Aria’s POV
Aria’s POV
Lorenzo had invited Sophie over to the mansion today.
He apparently liked her, but I was still a bit hesitant about how much she could be trusted.
I guessed I would just have to test her today.
Though to be fair, Lorenzo trusted as easily as I did, so him trusting her meant something.
Ever since the gala two weeks ago, Lorenzo has been more involved with her, not just working but actually texting.
He wanted me to join the text chat, but I said no.
He grumbled something about me being a snitty bitch, but I had my reasons.
She was a fucking Sanchez. Lorenzo said he knew about her background, but didn’t feel right talking about it without Sophie’s consent. Yeah, he really did trust her.
We were hanging out in the living room area, the big ass screen television hanging on the wall was off, because I preferred playing music when I had company.
Music was less distracting to me, like background noise.
And it could block out discussions. I didn’t know if the rooms were wired, so I was careful.
No idea what my lovely husband would do with any information or weakness he overheard, just in case.
We had been talking casually about interests and hobbies, particularly Sophie’s secret media channel.
Sophie would don a wig, usually auburn or light brown, with suit jackets that made her look trimmer.
Honestly, I thought she was sexy as fuck the way she was.
Hell, at the gala she looked sexy. I could tell Dominic was even having problems with how she was dressed.
I had heard they had an arrangement, but the way he had been looking at her that night was no arrangement.
He had been squirming and it was funny as hell.
It was time to test her. “So Sophie, can we trust your sister, Serena?”
I could feel the tension rolling off of Lorenzo. He should have known I’d be testing her, the idiot.
What took me by surprise, and apparently Lorenzo as well, was watching as Sophie snorted and threw her head back and started laughing.
Not a small laugh. Not an over dramatic fake laugh.
A good hard laugh that lasted a good minute.
Lorenzo and I just stared at her, not sure what to think.
I remained calm and collected until she stopped and put a hand to her chest.
“I’m so sorry, but that would be a big fat no.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “And why not?”
“Don’t you know about her? She’s slept with like half of the mafia men, regardless of age or marital status.”
“Half of the men seems awfully dramatic, don’t you think, Soph?”
I glanced at Lorenzo and frowned, wondering why she got a nickname.
She laughed softly and rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. Not half. But quite a lot. I have her at about 58 different men now, not to mention she gave that guy in the Bianchi clan ‘the clam.’”
“The what?” I asked, my eyes going wide. I looked to Lorenzo who had a smirk on his face.
She laughed again. “The clam is short for chlamydia.”
I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Oh fuck me. That is just all kinds of wrong.”
She stared at me shocked, then laughed again.
Lorenzo spoke up. “Soph you will have to get used to it, but Aria cusses like a drunken sailor when she’s in her comfort zone.”
I glared at Lorenzo, but he just winked at me. I actually knew about Serena as did Lorenzo, which is also another reason why he was irritated with me for asking her questions. I decided to change the subject to something I had heard more recently.
“How about you and Dominic? Is he crazy in the sheets?” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively at her.
Her smile slowly disappeared, and the same blank expression from when we first met at the gala came back to her face.
“Dominic and I are just an arrangement since he couldn’t get one with my sister. She was off playing around with Nico Cattaneo.”
I knew all of this. “He’s not worth playing with seriously.” I made a gagging sound. “He’s not that attractive to me. What about you, Lorenzo?”
He looked disgusted. We had already had this conversation, but I loved making him squirm. “Fuck no. He looks like a fucking bulldog. Yet he fucks everything that walks.”
Sophie gasped. “Are you really gay, Lorenzo? Or bi?”
He looked a little agitated, which made me tense up. If this bitch said anything about his sexual orientation, I would have to jack her up, Dominic’s arranged wife or not.
“Gay.”
She sighed in relief, making me look at her curiously. “Oh thank goodness. Then I don’t have to worry about you sleeping with my sister.”
Lorenzo and I looked at each other and just started laughing.
Okay, so maybe I was going to like Sophie.
Somehow we ended up on the topic of our families and childhood.
“There are three moments in my life that made me who I am today.”
Sophie looked at me thoughtfully, then nodded.
“I share mine, if you share yours.”
She looked from me to Lorenzo and shrugged. “Nothing worth hiding, so okay.” She turned to Lorenzo and frowned. “But I figured you would know everything about me, since you’re Geronimo.”
Lorenzo went to respond, but I cut him off.
“My dear cousin likes and respects you, so he didn’t want to share any of the deets with me.” I pouted.
“Dammit Aria!”
Sophie’s expression softened at Lorenzo. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that.” She shrugged again. “I’m pretty much an open book now.”
“And why is that, Sophie?” Again, I was testing her.
She looked at me blankly. “I didn’t ask for the life I was given. I sure as hell didn’t ask for any of this marriage garbage, but yet here I am. I figured if I was going to be stuck with a situation, I might as well go all in, yeah?”
I smiled wickedly at her, and her expression tightened a bit. “I think I’m gonna like you too.” Then I winked at her.
She chuckled at me, and appeared to relax a little.
I told her about the situation with my brothers where I was caught wrestling with them. She asked me an interesting question after I mentioned it.
“Why do you think you didn’t submit and stay that way? The way you talk about the experience, it’s more like you were following a role or something. And eight years old is awfully young to be so resistant to the ways we were raised.”
Lorenzo answered before I could. “She has a very strong personality. Some personalities cannot be changed. And I, for one, am glad for that.”
I looked at Lorenzo and smiled at him.
“This heathen is another defining point in my life. I would have to go with my brothers to their trainings because my mother would leave me behind to go shopping, or whatever else it was she was doing to avoid my father and his mistresses.” I rolled my eyes.
Sophie had a soft look on her face. “Don’t you dare pity me.
I don’t think I could have stood being around my mother for long anyway because she was just so over-dramatic.
And she tolerated that shit, so it’s her problem.
” Sophie actually smiled at me. She really was pretty.
Honestly, she looked much prettier than her skank hoe sister.
“Anyways, one time my brothers insisted that Lorenzo here babysit me while they trained. It was like my second time going along with them. They would send me off to this isolated barn on the property they trained at. Lorenzo’s brother, Alonzo, would train with them, but since Lorenzo came out as gay around that time, his father stopped having him train too.
” I glared at nothing before continuing. “My uncle is a fottuto stronzo!”
Sophie threw her head back and laughed. I smiled at her while Lorenzo chuckled.
“Well the day Lorenzo got stuck with me, he caught me throwing axes for fun.”
“She was dead on with all of her shots. It was insane!” He looked almost giddy as he bragged about me. Sophie had a wide smile on her face.
“I was in the barn throwing axes when my brothers and cousin came to find us. They pulled Lorenzo aside and interrogated him. He had admitted I was throwing axes, but he did the most shocking thing.” I glanced at Lorenzo who had an affectionate smile on his face, then turned back to Sophie.
“They were threatening to beat him up if he didn’t tell them what I was doing and how I was with it.
I was mad and scared all at the same time, waiting for him to rat me out.
But he didn’t.” Again I glanced back at Lorenzo, and smiled softly at him.
“He told them, ‘she throws like a ragazza’ and he was all dramatic and whiny.”
We all laughed at that.
“After that I knew I would have his back.” I smiled wider. “And I taught him how to throw an ax, use a knife, and shoot a gun.” I winked at him. “But know this. He is awful with an ax and knife.” Sophie laughed. “But a damned good shooter.”
We were silent for a few minutes, me remembering, Sophie soaking it in. Then she spoke up.
“And what was the third thing?”
I blinked, forgetting what I had been talking about, then I chuckled softly.
“So I don’t know if you know this, but if I had been paired up with anyone other than Maximo, they would have earned the right to be an Enforcer, alongside both my brothers and cousin, Alonzo.
It’s just how they do things within the clan.
” I shrugged. “Needless to say, there were a lot of men, of a variety of ages,” I rolled my eyes, “trying to persuade me to pick them as a partner.”
“Wait. What about Lorenzo? Wouldn’t he be an Enforcer too?”
That pissed me off, but Lorenzo answered her first.
“Apparently mi papa didn’t think I could pull it off, being gay and all that.
” He shrugged, not seeming to care. I knew it had hurt when he was told, and he held on to it until I supported him to be a better person with his hacking skills and while I trained him.
He was a much better hacker than he would have been an Enforcer.
However, I knew he still held on to it, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Even to me.
I smiled wickedly at Sophie. “His skills are being better utilized by people who give a shit about him.”
She smiled back at me. Then turned to Lorenzo.
“I’m glad you have something. I really appreciate all you have been doing for me as Geronimo.
” I could tell by her tone and posture she meant it.
I would protect Lorenzo against anyone, including famiglia if I had to, but it looked Like Sophie appreciated him almost as much as I did. Good. She could stay then.
“One of the soldiers in your father’s clan approached me at a party once.
I was maybe 16 years old at the time? Anyways, I pretended to be the submitted, weak woman they all think they want.
He had been standing next to me, looking like he was trying to be charming, but said, ‘you’ll be my bitch soon and I’ll get the enforcer position.
I’ll make you my little bitch maid and watch me fuck other women.
’ My brothers had been across the room watching, but I didn’t want to say anything since we were in a crowd, so I looked at the man like the dirt he was.
I made sure no one saw, but then he looked shocked.
And a little too loudly said, ‘What the fuck? What a stupid, fucking bitch.’” I smiled widely at Sophie.
Needless to say, my brothers heard that last part, came over, slapped the guy upside the head, both of them, and told him never come near me again or they’d cut off his balls.
It was perfect!” I smiled giddily at her.
She chuckled. “Did they ever ask you what happened?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes! They kept pestering me, so I finally told them. They laughed their asses off.”
She chuckled again.
I leaned in. “Okay, now your turn,” a gleam in my eye.
She proceeded to tell me how her father would beat her when she was younger for bullshit things. Pretty much anytime Serena told their father Sophie did something, he believed Serena then would beat her. He stopped the beatings when she hit puberty, something about how she “grossed him out.”
Fottuto maiale!
Serena, on the other hand, kept at the beatings until about three years ago. Sophie said she made it a point to steer clear of her, and it seemed to work. Especially since Serena would call her horrible names.
That fottuta puttana was lucky, or I’d slit her damned throat. Well, she knew better now then to go near Sophie. I made sure of it at the gala. If that bitch ever comes close, I will make an example of her.