Chapter 6
Dante
Turning my family’s organization into a legitimate set of businesses has it perks. One is that I get to go into an office. That’s particularly good right now because it gets me away from the crazy fuck I married.
Don’t get me wrong, seeing Kuroi in that suit with his makeup was almost more than I could take. It took me everything I had not to run across the room and fuck him until I couldn’t see straight. The man has a way of making me feel things I know I shouldn’t.
But it’s hard to imagine us having any type of life together while I dodging his stabs. I’ve got to hand it to him, the man is quick. I couldn’t just hold him off to keep him away from me. He made me work for it. I had to lose my cool to keep him from killing me.
The crazy thing is that I don’t think he was trying to kill me. He was right, there were a number of arteries he could have gone after if he was hoping to end my life. That confuses the fuck out of me because if he was trying to kill me with a poisonous kiss at our wedding, why would he intentionally miss the killing blow when he had another opportunity?
It didn’t make sense. Of course, nothing made sense with that crazy fucker. One thing for certain was that I couldn’t turn my back on him. I was also going to have to pay Sato’s men a visit for what they did to Franko, the attendant at my building. The man has a family and needs to make a living.
He can’t come into work every day scared that doing his job will get his fingers broken. Now, not only do I have to pay his hospital bills and for his time off from work to get him to come back, but his Christmas tip has to be as much as a small car. Christ, how much will being married to Kuroi cost me?
“I heard Sato’s men attacked your doorman last night,” Matteo said when I entered my office to find him there.
I paused quickly assessing what was going on. I hadn’t had the chance to tell the rest of my family about the wedding. I was too busy recovering from an attempt on my life.
And last night after leaving the hospital, I was preoccupied with how I was going to break it to Sato that Kuroi and I wouldn’t be living together. That was, of course, before I got home to find him already there and looking like the most fuckable thing I’ve ever seen.
“There was an incident. I’m taking care of it,” I informed my brother before heading to my desk. “What are you doing here?”
“Pa sent me to check on you. He didn’t have enough time to see you at the hospital,” Matteo said playing the subtle game with a level of skill I didn’t think he had.
“There was no need to stop by. It was a brief stay.”
“A brief stay because you ran that beautiful car of yours into a tree. What possessed you to do that? The Dante I knew would need to get shot to do something like that.”
Hearing his reference to getting shot, I looked up at Matteo. Was this a new level to his subtle game?
“Why’d you say that?” I asked suspiciously.
“Say what?”
“That I would need to get shot to crash my car.”
“Because you would. You loved that car. You acted like you would take a bullet for that car,” he explained as I looked for any hint that he might have been behind the neck pinch I felt before I crashed.
“I didn’t love the car that much,” I told him when I didn’t spot anything.
“So, what happened?”
Not liking where his questioning was going, I settled at my desk and began my day.
“What happened was that I crashed.”
“But why? We had someone check in on the doctor but she wasn’t saying.”
“We?”
“Yeah, you know, Pa and me.”
“So it’s you and Pa now. After everything he put the both of us through, that’s still where your loyalty lies? After all of the cleaning up I’ve had to do with your messes?”
“Hey, I never asked you to do the things you’ve done,” he said defensively.
“You never had to. That’s what it means to be family. We look after each other. It would be good for you to remember that.”
“I remember that,” Matteo said backing down a little.
“Good,” I said turning my attention to my computer hoping he would see himself out.
“But, speaking of cleaning up my mess. Pa and me were wondering what happened with that idea you had about marrying one of Sato’s people?”
Did he know? He had to know something. If they knew what hospital I was in, it wouldn’t be hard for them to figure out what else is near there and then piece together why I was there.
Shit! I was going to have to tell everyone. And there was no way I was gonna avoid telling them that the head of the Ricci family had just married a man.
“Yeah, it’s been settled,” I said casually.
“How? When did this happen?”
“Yesterday. There was small ceremony at Sato’s place.”
The silence that drew out made me look up. Matteo was more than just stunned, he was white-faced.
“What do you mean there was a small ceremony at Sato’s place?”
“I took care of it.”
“You took care of it as in, you’re now a married man?”
“Yeah. I took care of it,” I said trying to raise my voice to make it seem like he was the idiot for making me repeat myself, but my heart wasn’t in it.
“So, my big brother and the head of the Ricci family got married with none of the family there?”
“Of course not. Lorenzo was there.”
Matteo, who had gotten up to talk to me across my desk, flopped down into a chair. He pulled on his face like his head was spinning.
“What? It’s not a big deal. There was a problem you caused, and like usually, I took care of it. What’s new about that?”
“What’s new is that you got fuckin’ married.”
“Yeah,” I confirmed starting to get a little confused regarding what we were talking about.
“My big brother, who I always imagined standing by his side on his big day, got marriage and the only one there was Lorenzo?”
“Matteo, it’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal? Dante, Ricci’s only get married once. You hear me? Once! And now, the person I admire more than anyone in this world is married, and I wasn’t there to bear witness to it?”
“Bear witness to it? What are you talking about, Matteo. It’s not a big deal.”
Staring at Matteo, I saw his eyes get glassy. What was going on? I had once watched him nearly beat a man to death. I had watched our father almost beat him to death. And not even then did he cry. I was starting to think that I might have done something wrong.
“Okay,” Matteo said pulling himself together. “Then can you at least tell me who my new sister is?”
My chest tightened like a drum. His new sister? The idea that I could be with a man wasn’t even imaginable to him. I didn’t know if I could do this.
“It’s a little more complicated than that.”
“More complicated? How can it be more complicated?”
There was no way of escaping this, especially with my new husband having moved in with me. I glanced down at the papers on my desk not able to meet his eyes.
“Look, what you did was bad. I had to stop a war. Who knows how many people would end up dead if I didn’t make this move.”
“What are you saying?”
“What I’m saying is that I didn’t marry a she. It’s a he.”
Shock overwhelmed my brother. Every second that went by without him speaking made my trigger finger nervous.
“What are you thinking, Matteo?” I asked wondering if I was gonna have to get physical.
“I…”
“You what?”
“I don’t understand,” he said looking genuinely confused.
“Look, it turns out that Yuki wasn’t available. I think she was promised to someone else or some shit. And since we needed to make this work, the only option was Kuroi.”
Matteo flinched in surprise. “Kuroi? You mean, the fuckin’ Black Widow? What the fuck, Dante?”
“Don’t believe that Black Widow bullshit. I’ve met him. He’s a perfectly reasonable guy.”
As proof I could add that he didn’t even cut an artery when he stabbed me multiple times the night before.
“Reasonable guy? Dante, haven’t you heard. That guy’s a psycho! Yeah, he’s not bad to look at if you’re into that sort of thing.” Matteo paused. “Dante, are you into that sort of thing?”
Fuck! That was a point blank question. I had managed to avoid this type of question my whole life. Marry one man and the shit just hits the fan.
“You know me, right, Matteo? You know me. I am willing to do whatever it takes to protect this family. We need this connection.”
“We don’t need it that much.”
“Matteo, we need it! You don’t know what type of shit your acting out put us in!”
“You being forced to marry someone you don’t want to would never be worth it. It was one thing when I thought it was Yuki. I could see the two of you really working together. But Kuroi? The guy’s a psycho. Nothing is worth that. I mean, if you’re not into it,” he said suggestively.
“What’s done is done. Do you hear me? And secondly, now that he is my husband, I can’t have you goin’ around disparaging him like that. Do you hear me? You disrespect him, you’re disrespecting me.”
Matteo looked at me shocked.
“I said, do you hear me!”
“Yeah, of course. Whatever, Dante,” my brother said looking very confused.
We both stared at each other in silence for a moment. I didn’t know what he was thinking but I had gotten it out.
“Is this gonna be a problem?” I asked my shell-shocked brother.
“Of course not, Dante. No problem.”
“Good. Is there anything else?”
“One thing. How are you planning on breaking this to Pa? I mean, you know me, I’m open minded. But he isn’t exactly from our school of thought.”
Our school of thought? What exactly was Matteo saying to me?
“I assume that you’re gonna run back to him with this?”
“I’m hoping I don’t have to?”
“You don’t have to do shit.”
“Dante, you married a fuckin’ man! No disrespect for it. But, he’s gonna find out.”
Matteo was right. He couldn’t be blinded-sided with this. Coming from the wrong person, he was likely to kill them for telling him.
I grabbed the stitches that I had to do myself locked away in my room.
“You alright?”
“I’m fine. Seat belts keep you alive, but…” I said implying that my discomfort came from that.
“Wait. Did your accident have anything to do with getting married at Sato place yesterday?”
How did I explain that?
“It happened when I was driving away.”
He looked at me confused.
“So, what happened to Lorenzo? Didn’t you say he was there with you?”
“Not when I was heading out.”
“Why wasn’t he with you when you were heading out?”
“I needed to go out and get some fuckin’ air. Do you have a problem with that?”
Matteo backed off.
“I don’t have a problem with it. I’m just trying to understand what happened. You know Pa is gonna ask me about this.”
“Just tell him, what you know. I don’t have any secrets.”
“Are you sure about that?” he asked me cutting to the heart of things.
“Look. Tell him what you gotta tell him. I have nothin’ to hide. I did what I had to do. Now it’s done.”
“You know Ma’s gonna want to meet him, right? She’s gonna expect you to bring him by for Sunday dinner. There’s no way you’re gonna escape that.”
Oh fuck. He was right. No matter what Pa thought about this, Ma was gonna welcome him into the family. She’s gonna want to have him over and she’ll expect him to act like a part of the family.
How was I gonna bring my crazy new dress-wearing husband to one of our off-the-rail family dinners. If anyone says anything about his dresses, someone could end up dead.
“You keep reachin’ for your side. Are you sure you’re okay, Dante?”
“I’m fine.” I told him starting to wonder if what I had was a panic attack. Or maybe the walls really were closing in on me.
“Listen, I gotta get to work. Is there anything else you need from me?”
“Yeah, I need you to break this news to Pa so I don’t have to.”
“Noted.”
“And I need you to reassure me that this whole thing isn’t gonna blow up in your face.”
“Everything’s under control.”
“I hope it is,” Matteo said with true concern. Turning to go, he said, “Maybe you, me, and your new husband should go out for a test run before you introduce him to the rest of the family. You know…”
“…Because we can’t be sure if the rest of the family thinks like us?”
“Exactly.”
“I’ll think about it,” I told him turning my focus to my computer monitor.
When Matteo closed the door behind him, I looked up. The air refilled my lungs like a wind tunnel. Everything about our conversation was unexpected. Out of everyone, I thought Matteo would take me being with a man the worst. He wasn’t exactly known for thoughtful contemplation.
But he had said that no one else could be trusted to think like us. What exactly did that mean? How did we think?
I’ve never known my pretty boy brother and I to think alike about anything. But he definitely meant something by it. The question was, what?
Another question was, how was I going to break it to our father that I had married Sato’s son. Yet another question was, would Kuroi kill me before I got the opportunity
The guy really was insane. Nice to look at, like Matteo had said, but completely insane. He stabbed me during our first night together. For what?
Maybe I just needed to give him some space. This couldn’t have been his idea to get married. Maybe if I gave him a wide berth, he’ll get use to things and he wouldn’t be so stabby next time. Or maybe I should just hide the knives.
How the fuck did I get myself into this? Fuckin’ Matteo!
Having come up with a vague outline for how I was going to handle Kuroi moving forward, I turned my attention to the other matters at hand. First off, someone had tried to kill me. Having failed, they were going to try to again.
Secondly, I couldn’t trust our father to just accept me being in charge. He was going to try something. It was just a matter of when.
Touching base with Lorenzo about what I thought was going on, I left out the part about my new husband trying to turn me into a shish kabab. He suspected that it was Kuroi behind my passing out before the crash. Leaving out that Kuroi had purposefully not killed me, made it hard to explain why I had my doubts about that.
“He kissed you, minutes later, you crashed,” he told me over lunch.
“If he wanted me dead, he could’ve killed me while I slept,” I said even though I didn’t sleep a wink last night.
“Wait, how could he? Does he even know where you live?”
“Of course he does. He moved in.”
Lorenzo froze about to shove a piece of lettuce into his mouth.
“I thought you said you two would live separately?”
“Don’t go puttin’ words in my mouth,” I said playing off anything I might or might not have said.
“I’m not tryin’ to put words in your mouth. I just thought you said it.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
I was sure that I thought it. And that might have been the plan. But, I wasn’t sure that the words came out of my mouth.
“Anyway, how was your first night as a married man? Everything nice and consummated?” he joked.
“That will be the day,” I replied way more turned on by the thought of it than I was gonna let on.
“So, when am I going to meet my new brother?”
“What is with everybody being in rush to meet him?”
“Everybody?”
“You, Matteo.”
“Matteo knows? What’d he say?” Lorenzo asked weirdly interested.
“You know our brother.”
“Huh,” Lorenzo huffed before returning to his lunch.
“He did say something interesting, though. He said that Ma was gonna expect me to bring him by for dinner.”
“Ha! That is a dinner I would come for,” he said amused.
“Yeah. Imagine that?”
“There’s no imagining. He’s right. Ma’s gonna make you do that,” he said casually.
“You think?”
“I know.”
“Huh,” I said thinking about that. “Matteo did say something else.”
“He was just full of interesting thoughts today.”
“Yeah. He said that maybe I should invite Kuroi to have dinner with someone from the family first. You know, to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“What could go wrong?” Lorenzo said with a laugh.
“Exactly. So, what do you think?”
“What? With me? I would love it. It’ll also give me a chance to figure out if he’s the one who tried to kill you.”
“I don’t think he’s trying to kill me,” I said dismissively.
Lorenzo looked up at me amused.
“Who would have thought, Dante Ricci, blinded by a pretty face? Ha!”
I didn’t respond. First off, I didn’t like my brothers thinking they could comment on my husband’s looks like that. Let’s have some respect. Bat-shit crazy or not, he was still my husband. They were gonna have to understand that.
Second, they weren’t wrong. I could feel a blind spot developing for Kuroi. Anyone else do to me what he did and I would have ended their life right there. I wouldn’t have just choke the life out of them, I would have tossed them off my balcony.
It was more than needing things to work out between our two families that kept me from killing him. The man was a live wire that I wanted to touch.
Drawing out things at work as long as possible, eventually I headed home. Driving in my rental, I could feel my palms sweat. None of this was me. I didn’t get nervous about anything. So, why was I feeling this way now?
Parking and heading into the lobby, I was reminded what I was walking into by Franko’s replacement.
“Good evening, Mr. Ricci,” he said opening the elevator for me.
“Evening.”
When the elevator door closed behind me, I forcefully inhaled. I couldn’t breathe. I never felt like this. What was going on?
Hearing the bing as the door opened, I realized that whatever I was feeling was a little too much. I needed to get into my room as fast as I could and come up with a way to handle things.
Stepping out of the elevator, I instinctually looked around.
“Hey Honey, you’re home!” my husband said from the kitchen.
I knew I should have kept going, but I couldn’t. The man was wearing a 1950s checkboard dress full with pearls, an apron, and a dish of casserole in his hands.
“What’s on your face?” I said before I could stop myself.
“What do you mean?” He said smiling at me in full white face like one of those Kabuki performers.
I laughed. Maybe it wasn’t a laugh. It might have been more of a dismissive humph. In either case, it was then that my legs started moving and I continued to my room.
You would think, as skinny as he was, my new husband wouldn’t be able to throw a casserole dish like he did. But he could. And his aim was spot on.
Not only did he manage to hit me with it from across the room. But the dish caught me on the one spot that could drop a person if caught exactly right. I was on the ground before I knew it.
Lying defenselessly, I half expected to be turned into Swiss cheese. Not this time. This time, he pulled the apron strap from over his head and wrapped it around my throat. You had to give him points for improvisation.
I mean, someone had to. I was too busy trying to stay alive. If I didn’t get up, I was sure that I was never going to again. This time he really was trying to kill me. At least I wouldn’t have to listen to my father say he told me so. Or listen to Ma tell Kuroi embarrassing stories about my childhood.
Strangely, it was the thought of Kuroi sitting in my childhood living room hearing stories about me from Ma that kept me from giving up. I think there was some part of me that wanted that.
Before this moment, I could never have imagined a husband truly being a part of my life. But that was what I wanted. It had always been what I wanted. I had never let myself acknowledge it before, but that was the version of my life that was worth fighting for.
With a new focus, I reached behind me and grabbed the apron string. Pulling it just enough, I was able to twist throwing him off balance. With the apron string loosening more, I yanked him towards me, grabbed his dress, and tossed him over my head.
Rolling forward, he didn’t stop until he was again on his feet. But he was faced the other way. This was my chance. Struggling for air, I shot to my feet and dove for his waist.
The man wasn’t a spider, he was a cat. Twisting around as I caught him, I half expected to feel a knife sever the carotid artery in my neck.
Alive for another second, I let instincts take over. Disabling him, I spun and threw his shoulder onto the ground. It startled him. It was enough for me to wrap my large hands around his skull. Knowing this was life or death, I slammed it against the floor.
That stunned him. Rolling on top of him, I wrapped my hands around his throat and tightened my grip. I could see the life slip out of him. His was such a beautiful face. The sharp cheekbones, prominent eyebrows, silky brown complexion. What was I doing?
Catching myself as I saw blood below his nose, I eased back without letting go. Where was he bleeding? Even now my desire to protect him was strong.
‘Oh shit, it’s coming from me. And it’s gushing.’
It looked like Kuroi didn’t need to strangle me. He had opened a gash big enough on my head that given enough time, I would bleed out.
“You crazy fuck,” I said letting him go and grabbing my skull.
“How would you know?” he coughed out.
“What?” I asked confused if he was flirting with me or questioning my judgement.
Not taking my eyes off of him, I stumbled to my feet and applied pressure to my head waiting for the elevator. When it arrived, I backed in, stared into his intense eyes, and waited for the doors to close.
Safe, I knew what I had to do. I needed to get help and I needed it fast. With every passing second, I would be weaker. And I could stick around here because if my psycho husband decided to take a second whack at me, there would be nothing I could do but die.
“Mr. Ricci, are you alright?” the lobby attendant asked as I rushed past him.
“I’m fine.”
“Do you need me call someone?”
“No!” I ordered making sure he saw the look in my eyes.
It worked. At least I hoped it did. Looking down, my clothes were beginning to look like I went to prom in a horror movie. I had to get out of here. I needed to get into my car and get to the one place I knew I would be safe.
Approaching Lorenzo’s apartment, I found a spot on the sidewalk to park and shut off the engine. I’m not gonna lie to you. I probably shouldn’t have made it. I was seeing double of everything on the drive over and it was a miracle that I kept choosing the right car to ignore.
Pulling out my phone I found Lorenzo’s name and called.
“What’s up, Dante?” Lorenzo asked a little confused.
“I’m downstairs. Bring your kit. Someone got me good.”
“Coming down now,” he said again proving that he was the one person I could count on.
Feeling my vision dip in an out, it felt like forever before I saw my brother and my car door opened.
“Shit! What happened?” he asked reaching for my head instead of waiting for an answer.
“I fell,” I mumbled.
“Right,” he chuckled. “And how’s married life?”
“Peachy,” I replied before the sting of alcohol sent shockwaves across my face.
“Someone did get you good,” he confirmed. “Remind me to go for the head next time I need to take someone out. I’m surprised you even made it here.”
After what felt like five stitches, he handed me a meal replacement drink and straw, closed my door and got into the passenger seat. To my relief, he didn’t ask me any questions. At least, not until I had gotten half of my drink down.
“You’re not planning on going home, are you?”
“Why not? I told you, I fell.”
“Into what? A bat?”
“It was a casserole dish, actually. My loving husband had just made me dinner.”
Lorenzo looked at me not knowing what to believe.
“You want to come up?” he asked unsure what else to say.
“I might need a minute before I head home,” I told him embarrassed.
“Get out,” he said before switching seats with me and driving my car into his building’s underground parking lot.
Giving me another second before we got out of the car, I saw him texting someone.
“You’re gonna keep this shit between us, right?” I said in a way that let him know I was serious.
“What are you, insane? Of course,” he said continuing to text.
I let it go and eventually I could see straight for long enough to get out of the car and head to the elevator. Getting off on his floor, I saw a guy heading towards us in the hallway. Lorenzo was going to have to handle this because I couldn’t. I was the one covered in blood. I was in no position to threaten anyone into silence.
To my surprise, Lorenzo didn’t handle it. There was no need. The man didn’t look at either of us. What made it stranger was that Lorenzo didn’t look at him. It was like I was seeing someone who wasn’t there. He was, though. There was no doubt about that.
“Go clean up. I’ll bring you some clothes,” he told me as we entered his apartment.
With a reminder for which door was the bathroom, I headed in and slumped onto the basin. Looking up into the mirror, I wondered how I was still alive. My face was mostly blood. It looked like I had bathed in the shit.
How the fuck did I get myself into this? Was Kuroi really out to kill me? I couldn’t tell if he was doing a piss poor job of it or if he was toying with me.
And what did “How would you know?” mean? How did I know he was a crazy fuck? Because he threw a casserole dish at me. Or, was he suggesting something about what would happen if we had sex? How crazy good could fucking him be?
“I got these,” Lorenzo said bringing me back to the present.
I looked at the t-shirt and sweat pants in his hand. Was he kidding?
“It’s the only thing I have that would fit you.”
He was probably right. Not only was he shorter than my six foot four inches, he didn’t have my build.
“Sit down. I’ll do it,” he insisted when he saw that I was gripping onto the basin for dear life.
I slowly straightened my back and unbuttoned my shirt. When I took too long, he took over and pulled my shirt down past my shoulders.
“What the fuck?” he said seeing the stitch job I did on Kuroi’s love tap the night before.
I looked away embarrassed and he didn’t say anything else about it. Instead he pushed me toward the toilet and had me sit down on the closed lid.
Having Lorenzo clean me off felt familiar. Growing up there were five of us, but it was more like there was me, and then there was Matteo, Giovanni, and Marco. Giovanni and Marco were too young to know any better, but Matteo used that to his advantage. The three of them would ambush me usually with Matteo hitting me in the head with one of the younger one’s toys.
Just because it was made for kids didn’t mean it couldn’t draw blood. When I wasn’t knocked unconscious, Matteo would pay for it, of course. But when I would gush like I did tonight, it was in everyone’s best interest that I be patched up as quickly as possible.
That was when Lorenzo stepped in. Lorenzo sewed his first butterfly stitch when he was ten. We all considered him neutral territory. It allowed him to get good at it. Because if Matteo drew blood, it was just a matter of time before I gave Matteo a limp for a month. It was amazing how that boy never learned his lesson. He has a thick head to this day.
“I have Chinese if you’re still hungry,” he told me as he finished up.
“I could eat,” I told him knowing I still wasn’t strong enough to go anywhere.
Changing into Lorenzo’s clothes, I joined him at the table.
“Did I interrupt something?” I asked noticed how put together the things on the table were.
“What could you interrupt?”
I stared at my black box of a brother realizing he wasn’t gonna give anything up. So instead I joined him at the table and dug in. Food was just what I needed. I ate until I couldn’t move.
“You can stay in the spare room.”
“I don’t need to stay in your spare room,” I said feeling pissed off at his suggestion. What did he think, that I couldn’t take care of myself?
“Dante,” he said looking at me with sympathy, “I know why you did it. And it’s commendable. You’re doing more for Matteo than I would. But, the man you married is trying to kill you.”
“He’s not.”
“You’ve been married to him for three days and have been stitched up as many times.”
“I was in the hospital for a car accident.”
“… Five minutes after marrying the man known as the Black Widow because everyone he’s with dies from a heart attack. I can’t remember, what caused you to run into that tree, again?”
Lorenzo was being an asshole about it, but he wasn’t wrong. Unless it was a panic attack that caused me to hit that tree, I had to accept that it had to do with Kuroi’s kiss. That made it three times.
But, if Kuroi was trying to kill me, why hadn’t he just done it that first night. He had a knife. He knew where to aim it. Why hadn’t he tried to break into my room when I was supposed to be asleep and finish me off?
Even tonight. Who makes a casserole and tries to murder someone with the dish? There has got to be more to what’s going on than him being a raving maniac with impeccable fashion sense.
Speaking of, why was he dressed like that when I got home? I’ve never had a fetish. But that man was definitely doing something to me. If he ever stopped trying to kill me, I would do incredibly dirty things to him.
“Did you hear me, Dante? You can’t go home. I need more time before I take over the family business. So, I need you alive a little longer.”
My eyes locked on him giving him a death stare. He wasn’t joking. He also wasn’t backing down from what he said.
I could respect that. Lorenzo knew what he wanted and didn’t try to hide it. He wanted my job but wasn’t willing to kill me for it. He should have that type of ambition. I could work with that.
He didn’t have what was needed to run the family. Neither he nor Matteo did. Combine the two and they would be a dangerous force. But running a family required letting people inside. It might frustrate the hell out of you like Matteo frustrated me. But it was what was necessary. Lorenzo couldn’t do that.
And what Matteo needed was some of Lorenzo’s foresight. Hell, Matteo just needed not to act on whatever random thought went through his head. Not even our father ran the business that way and we had barely survived it.
“You’re my brother. Don’t make me have to put you in the ground,” I warned him.
“You think you could if you tried?” he asked with a smile.
What did he mean by that? Of course I could. Was he better at building allies than I gave him credit for?
“Don’t make me have to try,” I said staring him in the eyes.
“You can sleep in the spare room,” he replied leaving the table and heading to his room.
I had to watch Lorenzo. He was the last person I would expect to betray me. But that made him the most dangerous.
Sitting for a while longer, I eventually took Lorenzo up on his offer and retired to his spare room. In spite of Lorenzo’s open challenge, I slept well that night. I hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before, so I needed it. And when it came time to return home the next morning, I found Kuroi sleeping in my bed.
I was quiet so I didn’t think I had woken him. That allowed me to stare at my new husband, the beautiful boy in my bed. He slept so peacefully under my sheets. I couldn’t help but like that. At the same time, why hadn’t he slept in the spare room?
How amazing would it be if I was in that bed with him? He would fit so comfortably in arms. I could hold him and protect him from the world if he let me. But maybe I was thinking about this wrong.
I hadn’t been in this position before.There had been guys in my bed but none of them were allowed to spend the night. Kuroi looked like he belonged there. But maybe I was projecting what I wanted onto a man who was lying in wait to kill me.
Closing my eyes and shaking the thought out of my head, I headed for my bathroom and began my day. As I stood under the shower, everything hurt. I felt like I was being held together by threads at this point. And after taking way too long to get dressed, the opening bathroom door grabbed my attention.
Staring past my changing room to the bathroom, our eyes met. Kuroi was dressed in nothing but boxer briefs. For the first time I was seeing him. No crazy outfit or face paint. Just him. All of him. My crotch tightened at what I saw.
“Let me help you,” he said in a soft voice headed towards me.
I quickly assessed the weapons he could use between where he was and where I was as well as the placement of my gun. Turns out I didn’t need any of them. The only thing he reached for was my shirt. Feeling his body heat wash over me, I could smell his faint scent as he pulled the shirt over my shoulders.
With that done, he buttoned me up. I couldn’t tell if he saw the stitches on my side. If he did, he didn’t react to it. He simply tucked my shirt into my pants and searched my closet for a jacket. Retrieving one, he handed to me.
“I don’t need it,” I told him never wearing a jacket to the office.
“You would look good in it,” he said, shaking it in front of me.
I couldn’t refuse him. Staring into his mesmerizing eyes, all I could do was give him what he wanted.
Taking the jacket, I stuck my arm in a sleeve. Again unable to pull it over my shoulders, he helped me with it and turned me towards the full length mirror. Standing behind me he stared at me in it. Liking what he saw, he smiled.
“Better?”
“Yeah, better,” I replied referring to everything that was going on.
“Would you like me to make you some breakfast?”
“You make breakfast?” I asked him surprised.
“I have a phone,” he joked.
I laughed, but only briefly. I hadn’t forgotten how he had responded the last time I had laughed at him. Remembering that, I walked out of his hands and headed for the door.
“I have to go,” I said hurrying out.
“See you tonight?” He said leaning against the doorway of my bedroom.
I flinched.
What did that mean? Sure, he was being nice this morning but wasn’t he nice to me yesterday morning as well. What body part would I have to sew up tonight?
This was ridiculous. His mood swings were out of control. Yeah, I probably hadn’t reacted in the best way when I saw him last night. But his response had been above and beyond. If he were anyone else, he would be dead right now.
The problem was that he wasn’t anyone else. He was Kuroi Sato, my husband. That fact alone meant I didn’t have the same options. I was defenseless against him. And if I didn’t get control of things before he realized it, I was in trouble.
Getting into my car, I dialed the only person I could trust.
“Lorenzo, meet me in my office in an hour.”
“I’ll be there,” he agreed sounding like he knew what it was about.
Staring out at the city from my office window, Lorenzo entered all business.
“You’re right. I have a problem at home and I need your help,” I admitted, as hard as it was to say.
“You want me to take care of him?”
Just hearing him say it sent me into a fury.
“Don’t you ever fuckin’ say those words again.”
Lorenzo didn’t flinch. Instead, he tilted his head like a curious puppy.
“Then why did you ask me here?”
“I need your brain. I need a way to solve this.”
“So, you want me to get him to kill you slower?”
“I told you. I don’t think he’s trying to kill me.”
He laughed.
“I’m serious.”
Frustrated, he replied, “You kissed him and then immediately drove your car into a tree. Give me an alternative explanation for that.”
I thought about what the doctor said about me having a panic attack.
“I felt something on my neck.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Right before I passed out.”
“What did you feel?”
“It felt like someone shot me but,” I touched the spot letting him see it, “no wound.”
“What feels like a gunshot but doesn’t leave a wound?” Lorenzo thought about it seriously. “Have you ever been hit by a Taser?”
“No. What does it feel like?” I asked intrigued.
“Like you’ve been shot.”
“But I was driving when I felt it.”
“How fast were you going?”
“You saw the wreck. Pretty fast.”
Lorenzo’s head bobbled considering it.
“There are other things.”
“Like what?”
“Like what you use to bring down a bear.”
“Like a tranquilizer gun.”
“Possibly. It would take a hell of a shot, though.”
“Who do we know that could make a shot like that?”
As soon as I asked, Lorenzo and I thought about the same person. I could tell by the way he looked at me. Matteo made a lot of impulsive decisions. But give him time and a sharpshooter rifle and what’s in his sights is the only thing that exists. Through an open window traveling at 40 miles an hour, the only one who could make that shot was my brother.
“We can figure that out later,” I said not wanting to say what we were both thinking.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“So, if Kuroi isn’t tryin’ to kill me, how do I stop him from killing me?”
“Gather intel, assess the situation, and come up with a plan,” he suggested.
“Right. Who would have intel on Kuroi? Everyone who has known him best is dead.”
“Not everyone,” Lorenzo suggested telling me what I had to do next.
Keeping eyes on Yuki Sato wasn’t something the Ricci family often did. We knew of her. We had a general idea of how she spent her day. But considering she wasn’t Sato’s heir apparent, it wasn’t a priority.
Having said that, we knew where to find her on any given day if we had to. And now I had too. It being Thursday, she was most likely at the flower market. That made things simple. Because the two of us needed to have a conversation about her brother, and I knew how to find her.
Sitting at a coffee shop across the street from her favorite flower stand, I held up a newspaper and kept an eye out. My intel told me that she bought camellias in the winter and lilies in the summer. It was still lilies season and she would get them in white.
Like clockwork, she appeared. Even without the traditional garb she wore to social events, she was hard to miss. Put together perfectly in a sleeveless summer garden dress, she carried herself with the elegance I once imagined bringing honor to the Ricci family. Instead, I ended up with Kuroi. Sure, he was hot as hell. But he was more likely to get us into a war than Matteo was.
Quickly folding my paper and crossing the street, I approached Yuki.
“Yuki, can I talk to you a second.”
Instead of being startled, Yuki didn’t even look up.
“Mr. Ricci, it is pleasant to see you.”
“Pleasant to see you too. Listen, I was wondering if I could talk to you about Kuroi.”
That was when she turned around and stared at me.
“It would be improper to involve myself in my brother’s marriage.”
“Right. Of course. Proper. Yeah, fuck that. I need your help or either me or your brother is gonna end up dead. And, you can rest assured that if something happens to me, everyone in your family is next.”
“So, what you’re telling me is that I have no choice but to talk to you?” she asked calmly.
“What I’m sayin’ is, we gotta talk.”
Yuki returned to her shopping.
“Perhaps my honorable brother-in-law would like to join me for tea once my shopping is done.”
I didn’t like being rescheduled.
“Where?”
“There is a tea shop two blocks from here. Are you familiar with the area?”
I knew where she was referring to. It was where she always went after buying white lilies.
“I know where you’re talking about.”
“Then I will see you there,” she said dismissing me and going about her business.
I had to admit, our interaction didn’t go as planned. Everything I personally knew about her made me think that she would bow her head and avert her eyes the whole time. She had more backbone than I would have guessed.
Leaving her to do her thing, I headed to the tea shop and found a table. She did not rush over to join me. It took 45 minutes for her to arrive and by then, I was a little pissed. There was only so long I could sit still with my stitches starting to itch.
“Mr. Ricci,” she said with a humble bow.
Everything about her was polite. Everything except her actions.
“You’re my sister, now. You can call me Dante.”
“Very well, Dante.”
She stood until I got up and pulled out the seat for her. She then sat quietly staring at me until I had called the server over and had allowed her to order. She was not what I had expected.
“So, your brother, what’s his deal?”
“You will have to be more specific,” she said never taking her eyes off of me.
“Your father send him to kill me, or what?”
“That is something that you will have to talk to Kuroi or my father about.”
“Right,” I said not knowing what I was supposed to ask. “Okay, listen. You know your brother.”
“I am familiar with him.”
“And you know about his reputation.”
“I’m not sure which reputation you’re referring to.”
“I’m talking about the Black Widow, one.”
Yuki shifted uncomfortably.
“You know, the one where all of his lovers end up dead.”
She stared at me without reply.
“Anyway, you know what I’m referring to. But you may also know that whatever shit he’s gotten away with in the past, he won’t be able to with me.”
“If that is the case, then what are you doing here?”
I stared back at her unflinching glare and released my building anger with a chuckle.
“Look, in spite of being, how do I say this? Being surprised by our wedding, I want to make this work. At the very least, I don’t want to have to kill him and I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with a knife in my throat.”
“Or not wake up at all,” she added.
“Right. So, anything you can tell me about how to handle him or what his deal is, I would be appreciative.”
Yuki said nothing else for a while. I knew this negotiation technique. Whoever spoke next lost. That wasn’t going to be me. But feeling the pressure, it could have been.
“Are you familiar with the Edo period in Japan, Mr. Ricci?”
I laughed. “No, I might have missed that day in history class. And call me Dante.”
“Well, Dante. The Edo period has been popularized by America’s fascination with Samurai.”
“Oh, okay. Yeah. That’s the time with samurai and ninjas and shit. What about it?”
“The Samurai were expected to maintain their honor above all else. And to visit a brothel was considered beneath them. However, what was considered a status symbol was for them to take on a kagema.”
“What’s a kagema?”
“A kagema was a boy who hadn’t yet lost the beauty of youth. It was with them that a samurai would develop a mentor / apprentice relationship.”
“Okay,” I asked unsure where this was going. “And this has to do with Kuroi how?”
“Our father designated that Kuroi be such a kagema.”
I leaned in trying to understand what Yuki was saying.
“Sato made Kuroi one of these, what do you call them?”
“Kagema.”
“And what did being a kagema involve?”
It was only then that Yuki’s eyes dipped.
“Woah! Your fuckin’ father made his own son a prostitute?”
“Isn’t that what he is to you? Would I have not been the same if Kuroi didn’t have the honor of your hand in marriage?”
I froze. “Different fuckin’ thing. Whether I got tricked into it or not, we’re married. This ain’t any sort of fucked up mentor / apprentice situation.”
Yuki took a sip of her tea.
“A rose by a different name.”
“Okay, well, that shit don’t fly here. If Kuroi doesn’t want to be with me, he can grab his stuff and get the fuck out. Nothing’s stopping him.”
“And yet, he stays,” she pointed out.
“Right. He stays.” Having heard my words, I considered it.
Why did he stay? Who was I to him? I had heard what Yuki had explained, but this kagema thing couldn’t be what I was thinking it was. Not even Sato could do that to his own son. Yuki had to have gotten it wrong. She clearly has some fucked up ideas about marriage.
Though, what would it say about Kuroi if it were true?
No, I won’t believe it. Yuki didn’t know what she was talking about. I just needed to focus on what I was here for.
“How do I get Kuroi to not kill me?” I asked bluntly.
Yuki took more sips allowing the silence to draw out. I was starting to believe that she was done speaking when she volunteered.
“Kuroi has always responded to a firm hand.”
“A firm hand?”
“Kuroi must know his place.”
“His place?”
“Mi no hodo wo shiru. Do you know what that means?”
“How the fuck would I know that?”
“It means, to know your place is to know yourself. Kuroi doesn’t yet know his place in this world. Perhaps with a strong hand, like yours, he will.”
What the fuck did that mean? A strong hand like mine? If she was referring to what I thought she was, that might have been one of the most fucked up things I’ve ever heard.
If it wasn’t for the look in Kuroi’s eyes when I had my hands around his neck, I would have dismissed the idea.Had he enjoyed it as I gripped him tighter? Could she be right? Was that what Kuroi was looking for?
It wouldn’t be the craziest idea given that his love taps required stitches. But what exactly did “a firm hand” mean?
To know your place is to know yourself. Leave it to the Japanese to have phrase for that. At the same time, that was life in a family like mine. We only functioned as an efficient unit when everyone knew and accepted their role within it.
Had I been so thrown by Kuroi being a man that I had neglected my duty as the head of our new family? Had I failed to lay down the ground rules that would tell him who he was to me? Had it been because I didn’t know?
It hadn’t been my choice to marry Kuroi. I had never pictured myself with a husband. But now I had one and he was the hottest fuckin’ thing on the planet. So, what Kuroi was to me, was mine. He was mine.
If someone thought they could have him, or even look at him funny, I would take their head off. Touch him and I would break their hand off. He was under my protection from now until the day I died. And if anyone failed to recognize that, including Kuroi, then they would have a rude awakening.
Yuki said nothing else for the rest of our time together. When she was done with her tea, she simply stood, bowed and walked away. I was the one who remained unsure of what to do next.
I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to run home, grab my hot husband and fuck him raw. We weren’t there yet, though. We might never be. But where we were was at the end of my rope. Tonight, something was going to break.