Arranged (Carfano Crime Family #7)

Chapter 1

Santino

I tap my fingers on the leather beside my thigh and rub my chin, preparing myself for what I’m about to walk into.

Leo Carfano called a meeting with me, and as the head of the Carfano family, the most powerful of the four remaining families, he’s someone who leaves no room for any response other than yes.

The last time I made the drive to the Carfano building, I was with my father. I was the only one of the two of us to make it out of there alive, and for good reason. My father shouldn’t have gone against Leo. It got him a bullet in the brain from their enforcer.

We were supposed to merge the Carfano and Antonucci families last year with a marriage between myself and Leo’s sister, Katarina, but that didn’t happen.

And it was never going to happen so long as the Carfano’s enforcer had anything to say about it. Dante Salerno is not a man I’d ever cross or be the one that stands between him and his girl.

He probably contemplated killing me every which way to Sunday from the moment he thought I was going to be the man Katarina was going to marry.

After my father was killed, my grandfather officially stepped down as the head of the family, passing that title to me. Since I’ve taken over, the Carfanos and Antonuccis have been civil, with no bad blood harbored between us.

“You can wait out here,”

I tell my driver, Vince, when we pull up outside the Carfano building.

“Are you sure, Boss?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine.”

He nods, and I climb out of the back of the town car, looking up at the black building that holds not just my future, but my family’s.

I’m prepared for the same deal as last time.

I’m prepared to marry the girl I can’t close my damn eyes without seeing.

I’m let through at security with a simple nod and directed towards the elevators where another guard swipes a card to allow me access. He punches in a code and scans his fingerprint before hitting the button for the third floor and stepping back into the lobby like a robot.

Jesus, his job must be mind-numbingly boring.

The doors close and I stare at my stony reflection in the shiny metal, keeping my mask I shuttered into place the moment I stepped out of the car.

I know they know I’m here. I know they can see me in their security footage, and I refuse to show any emotion that they could misread into thinking I’m a weak pissant who will do whatever they want or say without negotiation.

I know they’re in trouble. I’ve heard the rumblings about the sabotage to their trucks over the last couple months, and I know they’re at the point of needing me if they called a meeting.

I hold the cards.

I have something they need, and if they want me to help them, then they’re going to give me what I want in return.

Who I want in return.

The elevator doors slide open and I take long strides towards the conference room occupied by a table of Carfanos.

I’m sure it’s meant to intimidate me, and if we were meeting in the basement like last time, I might be, but here in their glass castle, I find I’m not intimidated in the least.

They may hold more power than me, but I know they need me, which gives me all the power I need to push open the glass door and step into the room like I own the fucking place.

Like I’m one of them.

“Santino,”

Leo greets, standing to shake my hand.

“Leo,”

I reply in the same curt tone, gripping his hand firmly.

“Thanks for meeting us today.”

“Of course.”

I nod, then give a nod to the other men sitting around the table.

Luca is Leo’s brother and underboss.

Nico is Leo’s cousin and right-hand-man.

Basically, his second underboss.

Vinny is Nico’s brother, who runs Atlantic City and their casino, The Aces, along with Leo’s other brother, Alec, who is absent today.

Then there’s Stefano, Marco, and Gabriel.

They’re Leo’s cousins and the family’s main capos in their ranks.

Stefano is also the best hacker in the city, if not the entire eastern seaboard. His talents are well-known amongst all the organizations in the city.

“Have a seat.”

Leo gestures to the chair opposite his at the other end of the table. The chairs on either side of me are empty while they sit as a united front before me. It’s a glaring message as to how they view me. I’m opposite them. I’m separate from them.

Well, not for fucking long if I get what I want.

Seven pairs of eyes are on me, but I wait for Leo to speak first. “I asked you here because I wanted to discuss a business deal with you.”

“You need my trucks,”

I state flatly, and his eyes don’t give away a single emotion or ounce of surprise that I already know this. “How many have you lost now?”

“Enough that we’re having this meeting.”

“Someone is trying to ruin you and your reputation. Do you know who?”

“Yes, and I know you’re not involved,”

he tells me, as if that’s supposed to assuage me. I never knew he suspected me, but I should have.

My father went against Leo when he was contacted by the crazy fucking Albanian mafia leader of the Aleksanyan family. He stupidly agreed to give him the when and where of a meeting we were having with the Carfanos as a get-to-know-you lunch with Katarina.

That shit ended with bullets flying into the restaurant after my father and I left, and then a bullet in my dad’s brain when it was discovered he was the rat.

I swallow my feelings on that matter to remain focused on the here and now. My dad was an asshole and he didn’t think it through when he went against Leo. Hovan was a crazy motherfucker, but all my dad had to do was tell Leo what was up, and we could have smoked him out and taken him out. Together.

I hate my father for that. I hate him for a lot of reasons, but that’s the one that’s still touching me from his grave.

If I didn’t stand up and pledge my innocence to Leo and assure him of my ignorance to my dad’s plan, I would’ve been killed right alongside him. It was the truth, too. I didn’t know about what my dad did and I never would’ve agreed to it if he had brought it up to me.

If Hovan chose to come for us, we’d have had the help of the Carfanos. But of course, my dad was blind to the notion that all the top Carfanos would be taken out in one go rather than seeing the whole picture. He was always consumed with the need to be on their level rather than handling our business and growing our portfolios.

He was a power-hungry bastard.

Working with the Carfanos would have achieved us a new level of power, but of course, that wouldn’t have been good enough for my father. Leo would have gladly worked with us to take that fucker out.

Hell, he already wiped out the rest of his goddamn family, which is why Hovan was so hell-bent on destroying the Carfanos and anyone else who got in his way.

“I have no reason to want you or your family gone,”

I tell Leo. “If you are, then my family, and the others, are all fucked. Every foreign and domestic organization will move in and fight us for what you’d leave behind.”

Leo gives me a curt nod. “We recently found out that it’s some cousin of Hovan and Diran that’s seeking revenge.

He appears to have more stealth than his cousins by the way he’s been able to skirt our security and discover our routes, even though we alter them each time.

He’s been picking off our trucks one by one over the past few months, and just a couple days ago, he targeted and took out another two in the same fucking day. The trucks, their contents, and our drivers. All gone. Every time.”

“You have a broken link in your chain.”

Anger flashes in Leo’s eyes while his face remains like stone. “I know. He was dealt with last night. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a problem that you can help me with.”

“You need my trucks.”

“Yes. Your business is doing well, but if you merge with us, then you’ll be flushed with fucking cash.”

The Antonuccis have operated a fleet of refrigerated food, beverage, and liquor trucks that make deliveries all over the tri-state area.

Five years ago, though, my father expanded the business and aligned with the fucking Gulf Cartel to transport their drugs from shipping containers at Red Hook Terminal in Brooklyn disguised inside crates of coffee, to warehouses in the Bronx, Newark, Philly, and New Haven, where they cut and package it for distribution.

I never would have made that deal, but once again, my father was a greedy bastard that wanted to have as much power as the men sitting before me.

“I have conditions,”

I tell Leo.

“I thought as much.”

“I want out of the deal my father made with the Gulf Cartel five years ago. We pick up their product from the port, then transport it to four cities. I don’t trust them and I hate dealing with them. You can have those trucks if you can help me sever ties.”

Leo is quiet for a minute, and it’s Luca who clears his throat before speaking. “We can give the business to the Melccionas. I know they just got a blow from the Jamaicans who took over their smaller drug smuggling operation. They’d love a new in to the game and the cash flow.”

“Alright, we’ll schedule a meeting with them,”

Leo says, then cuts his eyes back to mine. “Done.”

“Not quite.”

Leo’s jaw flexes at my words. “What else?”

This is fucking killing him to not be the one who has what someone else needs for once.

“I want the same deal as last time.”

“And what exactly was that?”

Is he playing dumb?

“I want a connection to your family so I know you won’t screw me over and muscle me out once the ink dries on the contract. You wouldn’t fuck me over if I was married to one of your women. It’d fuck you over right back, and who knows what I’d do if I were angry enough.”

The tension in the room skyrockets in a matter of milliseconds at my declaration. “If that’s how you view marriage and women, what makes you think I’d allow that?”

Leo questions, his emotions finally cracking through his mask of steel.

“I never said that it was. I just stated what would happen if you chose to make a move to fuck me over and renege on our deal. I didn’t say I’d want to or would enjoy doing it. It’s just a promised consequence if it comes to that.”

I keep eye contact with Leo, never wavering, and not letting him find a single doubt in my gaze.

“As you know, Katarina is taken now.”

Leo’s eyes flick to Nico and Vinny, and I have to hold back from smirking like an asshole.

“I know.”

His brows twitch. “It seems you have someone in mind.”

“I want Mia.”

I can feel the glares of Nico and Vinny, her brothers, but my deal is with Leo, not them, so I keep my eyes on him.

“You want Mia,”

he states, his eyes narrowing.

“Yes.”

“Why her?”

“Why not her? I saw her at your wedding. She’s beautiful.”

When I saw Mia six months ago at Leo’s wedding, I was fucking awe struck. She’s fucking gorgeous. I spent the entire night watching her laugh, smile, and talk to her family. And when she got up to dance with her cousins, I had to hold back the urge to walk right up to her and wrap my arms around her waist and have her grind that sexy ass of hers against me.

She wasn’t hiding any of her curves in that silk bridesmaid dress she had on. My cock was hard as fucking steel from the moment I saw her walk down the aisle to the time I got home to jerk off, picturing everything I wished I could do to her.

Everyone watched Leo and Abrianna get married, but I watched Mia Carfano. The way her hips swayed, the way she smiled when they said their vows, and the way she teared up when they kissed as husband and wife. She blinked away her tears before they could fall, and I could see the mix of joy and envy in her gaze as she followed them back down the aisle.

Mia never once noticed me that night, but I noticed everything about her. And since then, I’ve learned everything I could find out about her.

“She is.”

His jaw ticks. “I could arrange for you to meet her.”

I can’t help the slight upturn of my lips. “Perfect. But it’s her or there’s no deal.”

Leo’s jaw flexes again, no doubt in an attempt to not tell me to fuck off. Vinny, though, isn’t as adept at keeping his emotions in check, because he grunts his opposition and I finally let my eyes flit over to his and Nico’s. Leo is able to school is emotions for the most part, but these two are showing nothing but anger and flat-out contempt towards me.

I know I should care what they think because they’re Mia’s brothers, but I can’t bring myself to at the moment. They can hate me all they want, but if they want this deal to happen, then I’m going to marry their sister and they’re going to have to accept that.

“We’ll talk to Mia and then we can all meet next Friday. And considering how the meeting of you and Katarina ended last year, you’ll come here,”

he says forcefully, his pointer finger touching the table to punctuate here. “Same time.”

“Sounds perfect to me.”

Standing, I make eye contact with each of the men around the table. “Until then.” I nod, and take my leave, waiting until I’m out of sight before letting my smile spread across my face.

She’ll soon be mine.