14
Alessia
T he next morning, I wake up and find Harper still next to me, sleepy eyes look back at me.
“Were you watching me sleep? You know that’s kind of creepy, right? Gives you full-on stalker vibes.”
While laughing she presses a kiss to my lips. It’s the best sound I could start the day with.
“Are you ready for today?” She asks.
“I think I am. I’ll check in with Elio after breakfast to see if he has any updates. We need to leave here around three p.m. to make it in time for the ceremony. The stylist will be here at noon to help us get ready.”
“The stylist?”
“Yes, I hired someone to do our hair and make up and someone from Dior is coming to make sure the gowns fit perfectly.”
“Wow… Is it always this way for you? The stylist and everything I mean?”
“Yes, when I have big events like this one it is.”
“I thought I would do my own hair and make up.”
“You can of course, or you could let yourself get pampered. It’s up to you.”
“I’ll think about it, now I need some coffee and breakfast first.’ She steps out of bed and grabs a shirt off the floor to put on. “Are you coming?”
I get out of bed and follow her out into the kitchen. She quickly whips up some pancakes for breakfast and I get the orange juice out of the fridge.
“So, are these pavement pancakes or regular ones?” I chuckle.
Harper looks at me with a puzzling look on her face. Then it clicks and she starts laughing.
“These are regular ones, you weirdo! If you want pavement pancakes, I’m happy to throw them out the window for you?”
We both laugh even harder before we both catch our breaths and sit down to enjoy our breakfast.
After breakfast I check in with Elio and he tells me that the delivery guy didn’t know much.
Except that he got a package himself with my so-called gift inside, a note to deliver it to my address and an envelope full of money.
Elio picked up the original box and note to see if brings us any clues to where Gianni is hiding.
Sixteen years and we still haven’t found the fucker.
It’s like he’s a ghost. But he is bound to fuck up sooner or later.
Let’s pray it’s sooner because I need to keep Harper safe.
Luca has a few leads off the CCTV but nothing solid.
As we wrap up our conversation the elevator dings to let us know the stylist is here.
Harper guides them into our bedroom where they set up everything for hair and make up and she takes a seat on one of the stools.
“So, you’re not doing your own hair and make up?”
“No… Why should I if I have a girlfriend that likes to spoil me?”
“Ah, so I am your girlfriend now?”
“I guess so. We sleep in your bed every night; you fuck me senseless and you buy me stuff. Seems to me that’s what girlfriends do.”
I walk around the chair and kneel before her and take her hands in mine. She looks at me with those gorgeous brown eyes that are filled with love and life.
“You are the best thing that ever happened to me Harper. I will do everything in my power to make you happy and to keep you safe, Tesoro. Your presence is the light that shines in my darkness and I’ll follow it wherever it leads me.”
I kiss her hand and rest my head on her hand, with one hand she lifts my head. A smile stretches from ear to ear on her face and her eyes are watery.
“I like you a lot too.” She whispers.
I haven’t said those three words but somehow, she knows I do. I do love her. She leans down to kiss me and I kiss her back. In a way that feels like I could pour all my love into her through this kiss.
I keep h old of her hand and take the seat next to her. One of the girls gets busy with my hair and at my side somebody started on Harper’s make up.
About an hour later, the stylists and her team wrap things up and we both look amazing.
Harper is wearing a silver and black smokey eye and a subtle pink lipstick.
Her hair is styled in loose curls that cascade down her back.
The front is pulled back a bit but frames her face in the best way.
My own eyes have a darker smokey eye that makes my blue eyes pop, my lips are colored with a dark burgundy lipstick.
My hair is pulled in a tight bun with a few loose strands framing my face.
As we stand there gawking at each other in the mirror, the staff member from Dior walks into the room to help us with the gowns.
He starts helping Harper first, making sure the dress covers what needs to be covered and applies fashion tape on the places that need to stay in place.
She looks so goddamn beautiful my heart aces.
She truly is the light to my darkness in that sparkly silver dress.
Then it’s my turn and when my boobs are held in place with tape and the train flows just how it’s supposed too, we are ready.
“You look like a queen.” Harper says totally mesmerized by the dress.
“Thank you, babe. Now let’s get the crown that matches this dress.”
I text Elio to get the limo ready, after that I text my siblings that we’re about ready to go. They’ll drive in the car behind us to the venue. I look over to Harper who is filling up her clutch.
“My Go d, Tesoro. You look absolutely glowing in that dress.”
“It’s the sparkles.” She replies jokingly.
“No, it’s you. I don’t know how you do it but you’re positively glowing.”
Harpers cheek turn almost as red as her lips because of my compliment.
“Thank you.” She says shyly.
Elio walks into our room and lets out a whistle. “You both look amazing! Are you ready to go?”
“Yes almost, I just have to get one more thing before we leave.” I walk over to my closet and get my gun out of the safe behind the dresses and strap it to the holster on my thigh.
“Now I’m ready.”
“You know they’ll probably confiscate that when we enter the venue, right?” Elio nods to my leg.
“Probably, but I feel naked without it so it’s coming with me, especially now.”
Elio nods in agreement and turns to walk out of the room. I lay my hand on the small of Harpers back, grab my clutch from the dresser and we walk out to the elevator.
It takes us about forty minutes to get to the coronation venue, The Ebell of Los Angeles, it has a fascinating history of being a gathering place for women with a mission to empower them since the late eighteen hundreds.
It is the perfect place to proclaim a new era.
One where the mafia world will be led by a woman.
Nerves s warm in my stomach, I know Gianni must be watching from the shadows. I knock on the privacy glass between Elio and us, he lowers it.
“Is security in place? I don’t want Gianni within a five-mile radius of The Ebell when we’re here.”
“Everything is in place; we have men on a wide perimeter and inside the venue. Luca has tapped into the cameras and is helping them out with real time facial recognition.”
“Okay good, let’s hope everything goes off without a hitch.”
He brings up the privacy glass again and Harper and I sit in silence while we wait for the car to arrive at the front steps about ten minutes later.
I guide Harper up the steps and I hand over our invitation to the guy at the door. I don’t see a metal detector so hopefully they won’t check for weapons.
“You can go in miss— DiSanti, miss Davis.” The guy says in a low mumble.
We walk through the double doors into the lounge of The Ebell.
The room is filled with light through the large floor to ceiling windows, it brings out the ornate engraved ceiling.
Rich dark floors make the place look regal.
Throughout the grand space tables are already filled with guests and on the far end a podium is set up.
In the middle of the room there’s an open space where people are able to mingle and dance later in the evening.
We search for our names on the place settings and find that we’re at one of the tables closest to the podium.
Harper
I look around the room and I recognize a few of the Dons and their right-hand men from the meeting earlier this week. Every family has their own tables, I hear people talking in all type of different languages and accents.
“So, are these all mafia families from the states?” I lean over to Alessia.
“Most of them. I see some have brought over their people from Italy and I see some people of the Canadian branches.” Alessia replies.
“So… This is kind of a big deal then?”
“Yes, it is. All the families are somehow connected. And seeing as the DiSanti family is the leading family, people come to pay respect. And to see if they can stir trouble of course.”
“How often do you do these kinds of events?”
“The last one for our family was fifty years ago when my father received his crown.”
“And for the other families?”
“For them we do it differently, it’s much smaller, it’s more of a little gathering of the Dons for the new head of that family to declare the oath too them.”
I just nod.
Lorenzo and Bella join our table and I stand to hug them both. Lorenzo gives me a big bear hug and lifts me off the ground.
“You look amazing, Harper!” He proclaims.
He puts me back down on the ground and I turn to give Bella a hug. She’s wearing a loose navy ballgown with a puffy skirt and a sweetheart neckline, she looks like a princess with her hair in tight brown curls.
“Did you have to bring a date to this?” Alessia says to Lorenzo, her voice filled with irritation because of the woman next to him.
“Does it matter? It’s not like the world doesn’t know who or what we are and do. Those cops outside are all paid for by us. So, me taking somebody as my date shouldn’t be the end of the world. This is Amelia by the way, so nice of you to ask.”
“Hi, Amelia, I’m Harper.” I stick out my hand to shake hers.
Everyone takes their seat and the MC takes the stage.
We’ll start off with a five-course dinner, afterwards Alessia will speak the oath.
It’s crazy how my life flipped like this and now I’m a part of some mafia coronation of my girlfriend.