Chapter Two
NICO
“ N ico, you pay attention. You are the example for your brothers.” I kneel down and come eye to eye with my eldest. He is eight and is the copy-paste version of me. When I was younger, I would always cause trouble with my teachers. I decided to homeschool Nico, Matteo, and Luca just as my parents did. In this life, there are many people who are a threat to us and do not leave children and wives off the table for payback. Keeping them safe and giving them the best itemized education was a double win.
But Nico, the second, loves to give Mrs. Nelly a run for her damn money.
“Yes sir,” he says and I fix his bow tie.
All the boys wear a uniform for school. Nico is eight, Matteo nearing seven and Luca five. When Emelia was ready to have kids, I didn’t slow down. I kept knocking her up the second we got the clear after each one. We are currently trying for one more and I’ve enjoyed the process just as I do every time. Though I’ll admit, the long period of time that we have not been able to get pregnant has posed to be a frustration for us both.
“Good, Matteo and Luca, you be good. Listen to Mrs. Nelly. If she reports that you did all your work without giving her trouble, I will take us to Greta’s for dinner and Manny’s Pastry for dessert.”
“Yay!” they holler in unison. We have gone to Greta’s for a long time, and it’s become a family tradition.
“Good, say goodbye to Mamma.” I turn to Emelia, and she’s smiling wide at us. Such a goddamn goddess.
“Bye Mamma!” They hug her and she gives them each a personal goodbye before standing and letting them know we will be back soon. They all act like me with a wild side, but they crumble into putty with their mother. I always assumed I would have sons that would be raised to be ruthless and while they will one day run this outfit, Emelia is teaching them how to do it with a wiseness. I will teach them ruthlessness and she will teach them intelligence. My sons will be the new generation that the Mafia needs and my stubborn, hardheaded, yet soft and kind wife will play a huge part of that.
I would have never dreamed before Emelia, that I would let my wife have a say in my world. That was my plan all throughout my young adult life, but then my arranged wife, one who I had planned to destroy, caught me by the throat and I may run the Seattle streets, but Emelia Rene, runs the man behind the throne.
Once we are in the elevator, I pull my wife into my side and inhale her scent, kissing her forehead, temple, cheek, and lips. I was in Chicago for almost a week to handle a few men, a new shipment of cocaine, and my time away from Emelia was maddening. I hate being apart from my wife. She has become a fucking appendage to me. For the first few years of our marriage, I struggled with the idea that I could lean so heavily on her, without losing the authority I had known my whole life. In the Mafia, men do not fold for women, but I fucking topple over, crawl and kiss the fucking ground my wife walks on.
Learning to let Emelia have power in the marriage did not show weakness, it only showed my ability to be a leader who saw that women have worth. They are not used for fucking and reproducing children. They are meant to lead and teach boys how to be real fucking men. No one in the Mafia is more powerful than a Mafia king’s wife.
“What do you want for breakfast?” She smiles up at me sweetly.
“I know you told the kids we would get cannolis tonight, but I am craving one right now.” She giggles.
I chuckle back. “What principessa wants, she shall get.”
The elevator opens and Giulio is standing there waiting. The other residents pass by us with their heads down and eyes focused on anything, but my wife and I. Fear is fuel to me, however Emelia has a thing about wanting to get to know the neighbors. Baking pies, showing up and having casual conversations over dinner, isn’t really my style. But I make a great effort to put on a smile when one or two people accidentally look me in the face.
One man risks it and when I give him a curt nod and half grin, he scurries and Emelia chuckles in my side, nudging me softly in the ribs.
“Even your grin is scary. Best you leave it to me, my love.”
“This one.” I give her the same one.
“Okay, it’s not creepy to me because I know you, but if I knew you were the Mafia leader and you smiled at me like that, I would run the other way.”
“Is that right?”
We step out onto the street, and I usher her in front of me. Giulio would open the door, but he stops. For me, he opens every damn door, but with Emelia, if I am present, I open her doors.
“Yes, you can be very intimidating.” I grab her then and push her against the side of the large blacked out, nearly bullet-proof Range Rover. Her breath hitches. And I grab the plush, thick skin of her hip. Leaning into her ear, I bite the lobe, and she visibly shutters against me.
“You like my dominance, though, don’t you, baby?” I lean back just enough to where our faces are a mere inch or two apart. I’m bent over her, and I wear this nearly saddened face, trying to play a little game with my blue-eyed temptress.
“I—I—yes,” she stutters. Captivated. Strangled under my every fucking move, breath and word.
“If I reached into your little tight panties, I would find your pussy soaked. Wouldn’t I?”
She nods, her chest heaving.
“And if I bent you over in the back of this car and filled your ass with my cock while you choked on my fingers, you would love that wouldn’t you?”
She nods again, but groans this time, biting her lip. I sneak a look down to see her rubbing her legs together.
“You’re going to get that tonight. Now in the car. I’m hungry and your pussy isn’t available to eat out here.” I stand back to full height at six two and look around us, making sure no one is prowling. She rights herself and I adjust my fucking hard cock in my suit pants. Watching her round ass climb in, I take a deep breath and run my hand through my slightly longer slicked-back hair.
We both need sleep tonight, but there is no way we will be able to avoid taking out all this tension on one another when the sun sets on the Seattle skyline. Tonight, I’ll fuck her on every surface of our room. Finishing the night with her perfect, full breast against the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking our city. The one I own and that she has for ten years alongside me. Fucking my seed into her tight cunt. Marking my territory.
Breakfast passed far too fast and meeting her detail outside our penthouse to take over watch was worse than breaking limbs.
“Wait.” I bark at Giulio when he puts the SUV in drive. I want to watch her get inside like some teenage boy dropping off his high school date. With one more glance back at me, she blows me a kiss and it’s an arrow straight to my heart.
“Boss, to the club?” Releasing a lung full of air, I nod.
“Let’s get this over with. I want to be home with my family.”
“Yes sir.” We pull away and head downtown.
It’s noon and the nightclub on top of the hidden rooms and strip club is barren until opening hours. Stepping out of the SUV, I button my suit jacket and follow Giulio in.
A few of my men line the entryway hall decorated in deep olive-green suede walls. Stepping in, some of the waiters have already started their shift, preparing for a busy Friday night. Across the room are the elevators and stairs. We take the main elevator that only me and designated men can use, down to the bottom level.
“Tony said we have less than a week until the room will be done,” Giulio states, the elevator doors opening to the dark black room with deep wine-red accents. In the center of the room is an x-shaped stage that glows with a pearl-white display. The most expensive thing in this place is that stage. It is made up of over five hundred screens that we change with each set.
I take an immediate right and pass rooms one through three and right into construction.
“What the fuck is this. How am I supposed to open tonight! Has it been a mess like this all week?”
There is debris, sawdust and miscellaneous tools and items all over the place. It looks like a fucking mess. When I left Monday, it wasn’t such a disaster.
“No, sir.” Tony shakes his head rapidly. “We do a thorough clean hours before opening and shut the door.”
“Yeah, with giant fucking caution tape on the door like a goddamn eyesore!” I kick a piece of the wood sitting in the hall and it ricochets off the wall and down toward the powder room.
“I can remove the tape and add a knob with a lock, sir. We will remove it once it is done so that the door can’t be locked once it is in use.”
“Now we are using our fucking heads.” I step into the room and look around. The walls are being painted and the windows have gone up for the viewing room.
“We will finish painting and then add the custom cabinets, drawers and round it out with the industrial cemented floor you liked.”
“I want a door to the powder room from here with a keypad for our employees. Also, Tony, I was reading your proposal and didn’t appreciate you adding me to the list of men to try the room out.” I pause, my hands are inside my pockets and when we face one another his throat bobs thickly with his swallow.
“Sorry, sir, I just assumed?—”
I take two strides and have his neck in my hand instantly. “You assumed I would cheat on my wife, or do you have a problem with Mrs. Valiente, your regina?”
Tony is one of my men and he spearheads any construction on new ventures, homes, developments and more, but right now he is an enemy. Let’s hope he answers wisely.
“No,” he chokes out, my grip constricting his airways.
I shake him a little to continue. “I wanted to make sure you were included out of respect for you, it was an idiotic mistake on my part, sir. I respect both you and Mrs. Valiente.” I tighten just a bit more, his face going red, and just as I think he may pass out, I let him go and he falls to the floor, gasping for air.
“Good, now make the changes I requested and get this done.”
He nods, still trying to gain back his breathing and I leave him there to learn his lessons.
I would never cheat on Emelia and when I saw my name on that list, my blood boiled to a full eruption. I have looked at that contract over a million times and every time I looked at my name, it worsened the blow. Fuck anyone who would tempt our marriage, insinuate the idea or anything along those lines. Emelia is the only one I see in any room, in a crowd, she will always stand out and steal my attention. Was Tony innocent and including me because I own the fucking place? Sure, but that doesn’t mean he should remember to avoid that in the future.
“Back to business, call in the team.” I bark at Giulio over my shoulder as we make our way back up to my office. Home awaits.