WOLFE
When I entered the office, the crew was already there.
Including Francesca.
I mean…my woman.
It was hard to sit there with a blank stare on my face when she was in the room with me. She was just too important to ignore. It felt like an insult to what we had not to address her as baby and kiss her, not to show everyone in that room that she meant something to me.
It felt fucking disrespectful.
But I behaved as I should, sat in the armchair directly in front of her father.
Don Mancini stared me down.
I wasn’t sure if Francesca would vouch for me in their little meeting. It wasn’t her responsibility to defend my name, so I hoped she stayed out of it. But she was the only person who had proof that I hadn’t stolen the guns from the dock, because I’d been balls deep inside her at the time.
I got tired of the silence. “You got something to say to me, Don?”
His stare remained hard as concrete.
I knew the smart thing to do was be obedient and respectful, but that behavior got you the shitty jobs.
Taking the cars in to the mechanic, tailing lesser targets, the kid stuff.
But being unafraid to take up space in front of someone who was supposed to make you cower was what made you a lieutenant.
“You’re part of the crew.” He said it in a type of way, like he wasn’t the least bit happy about it.
“Well.” I gave a single clap of my palms. “That’s great news.”
“But that doesn’t mean we trust you,” he said coldly.
“Goes without saying, Don.” I rubbed my palms together.
“Now that’s been decided, we need to make our move against Lombardi.
Shouldn’t have wasted a day on this bullshit in the first place.
” I rose to my feet and approached the desk before I turned to the others in the room, pretending Francesca wasn’t there.
“We hit them hard. Take out the trash is how I like to say it.”
“We’re going to meet with Lombardi first,” Elio said. “Give him an opportunity to grovel and put him in our debt.”
My eyebrow cocked as I looked at him. “Is that a joke?”
“It’s better to have an enemy in your pocket than dead in the ground,” Don Mancini said.
“And you think they’re going to come to the table peacefully?” I asked incredulously. “They’re gonna ambush you.”
“We’ll come prepared—”
“And they’ll come prepared to kill you. I’m telling you, this is not the way to go about it.”
“We hired you to be part of our crew,” Elio said. “Not to have you in charge. That means you’re going to shut your mouth and follow orders. Or you can crawl back to Cosa Nostra.”
I stared at Don Mancini’s captain and felt my rage simmer on the surface of my skin. It took all my strength not to act on it. I’d always had a temper, even as a kid. Maybe I was just an angry person.
Francesca was the only person who didn’t make me angry.
“Cosa Nostra has incredible reach and efficiency because Don Russo trusts his lieutenants to see what he misses. Choosing not to use me is the same thing as driving with blinders on. We’re going to walk into a trap, and it’s going to be my burden to get us out of there alive.”
“We know Lombardi better than you do.”
“Really?” I snapped. “Because you missed the knife he stabbed in your back.”
A heavy silence ensued, so quiet that it seemed as if no one drew a single breath.
Don Mancini shattered the silence. “Set up the meeting for tomorrow night, Elio. We’re finished here.”
It was past eight when she texted me. I don’t want to be that girl or anything, but are you still coming?
I’d been running around all day, taking care of business that Don Mancini should handle himself. I drove with one hand on the wheel and texted with the other. I had big-ass hands, so it was easy for me to hold the phone and type at the same time. What girl?
I don’t want to nag.
That was nagging? I smirked.
I know you’re probably busy, and I don’t want to bother you.
“Bother me?” I asked with a little chuckle.
I set the phone in the cupholder and then used the dashboard screen to call her.
It rang a couple times, like she was staring at my name for a moment before she took the call.
When I heard the click, I started to talk.
“You aren’t bothering me. Text or call whenever you want. ”
She was quiet over the line.
“Someone there?” I’d assumed she was home alone, but I guessed it was possible her father stopped by at the worst possible time.
“No. I just wasn’t sure what to say to that.”
“I’m your man, aren’t I?” I asked. “Call whenever the fuck you want. I’m always at your disposal.”
She was quiet again.
“If I don’t answer, it’s probably because I’m snapping someone’s neck. But don’t worry, I’ll call you back whenever I’m done.”
She still didn’t say anything.
“Something wrong?”
“I just feel like this is going really fast.”
“Huh,” I said as I drove down one of the roads and approached the dirt path that led to her side of the property.
“Didn’t notice.” My elbow was propped on the armrest while I continued to drive with one hand, slowing my car when my tires left the asphalt and hit the dirt.
“I’m on the dirt road. Be there in ten.”
My Range Rover could handle the off-road path, but I drove slowly to minimize the amount of dirt that was kicked up into the air just in case any of the security guys found the cloud of dust suspicious. The direction of the wind was always different, so it could carry it anywhere.
Minutes later, I pulled up to her two-story villa and parked outside.
With Sicilian blue tiles on the stairs and pots overflowing with flowers on the balconies of the second story, it was a cute place.
Fit her perfectly. The only thing I didn’t love about it was how vulnerable she was.
If I could get to her without being seen, then that meant anybody could.
I killed the engine then grabbed my stuff, and when I looked out my side window again, I saw that she was at the top of the steps, standing there in her little pajama shorts and a white strappy sports bra that showed lots of cleavage.
I grinned, seeing her standing there waiting for me. “Ooh, she’s definitely into me.” I opened the door and pulled the strap of my bag over my shoulder. “Hey, baby.” I shut the door and started to walk up the stairs, like a husband just coming home to his wife after a long day.
“Hey, babe.” She had a slight smile on her lips as she watched me walk toward her, her tanned skin having a hint of an olive tone, a waterfall of dark hair around her shoulders, her eyes smart and playful.
She had the sexiest body, muscles in her thighs and defined in her stomach, but she was also curvy, having a woman’s hips and tits.
She was fucking gorgeous from head to toe.
Sometimes my mind wandered to her during the day, and I found myself with a hard dick at the worst times.
My arm hooked across her lower back, and I pulled her into me as I kissed her.
I wrapped my other arm around her and squeezed her a little bit before my hand went to her ass in her little shorts, and I squeezed it hard.
Gave her tongue right there on the porch, felt her tits against the top of my stomach, smelled the jasmine in her hair.
I pulled away and looked into her face, cupping her cheek and directing her chin up so her eyes were on me. I gently stroked her cheek as I looked into her face, the single most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.
Her little fingers wrapped around my wrist as she looked at me, her eyes soft but guarded at the same time. “This is what I mean.” Her voice came out as a whisper, like she didn’t want to actually say the words out loud. “Fast.”
“I think it’s moving exactly the way it’s supposed to.” I let her go and stepped into the house, the fireplace in her living room burning because it was a cool evening. It had been sweltering last week, but the temperature had dropped. It was supposed to rain tomorrow.
I set my bag on the couch to carry up the stairs later.
“Are you hungry?”
I hadn’t eaten dinner. I’d been too busy preparing for tomorrow. “I’m six-five and two hundred and forty pounds. I’m always hungry.”
She smiled. “Well, I made a lasagna. Would you like some?”
“Fuck yes, I would,” I said with a smirk.
She headed into the kitchen and pulled out the casserole dish from the refrigerator then prepared my dinner.
I grabbed my laptop out of my bag and set it on the table before I took a seat.
My eyes flicked up every couple of seconds to look at her work, the way she brushed her hair from her face from time to time because there was so much of it.
I’d been to the strip club more times than I could count, but watching Francesca move around in the kitchen turned me on way more than the naked ladies dancing on poles.
A couple minutes later, she returned with a plate of hot food. She also brought a basket of bread and an extra plate with a bottle of Mancini olive oil.
“Thank you.” She was the only woman to cook for me, besides my live-in maid back in Palermo. I hadn’t been home much lately, so she probably had a lot more free time than usual. I sliced my fork through the layers and took a bite. “Damn, that’s good.”
She sat in the chair to my right and rolled her eyes a little bit.
“I’m serious.” I continued to eat, noticing how fresh the pasta sauce was, like she’d made it that day, sauteed with onion and garlic from her own garden and crushed the tomatoes by hand. “You cook better than my maid.”
“You have a maid?”
“In Palermo. I’ll move her over here when I find a place.” I continued to eat the large slice of lasagna she’d put on my plate. It was actually probably two pieces put together, but I was a big man with a big appetite. “How was your day?”
“Worked in the office then came home around five.”
“Any lacerations to stitch up today?”
“Nope,” she said. “You weren’t there, so…”
I smirked before I took another bite. “Good one, baby.”
Her eyes dropped to my arm, where my gunshot wound was hidden under the sleeve of my shirt. “How’s your arm?”
“I told you I’m fine.”