14. Vincenzo
Vincenzo
I stop mid-pour as Anna walks into the living room. “You look beautiful, so beautiful in fact that I’m going to have a very hard time holding a conversation with your brother-in-law and sister.”
“Thank you.”
“Glass of wine?”
“Yes, please.”
A beep hits my cell and then another. My eyebrows raise as I read each message coming through at rapid speed before connecting with my brother who’s by the private elevator downstairs with our guards. “What’s going on?”
“They’re adamant about bringing one of their capos up.”
My jaw tightens. “No one fucking gets through without my say so. I told Massimo he could bring Sophia and his brother Leandro. No one else. I didn’t tell him he could bring his capo. Tell him fucking no.”
“Is it Delz?” Anna asks, taking the wine bottle to pour while I deal with them.
I grip the phone tighter. “Find out what the capo’s name is.”
It doesn’t take Nico long. “Delz.”
I hold the phone away from my face. “Nicolo said his name is Delz.”
Anna sucks in a breath, shakes her head from side to side and whispers. “Do not let him come up, Vincenzo. If he’s here Massimo’s intentions are not good.”
Just when I thought Anna could not shock me anymore, she continues to surprise me and earn my trust in a world where I do not give that away. “Tell Massimo he can bring Sophia and Leandro. Make sure to pat them down.”
Anna laughs. “That’s not going to go over so well with Massimo or his brother but it’s good to do knowing that Delz intended to come up.”
“Did you hear that?” I ask Nicolo.
“Got it, boss.”
He knows I don’t require him or my brothers to address me as boss, but I also appreciate the respect each of them gives me by using it when talking with other families or those outside of our world.
Anna waits until I’ve slid my phone in my pocket. “They are just being prepared in case I gave them a signal that I wasn’t okay. Then you would be in very big trouble, my handsome husband.”
“And just what would you have said to trigger that?”
She tiptoes in her heels and gives me a seductive kiss. “I can’t tell you all of my secrets, now can I?”
A rap at the front door lets me know Jeoffrey and Saint are bringing them in before the door from the foyer opens. Leandro is the first to walk through. As underboss, he’s protecting their boss, his older brother.
I close the distance and extend a hand to alleviate some of the tension. If they weren’t now family, I wouldn’t give two fucks about that, but for Anna’s sake, we need to at least appear to get along while we’re sorting this fucking mess.
Sophia walks in next, purposely staying close to the door as though coached.
I don’t miss the exaggerated pause and neither does her sister.
Anna doesn’t race to her sister’s side as I thought she might.
Instead, she waits, still by the bar. “Come in Sophia. I’m so glad to see you.
” My princessa is cautious and I know there’s still a play here for the Rosellis if they can just get Anna to the door.
I need to see what Anna decides to do without any coaching from me.
Anna gives Leandro and her sister a large smile, but it doesn’t meet her eyes. “Do come in,” she says sweetly. “Have a seat and I’ll pour us some drinks.”
Sophia looks to Leandro, the only person she can get direction from without making it obvious by turning around. But Massimo puts a hand to the small of her back, guiding her forward as Saint holds the door, trailed by Nicolo so that Jeoffrey can close the door behind them all.
I take two of the glasses Anna has poured over to the side table by the couch and return for the other two. “Please have a seat. I assure you, there is nothing ill-intended planned here today.”
Leandro looks to me. “I assume you’ve had the place swept?”
I nod. “Early this morning.” Little do they know they got swept too just walking through the fucking door.
I don’t miss the up and down shift of Massimo’s eyes.
A silent approval to his underboss that they’re going to take a seat and let this play.
Anna is still cautious though. She takes a long sip of her drink and then comes to sit by me on a small corner love seat opposite the couch the three of them took.
“So, I should tell you first that the only reason I am alive is because Vincenzo and his brother saved me from a man who kidnapped me right from his casino.”
Massimo and Leandro’s eyes go dark. I know what they’re wondering about because if it was my little sister or sister-in-law, I’d be fucking livid too. “What were you doing there in the first place?” Massimo asks, although Sophia places a hand on his thigh to calm his ire.
It takes effort not to intercede, not to grab him by the neck for talking to Anna like that, but she needs to share her story the way she wants to tell it without interference from me. Nicolo takes a seat in the reading chair next to the fireplace as Anna stands and walks to the window.
My jaw tightens. I know we have protection from the air since after the air show with our marriage announcement and that’s not the way Bastian wants Anna.
A quick kill is not what he’s looking for, instead a long and torturous life, but it still makes me jumpy as hell to have her standing by the window.
Anna turns. “Addie was coming to Atlantic City and I wanted to go along so I did.” Sophia starts to say something, but Anna puts up a hand.
“I know you warned me to stay put, to stay out of sight because something like that could happen, but I needed to go out and live life, to feel something again. It’s hard to explain to someone who didn’t go through it. ”
Anna comes to my side and sits next to me, taking my hand.
“Vincenzo saved me physically, but he also saved me emotionally. I had literally died inside, withering away to half the person I used to be. He changed all that for me. And when I got kidnapped, while I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to me, it brought Vincenzo and I even closer together.”
Massimo runs a hand through his hair. “Why no call, no word, flat out lies from Vincenzo if his intentions were so good?”
I clear my throat. She’s not responsible for my actions and he better watch who the fuck he talks to like that.
“You talk to me about that. She had no part in it. Anna was heavily drugged and unconscious. They could have taken her anywhere before she would have woke up to realize she had been taken. You got me? I took her to keep her safe. That’s the only reason.
Anna is mine and I protect what’s mine. I have no beef with the Rosellis unless you disrespect my wife and our home. ”
Sophia stands. Massimo isn’t quick to let her hand go but reluctantly does. Anna stands and walks into her arms. “I’m really okay, Sophia. I never thought I could be happy again.”
Anna hugs her sister tight as Sophia wipes a tear from her eye. “You don’t have to worry about me now. Vincenzo is making sure that I’m safe from Bastian, okay?”
This is a good start, but I know there’s still a lot more to be sorted between the Rosellis and DeLucas.