15. Francesca
FRANCESCA
I sat on the couch in his living room and checked his location on and off, seeing his dot on my father’s property. He was there for a while before the dot started to move again. It got onto the main road and headed this way.
I was relieved to see it move because I had been slightly worried what would happen when he spoke with my father. My father hadn’t spoken to me at all about the situation, and that told me how pissed off he was. But I believed my father cared about my feelings enough not to kill Wolfe.
When I saw his dot enter the property, I left the couch and prepared to meet him after he came in through the garage.
The second he walked inside, he had this look on his face…like he was mad as hell. It was the way he carried himself, his palpable rage that felt like flames from an inferno. He was so mad that when he looked at me, I felt like the one who had crossed him.
He didn’t kiss me or hug me. Just walked past me straight to the kitchen and opened a cabinet that held bottles of booze. He scooped ice into his cup from the freezer then filled the glass with scotch.
He stood there and downed the entire thing in a single go.
I just watched him, unsure what to do.
When he was finished, he suddenly threw it across the room, where it smashed and shattered.
I gave a jolt at the sound.
As if nothing had happened, he leaned against the counter in the kitchen and crossed his arms over his chest. He took a breath and then released a quiet growl as he stared at nothing across the room.
I drew closer, but I didn’t enter his personal space. I leaned against the other counter across from him. I didn’t ask him how it went because it was pretty fucking obvious how it went. Didn’t want to interrogate him with questions when he was too angry to even speak.
At least ten minutes went by before he looked at me. “He dismissed me from his employ.”
“What?”
“Says he doesn’t trust me—and thinks I’m the rat.”
I gave a sigh. “Cristo…”
“Nothing I said made a difference. He had his mind made up about me the second he saw me outside your house. Everything else I’ve done for him doesn’t mean a damn thing. Someone is going to slip a knife between his ribs, and I won’t be there to stop it.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“I don’t need you to defend my character.”
“I know. But I need to talk some sense into him.”
“Waste of time.”
“I have to try.”
Now he started to stare at me hard.
“What?”
“He’s never going to be okay with this, Francesca. I know when a man’s made up his mind. He’ll never accept me as the man you’ve chosen.”
I didn’t realize how much that approval meant to me until the moment I didn’t have it.
I hadn’t realized how much it would hurt to know my father would never care for Wolfe the way I did, like family.
My father and I didn’t have deep conversations about feelings, hopes, and dreams, but we did have a bond that went beyond the spoken word.
And that closeness would grow distant if I continued to be with someone he distrusted.
But as sad as that was, it wouldn’t change anything.
He continued to stare me down. “Just be prepared for that.”
I arrived at the winery in the morning the following day. Everything seemed normal, like Warren hadn’t dispatched his crew to take me from my sleeping bed. The villa was still under reconstruction, and the vineyard workers were still working in the warehouse like normal.
I stepped into the villa with a heavy heart, and everyone stared at me far longer than they ever had.
Elio was downstairs talking to Andre, and he stopped in mid-sentence to look at me, like I was a traitor.
Even the staff were colder to me, like they didn’t want to be associated with the most hated person in the house.
I could have died, but everyone seemed to have conveniently forgotten that.
I headed upstairs to my father’s office and heard voices before I rounded the corner. Leo was lounging in the armchair with his knees spread far apart, his elbow propped on the armrest and his cheek resting against his closed fist.
My father’s voice disappeared when he noticed me in the doorway.
It took a second for Leo to catch on, and he eventually turned to look at me across the room.
He cleared his throat and silently dismissed himself.
He didn’t make a smartass comment and left the room.
And he didn’t look at me as he walked out, even though he’d had tears in his eyes just the other night.
I shifted my gaze to my father.
He moved to one of the armchairs in front of his desk and crossed his ankle on the opposite knee, getting comfortable, like he anticipated a long conversation. He gave an unnecessarily loud sigh, like he wanted me to know his frustration, like he was the victim in all of this.
My heart was so heavy in my chest when I walked inside. I was sick to my stomach, and I hated that I felt that way with my own father. He was the only man in the world who would love me unconditionally, but I felt like that promise had been shattered when I’d slept with someone he didn’t like.
I took one of the armchairs that faced him, sitting fully upright with my legs crossed, my fingers interlocked as they rested on my knee.
He gave me the same look he had the other night, like he was more than pissed off, like he was deeply disappointed.
My father had old values, but he was also a modern man.
I’d never expected him to react this way.
“Wolfe wanted to tell you multiples times, but I stopped him. He’s the kind of man that prefers to hit someone head on, and that’s exactly what he wanted to do with you.
He was frustrated and angry with me every time I said it wasn’t the right time. ”
He didn’t even blink as he listened to me.
“I just want you to know that.”
His silent ferocity continued.
“I was worried how you would react…and you’ve reacted exactly as I expected.”
“Then you knew your actions were wrong.”
“Wrong?” I asked with a tone of incredulity.
“I’m an unmarried woman, and he’s an unmarried man.
No moral or literal crime was committed.
I can sleep with whomever I please. Just last week, I asked you about your personal life, and you dismissed my intrusion—because it’s none of my business.
Well, my personal life is none of yours either. ”
“The situations aren’t the same—”
“They aren’t the same because I respect your privacy and you don’t respect mine.
” I hadn’t realized how angry I was until I had to look at his face, until I had to see unjust disappointment.
He acted like I’d opened his safe and stolen his cash or I’d given private information to his enemies.
“I’m amazed how quickly you can forget everything Wolfe has done for us.
He was right about Luigi, and you walked right into his bear trap.
You and Leo would both be dead if it weren’t for Wolfe.
You think one of your other men would have gotten to me in the office the way he did?
He taught me how to use a knife, and I would have been captured if he hadn’t.
Every single one of us is alive because of him—and you conveniently forget that the second he does something you don’t like. ”
“Something I don’t like?” he asked coldly. “He screwed my daughter behind my back—”
“I’m not your property.”
His eyes started to seethe.
“When you said you wanted me to run the business when you’re gone, I took that as a compliment. But now, I’m not sure how I feel about it anymore. Do you actually want me to be in charge, or do you just want to use me as a bargaining chip?”
“Of course I want you to be in charge—”
“Then who the fuck do you think I am?” I yelled. “You think I’m going to let you decide who I get to be with? You think I have what it takes to run this operation but I’m some kind of pushover who will only marry who you like? Not a fucking chance.”
The rage started to simmer in his eyes as he regarded me. He hadn’t changed his position in the chair. On the other side of the house, the sound of drills could be heard intermittently as construction continued.
“I’m sorry that you feel betrayed—but no betrayal took place.”
“I trusted him against my better judgment and initiated him into this family,” he said calmly.
“All the while, he was screwing my daughter in the shadows. I understand you’re a grown woman who can make her own decisions, but what he did was disrespectful.
I don’t want to hear excuses or your warped perspective. ”
“Your perspective is warped if you’re going to invalidate all the good things he did for us because of this.”
“I don’t trust him.”
“Well, I do,” I said coldly. “I trust him with my life.”
He gave a slight shake of his head. “He leaves Cosa Nostra over a disagreement he doesn’t disclose and seeks employment with the only arms dealer on the island…right when the Skull King decides to monopolize the powder business. I should have seen the signs then.”
“There are no signs, Dad.”
“He destroys the Lombardis to earn our trust. He outmaneuvers them to show his value. Then he earns an initiation to become part of my inner circle. Now I see his plan clearly. To learn our business and destroy our main competitors so Cosa Nostra can seize it.”
I shook my head. “I don’t see how having a relationship with me is proof of that.”
“Because he doesn’t respect me. He doesn’t respect this family. And he doesn’t respect us because he was never one of us. He always intended to defeat and absorb us. He says he loves you, but that’s manipulative bullshit. He just wants to pump and dump.”
My eyes narrowed when I heard what he said, words that Wolfe had never said to me. “He—he said that?”
“Said what?”
“That he loves me…?” I swallowed when the emotion caught in my throat.
My father held my stare with slight apprehension, like he wasn’t sure how to move next.
“He’s standing there covered in blood from the bullets he took to protect me…
and he says he loves me…and you call bullshit?
” I understood the depth of our relationship because I was in it every single day.
Knew that Wolfe meant those words long before he said them because he showed me every single day.
And for my father to just disregard that declaration… was inexplicable.
“Like I said, I don’t trust him.”
I finally looked away and released an angry sigh.
“Well, I don’t trust your judgment. Not when you can’t see past your ego.
Not when you’re making this entirely about yourself.
Wolfe says he loves me, and I love him—and that means nothing to you.
The most important relationship of my life means nothing to you.
” My eyes came back to him full of disappointment.
“Frankie, we have a mole in our midst. You know this.”
“And I know it’s not him.”
“He’s a master manipulator and liar—”
“No, he’s not. He’s the best thing that’s happened to all of us. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the only reason the real rat hasn’t killed you. If you dismiss him, you leave us vulnerable.”
“We were fine before him. We’ll be fine after him.”
It was clear I would never talk sense into him. “He’s the man I want for the rest of my life, whether you like it or not. I don’t want it to be this way, and I hope that in the next few days your anger fades and your logic returns. But if it doesn’t, it changes nothing for me.”
“Then perhaps I made a mistake choosing you to run this business.”
It was a slap across the face, and despite how much it hurt, I kept my composure.
Despite the heat that rose to my skin from where he’d struck me with his words, I didn’t show the depth of my anguish.
I didn’t mourn the position and the power associated with it.
I mourned the loss of my father…or the man I’d thought he was.
He was a man who would dangle a carrot in front of me to earn my cooperation, and if I didn’t do what he wanted, he would yank it back.
I refused to be in that position. “Yeah. I think you did.”
My heart had never felt so heavy at the end of a conversation.
It was the worst heartbreak I’d ever felt.
I felt like I’d watched my father pull out a pistol and shoot himself in the temple right in front of me.
Our relationship had meant so much to me, but I watched it wither and die right before my eyes.
I got to my feet and headed to the door.
“Think this through, Frankie.”
I stopped in the doorway.
“A man isn’t worth your job or your home or your future.”
I felt the tears form in my eyes, taking the words in a way he hadn’t intended. “You’re right. No man is worth that…not even my father.” I stepped forward.
He rose to his feet. “What will you do without money or a place to live? You aren’t thinking this through, Frankie—”
“I have a man who takes care of me,” I said as I turned back to him. “I don’t need you or this job. In fact, you need me a hell of a lot more than I need you. So, good fucking luck. You’re going to need it.”