Chapter 5 Constantine
Constantine
After I finished my workout and showered, I took a day trip to Palermo. Aurelia was at work at Rosticceria Da Cristina, and Medusa was with the dog nanny I’d hired. It took me two hours to get there, and when I arrived outside Villa de la Sirenuse, the guards let me inside without an interrogation.
I greeted the guys outside, caught up with a few others, and then ran into Alfonso.
“What brings you here?” he asked, wearing a pin-striped suit with a cigar in his mouth.
He greeted me in the entryway, Tommaso’s representative.
He was the person who spoke on Tommaso’s behalf for diplomatic matters .
. . and sometimes threats. Tommaso couldn’t be everywhere at once, so he sent Alfonso in his stead.
They’d had a great partnership long before I’d joined Cosa Nostra.
“I texted Tommaso. He’s expecting me.”
He nodded before he breathed a cloud of smoke in my face. “There’s been a lot of talk on the street about what went down in Rome.”
“Oh, I’m sure.”
That seemed to be the confirmation he wanted.
“I’ll let him know you’re here.” He walked off and turned into a hallway.
The rest of the room was filled with armed guards.
Their guns were hidden in their jackets or in the backs of their jeans, but that was their entire purpose.
A militia to protect Tommaso, even though he was pretty much untouchable in Sicily.
The police were dwarfed by the size of Cosa Nostra, so they didn’t interfere with their affairs, and Cosa Nostra mostly did their business in the shadows so no one even knew they were there.
I stood and waited, looking at the guys who all looked at me.
I could feel the change in the room.
The loss of respect.
Alfonso returned moments later. “He’s ready for you, Con.” He nodded to the double doors that remained open so I could pass through.
I headed down the hallway and heard the double doors shut behind me. I walked past the bulletproof windows that let in the summer sunshine. The rest of his family lived in the villa, but they stayed on the upper floors of the house, where no one was allowed to go except for him.
I entered another set of guarded doors before I stepped into Tommaso’s study, an enormous room with several large couches on a rug in front of a hearth. He had a large desk on the other side of the room, like he was a lawyer or a judge instead of a crime kingpin.
He was already on the couch when I walked inside, two drinks on coasters. “Constantine.” He rose to his feet to greet me and extended his hand.
I took it, and we made a mutual grip before we both let go. “Tommaso.”
He took a seat.
I sat across from him.
We sat together for a while. He gave a long stare, one packed with sympathy but mostly pity.
I sat back against the couch and felt like a lesser man. I’d let my empire fall. Let an inside invader take it from me. Fell for a plan so simple because I solely focused on the complex. “It’s been rough.”
“I can imagine.”
“But I’m a man who can admit my faults. He outsmarted me—and I let him.”
Tommaso didn’t nod in agreement. Didn’t judge me for what I’d lost. He felt more like a friend than a former boss. “Perhaps this is just a battle and not the war.”
“No, it’s done,” I said with finality. “It’s the price I paid to save my woman.”
“And was that price worth it?” He sat back too, crossing one ankle on the opposite knee.
I felt no doubt in my heart. Felt no resentment toward her. Only love. “Absolutely.”
We sat in silence for a while as he processed what I said.
He held my gaze as his elbow rested on the armrest, his closed knuckles planted against his cheek.
“You know terrible things are about to happen to a lot of people. Not just the Romans, but the president and the Senate and the government as a whole. With everyone at his mercy, who knows what he’ll do.
He has no love for his country, so he’ll make deals with our enemies just to line his pockets.
He’s reckless and lawless . . . and not stupid. ”
“I’m aware.” Painfully aware of all those things.
“Then I’m sure you’ll change your mind. When the time is right.”
I shook my head. “I’m a man of my word. He wouldn’t have let us go otherwise.”
“Then let that be his mistake.”
“It’s done.” I didn’t raise my voice, but my tone had an edge to it. I would never forget how it felt to hear from my men that my home had been compromised, that painful realization that Aurelia was the target. By the time I’d made it there, Darius had her on the floor with a gun to her head.
It was Edric all over again.
But this time, I was able to stop it. I was able to save her.
Another cloud of silence passed as he looked at me. “If you’re a man of your word, then it’s time you keep your word to me.”
My eyes narrowed as I failed to understand his meaning.
“My daughter.”
When the realization struck me, it was followed by a wave of annoyance. “I just gave up the Roman Empire for a woman. I’m clearly unavailable, Tommaso.”
“But are you married?”
“What does that matter?”
“It matters because you’re not committed.”
“Oh, I’m committed.” Very fucking committed. Committed for the rest of my life, whether she was my woman or my wife.
“You said if you weren’t married, you would consider my daughter.”
I’d come here to be consoled by an old friend, and now I was being propositioned for an arranged marriage. “We both know that was a stupid request—”
“But you agreed to it. And I put my life on the line for your stupid brother.”
I suddenly had a kink in my neck, irritation that flooded my entire body.
“Are you a man of your word or not?”
“Why do you even want me for your daughter?” I snapped. “I just handed the keys to the kingdom to a psychopath. I turned my back on my country and my people for a single woman. I’m not a hero.”
“And that’s why I want you for my daughter, Constantine.
I want a man who would turn his back on everyone else before he would turn his back on her.
Who would sacrifice the entire world before he’d let anything happen to her.
There are so few men like you. A needle in a fucking haystack. That’s what she deserves.”
“I’m sure she does, Tommaso. But I did those things because I’m in love with this woman, a woman who will someday be my wife. I’m sure your daughter is lovely, but my heart belongs to someone else.”
“Con, you said you would consider it.”
I dropped my head in frustration and rubbed one of my eyes. “You know how insane you sound?”
“I’m just repeating our agreement because you’ve clearly forgotten.”
“And after all these years, you haven’t realized how ridiculous of a request it is?”
“No.”
“What does your wife think of this?”
“She’s on board.”
I sat back in the chair and gave a frustrated sigh, unable to believe that this agreement made seven years ago was about to haunt me. “It took me nine years to love someone again. I’m not going to meet your daughter and then suddenly forget Aurelia.”
“Just consider it.”
“If I consider it, I’m cheating on my woman. That’s not who I am, and why the fuck would you want a man like that for your daughter?”
“Why is everything so extreme with you?” Now he raised his voice. “All I ask is you have dinner with her. A bottle of wine with a dinner salad and a nice piece of fish in cream sauce. Just an hour of your time.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“You gave me your word, Con. I could have been killed that night. Could have left my girls without a father and a husband. I only stick out my neck for men who deserve my spine, and I never would have extended it for that knucklehead brother of yours, especially if I’d known what he’d done—which you hid from me. ”
My eyes flicked away because I still felt guilty for what I’d done. Compromised my own principles just for the chance to save my brother. Told an intentional lie to get what I wanted, despite the damage to my reputation.
“You owe me.”
“Fine.”
When Tommaso finally got the answer he wanted, he relaxed in the chair, even wore a smile.
“I still don’t fucking understand.” I didn’t understand any of it.
“Con, God decided I would have daughters instead of sons, which is fine. They’re the light of my life, especially now that they’re adults and out of the house and not giving me grief every fucking day.
But I have to think of the future of Cosa Nostra, how to keep it in the Sirenuse family, and none of my brothers or their kids are up to the task. ”
Now I understood. “Should have known it was all political.”
“It’s always political,” he said. “You marry my daughter, and I have a good son-in-law who will keep her safe. Who will keep his dick in his pants when she’s not around. Who will be a good father instead of a neglectful piece of shit. And I’ll have a son to carry on Cosa Nostra when my time comes.”
“Why do you assume I would return to Cosa Nostra?”
He gave a shrug. “What else are you going to do? Go back to making those little fucking rice balls?”
“My great-great-grandparents used to make those little fucking rice balls and feed the homeless soldiers after the war—so fuck off.”
He tensed before he raised his hands in the form of surrender. “Con—”
“Insult me for abandoning Rome, but don’t insult my family or the way we’ve supported ourselves for generations. Don’t for one second think you’re better than us because you’re the one sitting at the table while we’re cooking in the back.”
“Con, I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Yes, you fucking did. Come for me all you want, but come for my family and see what happens.” I had a lot of love for the man across from me, but that love could disappear within the snap of a finger when it came to my family.
“You think you’re better than us since people are afraid of you?
Because my mom hosts a big dinner every Sunday night and brings everyone together.
Not just family, but friends and neighbors, anyone who needs a place to go, and that’s a hell of a lot better of a legacy than threatening and bullying people to get what you want. ”
“Look, I apologize, all right? I’m sorry for what I said.”
I still fumed in my seat, but I had nothing more to say.
“I just meant, What are you going to do now?”
“I have more money than you’ll ever see in your fucking life, Tommaso.” Darius had taken my home, but he didn’t take my billions. Stashed in investment accounts and bonds and in cash at different banks, my money was hidden in all kinds of places.
“I didn’t mean for money, but for purpose,” he said calmly. “You don’t strike me as the kind of man that retires.”
I didn’t like to sit still for too long. It would drive me mad after a while. Whenever Aurelia went to work, it gave me time to think about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I could return to Cosa Nostra . . . or pursue something else.
“You know you always have a place with Cosa Nostra, whether you marry my daughter or not.”
I was sick of him acting like there was an actual chance of that happening. “I appreciate that, Tommaso.”
He studied me for a while, and when he sensed I’d cooled off from my previous outburst, he changed the subject. “Since you’re in town, how about I arrange a lunch meeting for the two of you?”
“Right now?” I asked incredulously.
“Yes.”
Fuck that. “Today isn’t great, Tommaso.”
“Then when?” he pressed.
“I don’t know.” I had to get him off my back.
Maybe if enough time passed, he would drop this and I’d be off the hook.
Maybe his daughter would start seeing someone he liked, and he wouldn’t need me anymore.
I just had to dance around it long enough until that happened.
“But I’m still pissed off about the bullshit you said, so I’m not exactly pleasant company right now.
” It was the only viable excuse I could think of on the spot.
He nodded in understanding, so it seemed to do the trick. “All right, then. Next time.”
Over my dead fucking body. “We’ll see.”