“I might be amenable to that. If I still have a business when I’m allowed to go back to work.”

“You’ll have business. Probably far more than you can handle.”

He didn’t sound like he was happy about it, but she decided to ignore that.

“I’m taking you up on your offer of an office in that back room. It would make it easier for me if I wasn’t traveling back and forth so much. It will be easier on the security team as well. They can concentrate on the bakery and cars there during the day. This place is set up for security. Antonio Arnotto made certain of that.”

“Is this your home?”

“It belongs to Siena Arnotto. She married Elijah Lospostos. She’s offered the estate to me several times. She’s happy where she is and doesn’t want to come back here. The vineyards and winery she’d like to keep. Everything else she wants to deed over to me.”

“She wants you to buy it? This place has to be worth millions. Can you afford it?” And did he even want it? He’d been there for some time but he’d never actually lived there.

“She wants to deed it over to me,” he corrected.

She drew back and leveled a look at him, instant suspicion gripping her. Maybe, if she was honest with herself, jealousy as well. Alonzo had told her he hadn’t been with another woman in years. Had he lied to her?

“Why would she do that?” What kind of relationship did he have with Siena Arnotto Lospostos? Why would the woman want to deed over an estate worth millions to him? It didn’t make sense. She knew about Siena Arnotto. She’d been the only heir of Antonio Arnotto.

Her family had a violent history in spite of the fact that her grandfather had spent his life as a winemaker. His wine was famous, his vineyards legendary. From the countless magazine articles written about the Arnotto family, Evangeline knew that Siena was beautiful and very well educated. She didn’t come from a poor family of criminals in the swamp.

“Stop it.” Alonzo growled the words and bit down on the tips of her fingers, holding them between his teeth when she yelped and tried to jerk them away. “Siena was fifteen when Antonio assigned her to me. I was her bodyguard. That’s all. She was a sweet, innocent girl living with a monster, but she didn’t know that. She had no friends. Antonio made certain of it. He arranged for her to be married to a man who would have beaten her. He did beat her, and her grandfather did nothing.”