26. Francesca
FRANCESCA
I was sitting on the terrace in the shade of the umbrella when my father walked over with a cigar in his mouth. He pulled out the chair and took a seat across from me, and right away, one of the staff filled our glasses with wine and placed a basket of bread between us.
My father had asked me to join him for lunch, but the second he sat down, he seemed to be in an angry mood.
“What’s happened?” I asked.
He gave a shake of his head before he put out the cigar.
I didn’t repeat the question. Instead, I took a drink of my wine then ripped off a piece of bread and placed it in my mouth.
A moment later, Leo joined us, and I could immediately tell just by his body language that he was pissed off about something.
Apparently, this was some kind of family meeting that I was about to be subjected to.
I was supposed to leave the winery early so Wolfe and I could head to Palermo for the weekend, but if this meeting went on too long, it might put a damper on my plans.
“It’s been a long fucking week,” my father finally said. “And I don’t want the next one to be as long as this one.”
I glanced at my brother, unsure what was going on.
He sat there with his arms tucked tightly across his chest.
“Francesca will remain in charge of the business—and that’s final.”
Now I understood how pissed off my brother truly was about the situation. They must have had numerous conversations about it in my absence.
“Now is the time we hash this out,” Dad said. “Together, as a family, and then we move the fuck on. So, Leo, say your piece.”
All the muscles in his face were tense like he wanted to lash out with sharp words that would cut us all.
“She chose Wolfe over us, a lying, manipulative, and deceitful asshole. He disrespected us both with this shit. And she’s just allowed to walk back in here and get her job back when she’s literally fucking the enemy? ”
I didn’t bother to defend Wolfe. Felt like wasted breath at this point.
“I’ve been here, day after day, devoted to this business,” my brother continued. “And you don’t even give me a week to prove that I’m capable of exactly what she is.”
My father released a frustrated sigh even though the conversation had barely started.
“Leo, your sister had everything organized, and you managed to massacre it. All you had to do was follow what she did, but you decided to use your own system and screw it all up. Even the more straightforward things are impossible for you to handle.”
I felt uncomfortable sitting there knowing my father was going to rip my brother’s confidence to shreds.
“You make things complicated when they don’t need to be.
You aren’t good with numbers or paperwork.
You don’t know how to run anything. And you’re so oblivious to your own shortcomings that you don’t know how to lead.
I would never put you in charge of this business—so you need to have some pride and just let it be.
People listen to your sister because they respect her.
They don’t listen to you because you’re an idiot. ”
“Dad, that’s not true,” I chimed in, knowing my brother didn’t deserve to be called names right now.
My dad stared at my brother as if he didn’t hear me.
Leo didn’t react either.
“Something I don’t understand…” I looked back and forth between them. “Dad had already selected me to run the business before all this happened, and that wasn’t an issue. I don’t understand why it’s an issue now. I’ve only been gone a week, not enough time for anything to really change.”
My father didn’t speak.
Leo looked like he wanted to shoot my father in the face.
When the silence continued, I knew neither of them would address my words.
“Perhaps Leo and I could have equal ownership in the business—”
“No,” my father barked. “Leo, your job is to support your sister. This is still a family business, and protecting your sister is an admirable job. You have your strengths—but leadership isn’t one of them.
I’m tired of hearing this shit over and over again.
Your sister is back, and this decision is final. Enough.”
“She’s sleeping with a rat—”
“He’s not a part of this business as long as I’m living. Francesca has agreed to this.”
Leo shook his head slightly, fuming behind his eyes. “She can do whatever the fuck she wants and it doesn’t matter—”
“You lack the awareness and the humility to see how badly you screwed up, Leo. That’s the biggest reason why I’ll never give you this position.
If you can’t learn what you did wrong, how can you improve?
This place would go to complete shit if you were overseeing it.
Payments would be missed, shipments lost, production halted…
Fucking pandemonium. I don’t think you have the slightest inkling of how much work your sister does because you’re too busy drinking and fucking and bitching to notice.
So, the answer is no—and it’ll always be no. ”
Leo officially lost his temper and rose from the chair before he kicked it aside. Despite its heft, it slid across the terrace and hit another chair from a nearby table. The iron against the tile made a sharp scraping noise, and he released a loud yell before he stormed off.
My father didn’t react to the temper tantrum. His eyes followed Leo disappearing down the stairs before he gave a sigh and reached for his glass of wine to take a sip. He downed pretty much all of it in a single drink.
I sat there with my head slightly down, unsure how to move forward after that difficult conversation.
My father released another frustrated sigh.
“I think you were a little harsh with him.”
“You should have heard how harsh he was about you, Frankie.”
I didn’t take it personally. “I think Leo could do it if he had the right instruction. I could help him—”
“No. He’s an entitled child who thinks that demanding what he wants until he gets it will work. Well, it won’t.”
“Nothing is worth straining my relationship with my brother.”
“He’s the one straining it, Frankie.”
“You gave him a chance when I left. You must have done that because you believed he could do it.”
“I did it because I was pissed off and desperate and stupid,” he said. “And it ended up worse than I could have imagined.”
“You should have given him some kind of instruction—”
“Did I give you any kind of instruction?” he snapped. “You taught yourself, Frankie. You observed and learned. He’s incapable of doing the same. Until he feels an ounce of humility, he’ll never amount to anything. He’ll always be a soldier, always be a sidekick…and he needs to accept that.”
When I made it home, Wolfe had already loaded his Range Rover with our stuff for the weekend.
“Sorry I’m late.” I parked my car next to his in the garage and walked up to him to kiss him.
“It’s alright, baby. Ready?”
“Yeah, just let me pee real quick.” I went into the house, quickly changed, and did my business before I hopped in the vehicle with him. We left Caltanissetta and headed toward Palermo. I looked out the window and thought about my brother. I wondered if I should reach out and check on him.
“Something on your mind?” Wolfe asked as he drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on my thigh.
It must have been written all over my face. I was unsure how he’d know otherwise. “Had lunch with my dad and Leo, and it didn’t go well.”
“What do you mean?”
“My dad basically confronted my brother in front of me and said I would run the business and he wouldn’t…for numerous reasons. Basically called him incompetent…and an idiot, and it was harsh.”
“If he wasn’t harsh, Leo would probably never stop.”
“Maybe. But it was still mean.”
“I’m sure Leo said some shit about you.”
“But I have tough skin. He doesn’t.”
“You’re awfully protective of your brother.”
“He’s my little brother—of course I am. I guess I feel bad for him because I know how much he wants it.
But he’s not capable of understanding how things work.
I could dedicate a lot of time to teaching him, and he would probably grasp it eventually…
But he also wouldn’t take it seriously. Questioning why things matter, always assuming he knows better.
I offered to run it with my brother, but my dad shot that down pretty quickly. ”
Wolfe fell quiet, eyes on the road with his dark sunglasses sitting on the bridge of his nose.
“It’s just shitty.”
“He’ll get over it, baby.”
“I don’t understand why it means so much to him.”
“He probably sees it as an insult that his father chose his sister, a woman, to oversee a criminal business.”
“My brother isn’t misogynistic.”
“He clearly is, at least a little bit.”
“I’m not sure what to do about it.”
“There is nothing to do about it,” he said. “He’ll get over it. And when I’m back, I’ll make sure he gets over it—as many times as it takes.”
Wolfe took me out to dinner and gelato that evening, and when we came home, I found a lingerie set on the bed that hadn’t been there when we left. It was black and lacy, with stockings and a crotchless thong so I wouldn’t have to take anything off for us to have fun.
I approached the bed and looked at it before I turned to glance at him in the doorway.
He grinned, completely unapologetic. “I’ll give you a minute.” He winked before he walked out and closed the door behind him.
I smirked and blushed at the same time, flattered that he wanted me to wear this for him. Our sex life was pretty vanilla, and I knew he’d had more adventurous encounters with the other women he’d met…and the ones he’d paid.
I put it on, taking longer than I wanted to admit because I’d never actually put on lingerie before.
I pulled on the stockings and slipped on the heels, fixed my hair and reapplied my makeup in the mirror.
I wasn’t sure how I should position myself when he came back into the room, so I lay on my stomach, my ankles crossed in the air.
His footsteps sounded outside the door when he approached. Then he gave a quiet knock with his knuckles before he stepped inside. His eyes immediately went to me on the bed, and he gave a low whistle as he approached. “Damn, that is a fine-ass woman right there.”
I broke eye contact because I felt unworthy of this man’s praise.
He sat on the edge of the bed and ran his hand over one of my ass cheeks before he squeezed it and slapped it.
He stroked his hand down the small of my back as his fingers touched the silky material.
Then he tugged his shirt over his head, revealing his muscled physique covered in dark ink, before he grabbed my hip and guided me onto my back so he could look at me from a different angle.
One of his hands glided up my thigh then touched the soft material of my thong, his hungry eyes taking me in like a feast. “You’re beautiful, you know that?
” He slid his hand to my bare stomach, his palm taking up nearly the entire thing.
“No…but you make me feel that way.”
His eyes held mine for a beat, nothing but raw seriousness in his gaze.
A long moment stretched between us, a sea of love that was deeper than the flesh. Then he rose off the bed, kicked off his shoes, and dropped his bottoms before he came back to me, moving over me as he separated my thighs with his knees and folded me into place.
He kissed my neck and my collarbone and my chest before he kissed the corner of my mouth. Then his hand went to my throat with a possessive squeeze, and he looked deep into my eyes before he kissed me.
Kissed me like he loved me.