5. Matteo
CHAPTER 5
MATTEO
T he front door slams shut in my SoHo triplex that overlooks Greene Street. If I bothered to look out one of the floor-to-ceiling windows I’d see, like I do every day, all the exclusive stores such as Tiffany and the kind of apparel stores so impossibly on trend that people line up to get in to them.
But I don’t look outside. I’m too focused on other things right now to be bothered. I turn my hand, the pull in my wrist where Heaven strained it a sharp reminder of her intriguing claws.
It’s a mild sprain, one that will clear up in a matter of days. That’s not why I wrapped it. I wound the elastic bandage on my wrist for two reasons.
One, to remind myself I’m not infallible. I should have seen that base move coming. Two, it makes me seem…not weak, never that, but for the Mulligans, it adds a level of humanity, and will reinforce their belief they’re getting the better end of the deal.
Heaven couldn’t have given me a better gift if I’d orchestrated it myself.
I’m not exactly pleased it happened in the way it did. But it gives me a glimpse into her. The more I know, the easier it will be to manipulate her into what I need her to be.
Her attempt to injure me only heightens the game, increases my coming pleasure in crushing her and her family into dust, and sweetens my upcoming victories.
Pounding steps grow louder as they reach the large living room, then stop right near me. The smell of rich, bitter coffee tempts. “Plotting to take over the world?”
My youngest brother Roman throws himself into the leather chair opposite me with Italian-style drama. He manages, of course, to not spill a drop of what I’m surmising is a triple macchiato, his new favorite.
“Details are always worth pondering, Roman.”
“Especially if they’re pretty with long red hair.” He snickers and tosses a white bag onto the coffee table, and the scent of sugar and fried dough wafts up from the bag.
I stretch my fingers and close them into a fist. “The good things are worth it, and I won’t deny the packaging helps. But she’s a stepping stone to victory, that’s all.”
“What happened?” He nods at my wrapped wrist. “You were at the club last night, so I don’t think you were beating off. Or were you?”
I cast him a long look. Roman’s taken to New York life and American food like it’s his mission to blend here in the States. This includes, it seems, disregarding tradition.
“You might be my brother, Roman,” I say, “but that doesn’t mean I won’t dole out punishment for insubordination to your boss when needed.”
He places the cup on a knee and raises his brows, overlong locks of curling black hair falling in his eyes. “That bad?”
“Your punishment or the upcoming arrangement?”
He snorts out a laugh that’s edged with uncertainty. “You’re not going to punish me. I’m your favorite. I meant your slice of Heaven.”
“Everything,” I say, flexing and clenching my fist one more time, “is going perfectly.” I pause. “Or will.”
“So, you did her and she fell under the Villani spell?”
“Not your business.”
“This is family business. I think?—”
“I’m not asking for your opinion, Roman. Family business means I’m in charge.”
That’s the general line. But my plans are bigger, deeper, more complicated and way more deadly than the cards I’ve shown, even to my own brother.
“You said a lot is riding on this union. You always say to keep things simple, that complications of the homemade kind ruin things. And…” He stops and gives me a long, shrewd look. “They came to the club. Heaven and her brother.”
“I was there.”
“Matty—”
“Romo. I also say that when something unexpected comes up and you know it’s going to work, do it.”
He breathes out, the laughter gone. “We have a chunk of Manhattan. We keep working how we are, we can spread across the other strongholds of the United States in about five years. You have a plan and I understand the concept, if not the entirety, of your reasoning. But this is the Irish mafia you’re fucking with. I did my research, and the Mulligans don’t make this kind of business deal. They don’t have to. Yet…you somehow did it. And?—”
“Romo,” I say his nickname quietly and he ignores the warning.
“I’m just saying I know we own sex clubs and she was there and you were there and things happen, but maybe keeping it in your pants might have been smarter in this case. Okay, okay, not in your pants, but maybe sticking it in someone not named Heaven Mulligan would def?—”
“You know nothing, so shut the fuck up.” I place my hand on the arm of the club chair. “Or you won’t like your new job. Christ, you’re a real smartass.”
“It’s one of my more endearing qualities, what can I say?” He grins at me and takes a swallow of his coffee, its scent winding around me. “And I’m not scared of you.”
“You should be.”
He sighs. “Dad appointed you the head of the family, but I’m still your brother, and?—”
“Do not say voice of reason, or I’ll demote you before you can take another sip of that coffee.”
Roman goes to say something, but he studies me a moment and nods. My brothers aren’t stupid, and Roman might sometimes think life is there for his amusement, but he’s also a Villani underneath. “ Did you fuck her?”
“And if I did?”
“Matteo, you won’t tell us the details of this grand plan I know is brewing, but…” He takes a breath. “It hinges on the Mulligans.”
He’s got no idea about the long and complicated roots of this. No one does. It’s better that way. The fewer who know, the less chance there is of things getting fucked up, and the less chance of my family being caught in the middle.
I’m going to win.
But if there’s anything approaching an Achilles heel, it’s family. Lucky for me, that goes for every other damn player in this game.
Unlike them, I don’t gamble with mine.
“I know exactly what I’m doing,” I say, closing my hand into a fist.
Roman nods, sets down his cup, and leans forward. “Doing Heaven Mulligan ahead of time is gonna help at that meeting tonight how?”
I sigh and cross my legs, keeping the hand fisted. I could correct him, even though I was damn close to fucking her. “You’re thinking she might say something to her father and we lose the deal.”
It’s not a question. I know how he thinks, and what he’s thinking.
He thinks this whole thing is for our family to establish deep roots in New York, with one of the oldest established crime families. And stepping outside the usual Italian allegiances is a way to do it. Especially where the Mulligan clan stands in the web of organized crime power in this small yet important world hub.
Roman doesn’t answer. I cast him a look. “The deal is a stepping stone and I’ve no intention of fucking it up by fucking Heaven.”
I will be fucking her, though. In every way possible…just not in that way.
He nods. He’s halfway to the white paper bag when he stops and glances at me. “Matty, you’re not being stupid here, are you?”
Unease trickles down my spine. People don’t usually accuse me of being stupid. Reckless, perhaps, in my past, but never stupid. “I’m never stupid.”
“I know you,” he says quietly. “The way you zeroed in on Heaven?—”
“She’s a means to an end.”
“A gorgeous one. A challenge. And I saw how you looked at her.”
“Well, we were at the club.”
He’s frowning. “I don’t mean then. I mean last year, when you decided on this path. After seeing her at that gala.”
“Because of who she is and the connections I can use.”
“If you lose your shit over her, then things could crumble.” He’s a little pale as he says that.
“You know me,” I say quietly. “I don’t lose my shit over women.”
I don’t lose my shit over anything. Joey… I stop myself. Rehashing fucked-up events from the past won’t do a thing. I’m not interested in anything but power, and the future all my sowing is going to reap.
Heaven is intriguing, yes, but that’s a good thing. Intriguing helps me in winning her to get what I want. Nothing more, nothing less.
I flick my gaze to my brother and reiterate the core theme. “I know what I’m doing.”
“I know there’s more to this than you’re telling me. And you say you didn’t fuck her, but?—”
“Enough.” I don’t raise my voice. I don’t have to. “Even if I ran a train on her with all the men in our club, or fucked her cunt and ass and mouth, nothing is going to happen. I’m not losing my shit over any female, especially an Irish one.”
His eyes are wide. “You didn’t…”
“If I had pounded her into oblivion and tattooed ‘whore’ on her it wouldn’t matter. Nothing would change with this deal. Not one letter.”
“Matty, Jesus. That’s crude, even for you.”
“Changing letters?”
“No.” He swipes the bag and pulls out a sugar-dusted donut and examines it. “What you said about her.”
“That’s what you were asking. Isn’t it?”
“No, I asked if you screwed over your plan by screwing her. I saw you go to her in the Shadow Room. And then you disappeared with her.” He licks sugar from his finger. “What am I supposed to ask? If you played fucking dominoes with her?”
“It isn’t your business.” He’s right; that level of crude isn’t me. I don’t need it or like it. But I’m making a point. “The Mulligans need me more than I need them.”
“This is family business, Matty, like you say.”
“Yes, and I’m using the Mulligans’ desperation. Letting them think I’ve got the hots for Heaven brings down their defenses, lets me in deeper.”
“By screwing her now?”
“A man who craves a woman enough to forgo money for her seems weak.” Like so-called love.
“Okay, you’re playing a dangerous long game. You never answered me, though,” he says. “To use your words, it’s a finely tuned affair, not an actual affair.”
I sigh. He’s poking, he wants information he’s not going to get. “You can’t have an affair if you’re going to marry her.”
“I knew it. You nailed the princess.”
“You’ve been indulging in the culture too much in this damn country,” I say. “And she’s not a princess. She’s an underboss.”
“Call her whatever the hell you want. She’s still a hot piece of ass, and you love a hot piece of ass. Something happened in there. I know you. So don’t lie to me. You fucking her or almost fucking her makes this whole deal shaky.” He gives me an expectant look.
Of course Roman guessed I sampled the goods. Though I’d call it more of a going-over than a real sampling. Amuse-bouche? “Again, it doesn’t make a difference.”
“I’m just calling it as I see it. We’ve got clout, real clout beyond the sex club front. And you convinced me of this call, so why you’d go and tempt fate…” He takes a bite of the pastry and chews, then points the donut in my direction. “You have some kind of iron-clad deal with Declan Mulligan, but if we’re going to move into power without making waves and spilling blood, I know the marriage is the best way.”
“You’re not as stupid as you look.”
Roman glares and shakes the donut at me. “But doing it through marriage, it puts you on the stage in such a way that we’re placed in a weakened position, at least until this goes through. We need this more than they do.”
“It’s chess, Romo.” He frowns and I sigh. “Trust me when I say they need me more. Weaken yourself to gain greater power. That’s what I want, and that’s what this is.”
“You’re presenting yourself—us—as suddenly weak on the New York stage? The rest will be watching.”
I smile. “I know. As a fixer, a hammer, a cleaner, whatever you want to call it, what I am now makes them all panic. But moving in such a traditional manner makes things look how I want them to look. To the Mulligan clan, to the rest of the underworld, to Heaven.” I stand, because that’s all I’m willing to share.
He stands too. “Okay, okay. But I thought the whole reason for this meeting with the Mulligans was to announce your engagement. Why’d they show up at the club last night?” He stops. “Do not tell me what I’m thinking is right.”
I release my fist and go over to the wet bar. I push off the lid of the espresso my brother got me at the little Italian place he loves and pour some Irish whiskey into it.
Not much, just a little. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s symbolic of the meeting, or perhaps I just need an extra push to the caffeine. I take a sip and turn to my brother. “To get a look at what we do. Your thinking is, for once, spot on. Heaven Mulligan believes the meeting is to discuss a business partnership. She doesn’t know the truth.”
“And now she knows you’re the great Matteo Villani, crown prince of the orgy. I think that needs to go on your business card. Really make it clear what skills you bring to the table, you know?”
I take another sip. New York’s changed since we visited here years before. Now the coffee’s decent—when you know where to look. Almost as good as home.
Home.
My past actions have weighed heavily on the family. What I did?—
The past is done. Instead, I’m looking to the future, to my domination. The crown prince of the orgy, Roman says.
Fuck that.
Exclusive sex clubs are perfect to launder through, to take care of all kinds of business and make both clean and shady money. Many would be content with that, content without the other power I wield in secrets and revenge and protection. In fixes. Many, perhaps, but not me.
I want it all. And I’ll have it all. That’s ice in my veins, and I’m fueled by hard, ruthless ambition. Heaven might be pretty, but she’s a disposable pawn. Once she serves her purpose, that is.
“I don’t give a fuck what people call me,” I say. “The clubs are pivotal to our success. We own parts of Europe through them. But I have different plans for this place.”
“That involve a strategic alliance.”
“Yes.”
“She’s got a reputation, Matty,” he says, finishing the donut. “She looks sweet, but she’s got bite. There’s a rumor?—”
“I don’t care about rumors.”
“—that she’s way more deadly than her brother. And she’s Irish. Those motherfuckers are some of the stubbornest bastards I’ve met. They’ll fucking blow themselves up along with you just to get revenge.”
I smile. I’m looking forward to clashing with her. “I’ll make sure to keep explosives away from her.”
“That face you have right now, it’s lustful.”
I shrug. “If I can’t convince you of my lust for my future bride, then this alliance is screwed.”
“Matteo.”
“Roman, her father thinks he’s got the upper hand. He thinks I want his daughter because I can’t resist her. And that makes me look weak. I want him to think I’m weak. Because once this is set, I’m in the driver’s seat. I get everything that’s his.”
“Heaven isn’t going to like that.”
“There’s a very fine line between love and hate, and there’s no middle ground for ‘like.’” I smile slowly. “I’ve got that line under control.”
“Uh-huh. It was that good?”
“If I have to keep repeating myself, we have a problem, Roman,” I say, tapping my fingers against the cup. “I didn’t fuck her. I didn’t need to. And this will go down without a hitch.”
“Do you think her father’s convinced that you’re the right guy for the job?”
I lift an eyebrow. “He already knows he’s royally fucked. I didn’t have to do much convincing.”
He gives me an expectant look.
“Romo, I’m fixing his problem, and he’s thinking he’s fixing mine—and controlling me—by giving me his daughter.”
Roman’s a good kid. Smart, hardworking, and loyal to a fault. He always gets the job done, no matter what it is. And he doesn’t question shit, unlike my other brothers, Dante and Sergio. I swear, sometimes I’d rather deal with my enemies than handle their messes.
“You know what you’re putting on the line by getting involved with the Mulligans, don’t you?” He drains his coffee.
“Yeah.” I know all too well, and if I make one single mistake and trust the wrong person, it won’t just be me who gets fucked.
“It can blow up all over us, Matty.” He frowns. “And you know I’m not afraid of going into battle, but there’s a lot of risk with this whole plan of yours. If Mulligan changes his mind, or she changes it for him?—”
“Not happening.”
“—then everything you’ve built will crumble. We’ve seen it before.”
“I know. But that won’t happen.” Then I say the magic words. “Trust me.”
“Always. You know that. Tell me what you need me to do, and I’ll make the arrangements.”
I smile. “I want to set something up. Make it really clear the threats against them are real.”
“I’m not going to ask why. But what are we doing?”
A plan is forming. “Upping the ante. If we put people in danger, it’s going to play into Mulligan wanting to really protect his sweet little daughter through this marriage. And if he thinks it uses my wheelhouse of influence, all the better.”
“You want someone taken out?”
“No,” I say. “I want them to think the danger caused by Conor is spreading, and the only way to stop that is to give me what I want. Heaven.”
I set the cup down on the wet bar. The more the plan solidifies, the more I like it.
Roman stands, too. The playful air gone now. And tension is thick. “A warning and a threat?”
“Yes. I want them so scared, handing her over is the only option to them.”
He frowns. “You want her hurt?”
Do I? That’s something I hadn’t thought of. But no. I want Heaven to step into the marriage…if not willingly, then of her own accord. To protect those she loves. I almost laugh.
“No. I want a rough up, and a message. I want them to feel the danger.”
“If not her, Matteo, then who?”
My smile broadens. “Who do you think? My lovely bride-to-be’s little brother, Patrick.”
I want them to think Dominguez is putting on the pressure. I’ve already said I’m not lifting a finger until I get what I want.
I want the Mulligans to feel it. I want them to think without me somebody other than Conor is going to die. I want to make sure they get that message.
What my brother doesn’t know is that the threat is very real.
And I’m the one behind it all.