Under His Protection (The Constella Family #1)

1. Dante

R omeo sat in a chair, waiting for our meeting to start. He didn’t look up as I approached. Instead, he locked his serious gaze on his phone, no doubt obsessing over the details about a business arrangement he would supervise. I gave my only son free rein in the family. The Constella Mafia organization had always been run by the patriarchs of the family, and one day, it would be Romeo’s turn to be at the head of it all.

But not yet.

I winced as I finished crossing the patio. “Isn’t it too early to look so glum?” I asked, mildly sarcastic as I reached for a chair and pulled it back.

All right. Too much with the weights today.

He smirked, squinting his blue eyes against the brilliant sunshine. As he slid his sunglasses down to cover them, he huffed a laugh. “And aren’t you too old to think you can handle that much in the gym?”

I didn’t entertain that with a reply. While I wasn’t vain, I was proud of taking care of myself, and that included a meticulous fitness regime. That was also why I definitely should’ve known better than to press that much weight too soon. I’d ignored the rule of thumb about a ten-percent weekly increase, and I would be paying for it. Stretching my arms above my head, I lightly groaned. “You’re only as old as you feel.”

“And I’m guessing you’re feeling over your fifty.”

I shot him a look as I relaxed into my chair. “Watch it.” Come this fall, I would be fifty, but I didn’t dread it. I’d outlived my father, who’d outlived my grandfather. In our world, mortality ran on the skimpy side. We thrived with violence and anted up to any danger. I intended to maintain my position as the Boss for many more years yet. Romeo knew it, too, and that was why I was confident he was merely joking.

And his attempt at humor was welcome. Ever since he’d taken the blame for three of our Constella soldiers being killed, Romeo had been sour and bitter. He struggled to overcome the survivor's guilt, and I hoped he would continue to lighten up and move on from that unfortunate incident. The sooner we all moved on from the Domino war, the better. Dust was still settling from that massive drama within our world, but with every day that passed, things calmed down again.

“Sorry I’m late,” Franco said as he hurried across the patio. Behind him, two ornate fountains tinkled and streamed water. To my left, the pool lay sparkling and still, begging for me to jump in and swim. He wasn’t tardy to a party, which this lavish outdoor space was designed for, just a small gathering.

“You’re not,” I told the man. Even though he was a distant cousin, he was still an employee of the organization. Without Franco, Romeo and I would struggle to keep up with running the many businesses of the Constella empire. This rugged bodybuilder was our highest-ranking capo, and I’d never discipline him for being behind schedule. I maintained a busy agenda, but I didn’t know how he handled his.

“I had to get rid of the ‘guest’ again.” He rolled his eyes as he sat, emphasizing that word with air quotes.

“Who?” I glanced between my son and my capo.

“Who else?” Romeo muttered, putting his phone in his pocket.

I settled my expectant stare on Franco, who sighed heavily.

“Vanessa Giovanni,” he replied reluctantly, as though he didn’t want to bother me with her name.

Goddammit. As I looked toward the house, almost expecting the woman to appear, I tried to hold back a cringe. Tried and failed.

“Don’t worry. She’s gone,” Franco assured us.

“This time,” I quipped. Vanessa was young and gorgeous. Sexy. Cunning. And completely unwelcome around my home.

“We’ve had the guards watching out for her car at the gate,” Franco said.

Romeo snorted. “Which she’s clearly figured out because she comes in a different car every time she just so happens to stop by.”

I shook my head, zoning out a bit as I watched the water ripple over the rim of a shell carved in the fountain. Years ago, I would’ve been flattered. My first wife died thirty years ago, and those three decades since had been lonely. Sure, I slept around when I cared to, but I’d lacked any true sense of companionship for far too long. My work—managing and building all the Constella businesses—served as a preoccupation from the fact that I was a bachelor. Vanessa wasn’t shy about her interest in me, but she projected it in a predatory manner that turned me off.

“May as well just fuck her and get it over with.”

I narrowed my eyes at Romeo. “Hell no. She’d only try to dig her claws in deeper.”

Franco removed his sunglasses, fortunate to be seated in the shade. “Do you think she’s after you ? Or the money and name?”

Romeo laughed. “Probably all of the above.”

We weren’t here to chitchat about how attractive I might be to a woman like Vanessa. She was a bombshell in her own right, and countless men would salivate over a chance with her. As the eldest daughter of the Giovanni family, another Mafia organization, she had her own family wealth and influential name.

Or maybe she doesn’t anymore. Franco had a good point. “Just how badly was Stefan hit with the downfall of the Dominos?”

“Financially?”

I nodded.

“I can’t give you a number. No one will say for sure, but by my best estimate, he lost quite a bit by allying with the Dominos.” Franco glanced at Romeo, who nodded.

“Stefan lost product, men, and a lot of investment money that won’t be recouped,” Romeo added. “By backing the Domino family, Stefan stood to surrender a lot.”

And he had lost, sorely. Just a couple of months ago, the Domino crime family was deep in the throes of war. After they were beaten and taken down, their friends suffered in kind—including Stefan. That was the biggest reason I was cautious about my former friend. Stefan and I were once close, true friends when we were young and stupid. Since his alliance with the now-defunct Dominos, I wasn’t sure I could find the will to trust him again.

Franco cleared his throat. “If Stefan is sending his daughter here to con you, though…”

I shook my head. I highly doubted that was the case.

Romeo shook his head as well. “Vanessa was chasing after him even before the Giovannis backed the Dominos.”

Vanessa had never been shy about her interest in me. “She’s not going to con me.” She would just pester me, show up unsolicited and uninvited, and make her infatuation public knowledge. Her desperation wouldn’t put her ahead of any other woman who had her sights set on me. What it did was make me extra cautious of ever lowering my guard. It would be nice to find a woman to spend quality time with, but I didn’t want the hassle of dealing with Vanessa throughout it. The woman simply didn’t understand the meaning of no .

“Of course not,” Romeo said. “No one’s conning us—any of us—ever again.”

Franco and I shared a glance at my son’s gloomy comment. It seemed that he would take his guilt to the grave. While he had been conned and lied to by the traitor who got our soldiers killed in a fight with the Dominos, the incident was not Romeo’s fault.

Suggesting that he let it go would stir up more emotions, and it was simply too damn early in the day for that. “Especially not Stefan,” I said. “I don’t trust him since the end of the Domino power in the city.”

“He’s been acting strange,” Franco said, “but I’m not surprised. His association with the Dominos is something everyone will remember for a long while.”

Including me. Back when I met and married my wife, as a young man of eighteen, I was friendly with the heir to the Giovanni name. We were two young men—Mafia princes—born with the knowledge that we’d inherit great power.

“Even though you were allies long ago,” Franco said, “we’ll keep an eye on him. And his daughter.

“We weren’t allies back then. We hadn’t come into power then to form alliances. We used to just be… friends.”

“With Henry Bardot, too,” Romeo said, referencing another name from my past. “Who recently passed away, by the way.”

I gave him my full focus. “Henry is dead?” He’d gone into the military while Stefan and I took over our family’s businesses. It’d been years since I’d seen my best friend, but I assumed he’d stay in the service until his very last breath. “Was he killed in combat overseas?”

Romeo nodded but shook his head and lifted a finger. “Not in combat. I heard that he was discharged and ended up straight in hospice care.”

“Heard from who?” Franco asked, always keen to track facts, not gossip.

“Ricky,” Romeo answered, mentioning Henry’s only son. “I saw him at the gambling halls a couple of months ago and we caught up a little bit. He mentioned Henry having cancer, and I saw that he'd passed.”

“Damn.” I rubbed my jaw, pensive about this news. Henry was about my age, and this hit hard. He was too damn young to be dead, that was for sure. Living a life in combat had to have aged him, but my life treated me no differently. I was exposed to constant danger and fighting, yet I was still here. “I can’t remember the last time we spoke.” It had to have been quite a few years ago, during one of his visits home when he came to see his son and daughter. I’d never cared much for Ricky, but I also never stopped him from coming to the gambling rooms above the steakhouse we owned. And his daughter, hell, I hadn’t seen her since she was a child. A quiet, bookish sort of girl who seldom said more than hello in passing.

“Hey, that kind of shit happens,” Franco said soberly as he held his hands up. “People disappear. They drift apart.” He said it like he spoke from experience.

That’s the truth, though. All three of us, Henry, Stefan, and I, had once been close. Before our lives and careers changed us, we spent lots of time together. Then Henry went into the military and stayed there. I focused on taking over the Constella organization when my father was killed, and Stefan had always tried to compete, making the wrong choices along the way and hoping our friendship would be a resource for him to fall back on.

“And life’s too damn short for that.” I furrowed my brow at the gravity of my own words. I was far from being old , like my son teased. Even if I was, I’d planned for the future. Romeo was a good son, a Mafia prince who made me proud. One day, it would be him leading the family here. Not me. I never cared to think too deeply about my mortality, but in light of hearing that Henry had passed away, I was forced to think about the future.

It was only Romeo who’d mourn me. I had no other children. No wife. And I disliked the sense of loneliness in those facts. I loathed spending the rest of my life like this—beholden to my work and staying as fit as possible before my body would betray me by slowing down.

“Too short for what?” Franco asked, raising his brows. “Too short to let people see themselves out?” He shrugged. “That’s just how it goes.”

He always made comments like this, but I couldn’t put my finger on who’d done him wrong. Now wasn’t the time to figure it out, either.

I sat up and drew in a deep breath. “Is there anything else?” We agreed that life was too short, and I felt that deep in my bones. I’d never turn off this urgency to move and get things done. There was too much to oversee and accomplish within my limited time, too. While I led the Constella organization, I would do all that I could to secure a solid future for Romeo and his children. For all the generations to come after mine.

Our every-other-day meetings were a routine that ensured we were all kept up-to-date about anything of importance. But today’s topics worsened my mood. The faint strain in my overworked muscles annoyed me too.

“The Sarround Gala is coming up soon,” Franco said as I stood.

I nodded. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” That stupid-ass party is only good for talking business.

Romeo got to his feet as well. “I can’t say I’m in the mood to party.”

I hoped he would be one day soon. He couldn’t live in guilt like this. Not for good.

“But Dante, if you don’t intend to take Vanessa,” Franco said, walking inside with us, “maybe you should secure a date to ward her off.”

Now I had to hunt down a date? I didn’t have time for that. Waving him off, I dismissed the chance of ever looking for a woman again.