11. Viviana #2
Zane’s eyes burn with fire as he zeros in on the person who made that comment. His hand flashes, and then the man’s hand is pinned to the table, impaled by Zane’s favorite knife.
“Never talk about Viviana like that.” His voice is dark, and a shiver goes down my spine at the sound of it.
My dad laughs, and everyone freezes at the sound. I turn to find him holding a hand over his stomach and laughing a full bellied laugh. When he’s finally able to calm down, he makes eye contact with me. “I’ll admit, I didn’t see the appeal at first with this one. I definitely see it now, though!”
“They all have appeal,” I snap at him.
That sobers him up a lot. Especially because he knows they all spent the night in my room. I hope he’s sitting over there and freaking out about the prospect of me having orgies all night under his roof.
Dad clears his throat. “There will be no further discussion on this. Now, who has something that needs to be discussed?”
Everyone pauses for a moment before someone brings up something else.
Over the next hour we go in circles, discussing revenue streams, rival family issues, and police interference.
Cain is able to give some great advice to keep our businesses under the radar of police detection, and ends up promising to make a report to hand off to dad with everything we can do.
Apparently, most of the ways the police detect crime are through AI detected patterns of purchases and things like that now.
“Okay, Is there anything else that needs to be discussed before we adjourn?”
One of the younger guys raises a hand like we’re in kindergarten. He’s looking down at his cell phone, which really shouldn’t be in here. But since he’s one of our tech guys he usually gets a pass. “One of my contacts just confirmed that the twins have shown up for the party tonight.”
It’s like a lead weight drops into the center of the room. “Who are the twins?” Sloane asks, noticing the tension.
“Vincenzo and Niccolò Moretti,” Enzo huffs.
The guys stiffen at that. “I thought they were all gone. Their empire fell, didn't it?” Cain demands.
I frown, but answer him anyway, “They did fall. Or most of them did anyway. The twins kept their noses clean, they were my grandparents' back-up plan. Their names were nowhere in any of the family businesses, they just ran the legit side of things. The twins received everything the feds couldn’t connect to a crime. Which was a lot, the Moretti’s were very good at using legit business to hide their criminal activity.
They’ve never tried to kill me or anything though, so I guess they make okay cousins. ”
“They can’t be trusted,” Enzo snaps.
I want to snap back at him, but he was there the whole time that family kept sending assassins after me.
I can’t blame him for labeling the whole lot as untrustworthy.
“Enzo. They’re fine. They used to play with me when I was a kid, when mom would take me to visit her parents.
They had nothing to do with what happened; they didn’t even know about the assassination attempts until well after the fact. ”
He turns a scathing glare on me. “And how the hell do you know that?”
I narrow my eyes at him. Sometimes he gets a little too overprotective dad on me. More-so than my own father, who treats everything as a learning experience. Get stabbed on a job? ‘What did we learn from that?’ Obviously I learned not to get fucking stabbed.
I guess I can give Enzo an answer since he’s the person who worries about me the most. “I ran into Nic when I was fifteen and snuck out. I just wanted to go to Starbucks. I’d never been inside a coffee shop before.
He was shocked when I freaked out and tried to stab him after he went in for a hug.
He was pissed as well, they had no idea.
He and Vin were preoccupied with other things around that time. ”
I wasn’t going to go into detail about the vicious custody battle that Vin has found himself at the center of, or the fact that we exchanged numbers and talk frequently.
Well, I actually haven’t talked to either of them since I ran away, and I should probably send them both a text from my new number because I miss getting updates about Ava.
She’s a few years younger than me, which is funny, my cousin’s daughter is closer to my age than my cousins are.
Enzo starts to argue with me, but my dad puts an end to that. “Okay, if that’s it then Viv has organized and decided on the promotions to replace the members we lost.”
Eyes turn to me and I straighten up in my seat. “First thing’s first, Kian will be moved up from soldier to Underboss.”
Protests start almost immediately, but I cut them off, “No arguments. I trust him, and I know Enzo has trained him well. As for the two Caporegimes, I’ve decided on Giovanna and Nico. And to replace Kian under Enzo, I’ve decided on Havana.”
The confused looks passing around the table tell me most of the people here don’t even know who she is. I’d initially dismissed her as well, but Nox convinced me, and now I’m sure Enzo can teach her some much-needed discipline. He taught me everything I know after all.
When there are no protests, I continue, “Under Giovanna, I’ve decided on the three Amato brothers, as well as Sofia. And Nico will get Romeo, Marco, Gemma, and Liliana.”
The crowd is not happy as I gather my things and leave the room.
But I am not sticking around for the arguments.
My dad is still in charge for now, so that makes it his problem to deal with.
The guys trail after me as Enzo objects from his spot against the wall.
Technically I’m in the family ranks, so a lot of the rules don’t apply to me.
Nevertheless, my dad didn’t excuse him from the table.
I grin as we head out into the main section of the club.
There are lots of people swarming around, and I easily pick out the matching heads of dark, wavy hair in a corner.
They are surrounded by women, and I make my way over there.
Nic is the first to see me. He sets down his beer and holds his arms open, making me smile asI throw myself into his embrace.
Vin sees me then, and a small smile spreads across his face too.
He’s always so reserved, so I’m not surprised when he just pats me on the back while Nic holds me.
“I’d hate to stab someone with so many witnesses, but I’ll do it if I have to,” Zane says, before gently grabbing my arm and tugging me away from Nic and Vin.
“You’re an idiot. They’re her cousins. Don’t you remember us just talking about that like ten minutes ago?” Sloane scowls.
Zane huffs at him, “That was before I knew they looked like that.” He points an accusing finger at the twins. “We’re criminals. You think incest would be the most taboo thing to cross their minds? I don’t think so.”
Vin’s nose curls at that. “Ew, she’s like two years older than my daughter.”
Nic holds his hands up. “Incest has never crossed my mind.”
Zane doesn’t seem to believe him, as he subtly pushes me toward Sloane so that I’m further away from the twins.
Vin’s eyes find Cain and his head tilts to the side. “Do I know you?”
Cain’s lips roll in. “Umm, yeah…”
“Well, this is awkward,” Zane says, rocking back and forth on his heels.
“No more awkward than you’ve already made it,” Nox tells him with a disapproving glare on his face.
“How do I know you?” Vin asks, ignoring the other guys.
I roll my eyes at them and elbow my way through them all. “This is Cain Price. He helped arrest your family.”
Complete silence is what I’m met with. Then Vin throws his head back and laughs. I glance at Nic, who is looking at his brother like his head has just done a 360.
“I think I broke him,” I say softly.
Vin slaps a hand on Cain’s shoulder. “That’s great. Can I shake your hand? Better yet, can we take a photo together? I want to send it as a postcard to my grandparents.”
“Is psychological divergence a family trait you inherited from your mother’s side? Honestly your dad seems pretty normal at this point,” Cain says, looking at me.
I shrug my shoulders because I have no idea what he’s talking about. My dad is crazy. Did he forget the whole promising me to a rapist thing? I’m not anywhere near as bad as him. Or maybe he just forgot about all the horrible things the FBI haven’t been able to prove my dad did.
“So, are you dating one of these guys?” Nic asks, keeping his eyes on Zane.
I don’t blame him. If someone threatened to stab me, my eyes would be glued to them too. “They’re mine,” I tell him firmly.
Nic does a double take. “They?”
I smirk at him. “Yep. Plural. They’re mine.”
I turn a glare on one of the girls who had been surrounding the twins, and who now has her attention on Cain.
She’s twirling her blonde hair around her finger, and she’s close to losing it if she doesn’t stop staring at him.
Her hair and the finger. Cain turns a disinterested glare on the girl and she shrinks in on herself before quickly muttering an excuse to leave.
Cain smirks at her retreating back, making me start to wonder if he just gets off on being an asshole.
“Sooo… You’re into a cradle robbing, pig?”Vin says in a droll voice.
Cain turns a glare on Vin, who has now switched from his buddy buddy vibe of a couple moments ago to the mafia leader he is.Well, this is going to end badly.
“Stop being an asshole. He hasn’t even used his twenty-four hours yet,” I tell him with a roll of my eyes.
I’m actually pretty upset by that fact. I kind of expected Cain to jump at the opportunity to have me for a full twenty-four hours all to himself. He’s kind of left me hanging at this point, and I’m starting to feel a little rejected.
“His twenty-four hours?” Vin questions.
“That’s not really relevant,” Nox cuts into the conversation, ending that line of questioning.
They’re quiet for a moment as they look between us suspiciously.
Vin’s got a strange expression on his face as he steps forward, lowering his voice, “I honestly don’t give a shit who Viviana allows into her bed, but if any of you step out of line or do anything to endanger or harm her, it won’t just be the Rossi family you’ll have to keep an eye out for.
We will come for you. And I can promise you that you’ll wish to be dead long before you are. ”
Zane smiles over at me. “I kind of like him. We should invite him over for French toast with Enzo.”
“That man is like fucking bloody Mary, say his name too much and he’ll appear,” Nic says, looking over my shoulder. I glance over to find Enzo pushing his way through the crowd, his eyes locked on Vin and Nic.
“You have our numbers. You can always call if you need anything,” Vin says, pulling my attention back to him and his brother.
Vin leans forward and places a soft kiss on my cheek. “Seriously, call. We were worried when we heard about what happened in Minnesota.”
A smile curves up the corners of my mouth and I wrap my arms around his waist, even if he isn’t a huge fan of hugs. When he pulls away, Nic wraps his arms around me and presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Be safe and remember to call Ava sometime. She misses you.”
I grin at that. I really do miss that girl too.
Vin and Nic slip into the crowd and are gone by the time that Enzo makes it to our group. “Where did they go?” he demands.
I shrug my shoulders. “Probably back to their guarded and armored brownstone where they’re safe from you.”
Enzo scowls at me. “I really wish you wouldn’t trust those boys.”
My eyes will probably fall out of my head with the amount of times I’ve rolled them today. “They’re good men. I trust them. Honestly, doing business with the twins is a big part of my plan to expand our family.”
Enzo’s eyes practically bug out of his head. “What?!”
I shrug. “They run a tight ship of legitimate businesses to hide their criminal activity. Since Vin took over the daily running of business, they’ve had way less arrests of their lower members.
I think doing business with them will help us strengthen our own legitimate businesses.
Plus they’re my family. They’re your family too, if you would just let them be. ”
Enzo scoffs, “I doubt it kid. That family forgot about me a long time ago.”
I frown at that. It’s true, they did. Enzo was being horribly abused at home, and they all knew about it.
Nobody tried to protect him. That’s why he followed my mom when she married my dad.
I think that’s part of the reason he’s so protective of me.
I lean into his side. “Sometimes you have to accept things as they are and not rely on how you feel about a situation.”
Enzo laughs. “Who the fuck told you something so stupid?”
I shrug once more. “A psychotic maniac.”
He throws his head back and laughs. At this moment, I really can see the family resemblance between Enzo, Vin, and Nic, and I have hope that one day they will get along. If my future plans work, they will need to.