybody, probably to make her leave.

“Gotcha,” she said and hustled away.

Stark sat in Herb’s seat, back to the wall, facing us, and Benny and Sal settled back in.

“Can you assure us amateur hour is over?” Sal asked immediately.

Sal was scary, but I wasn’t sure even Sal should go head-to-head with this guy. I’d mentioned his flat stomach but not his broad shoulders or the defined, bulging biceps and chest that were straining the material of his tee so much, any movement might make it tear clean free.

An intriguing thought.

“Herb and Trish are Roxie’s parents,” Stark told him. “Roxie is Lee’s sister-in-law. She’s one of the best women I’ve ever met, a great wife, an outstanding mother. They raised her to be that way. They’re f**kin’ insane, but they’re good people. They aren’t amateur. They’re friendly. And they got nothin’ to do with Lee or his business.”

“I’d say that means yeah,” I murmured, and Stark looked at me.

His hard face, again, softened and he said quietly, “Yeah. That means yeah.”

I grinned at him.

His lips tipped up, then he looked to Benny.

Out of sheer womanly habit I took that moment to look at his hand resting on the table. There I saw a very wide, very shiny gold wedding band.

Luckily, I had the best man in the world or the sight of that band would’ve been devastating.

“You got somethin’ for me?” he asked Benny.

“Unh-unh,” Sal cut in. “Before we give you anything, we gotta get assurances you can do this right.”

Stark turned cold eyes to Sal. “I only provide references to people who’re payin’ me.”

“I only pay people who I know can get the job done right,” Sal fired back, and I held my breath as Luke Stark turned his torso Sal’s way. Which meant turning his full attention Sal’s way. Which meant only a man like Salvatore Giglia wouldn’t cower under that dark gaze.

“Then I’ll tell you, Lee does this. He finds shit he doesn’t like, like the possibility of a bad drug hittin’ the market, the company manufacturing it burying evidence that their product is harmful, and he gets interested. He’s interested. So Lee’s doin’ this, and when Lee does anything, he does it right.”

“I’m not talkin’ to Lee,” Sal pushed.

“No,” Stark growled, obviously losing patience. “You’re talkin’ to me, but when I say Lee I mean me because he put me on this. So that means it’ll be me who does this shit right.”

Sal opened his mouth, but I quickly spoke because I didn’t think it would be healthy for anyone if Luke Stark got more impatient.

“I have a question.” Stark looked to me. “Can you kick Chuck Norris’s ass?”

Luke Stark smiled, white and lazy.

My heart thumped.

“I strive to be Chuck Norris,” he replied.

I smiled back. “That’s good enough for me.” I looked to Benny. “Give him the drives, baby.”

Ben obviously liked the look of Stark too because he shifted to push his hand in his pocket when Sal said, “Hang on.”

That was when Ben stopped shifting and looked to Sal.

“Look at this guy,” he ordered.

Sal didn’t look at Stark. He scowled at Benny.

“Fuck, Sal, I don’t even have to see him in action to know this guy could successfully execute a one-man coup on a small South American country,” Benny stated.