17. Wolfe
WOLFE
I walked into the office and found Francesca seated behind the desk with her laptop open and paperwork scattered around her. Ever since we returned to business as usual, she’d been busy playing catch-up.
When I approached the desk, she stopped her task to look at me.
“The last drop of the week is done.”
“Good,” she said. “What about the wine? Leo fuck up?”
“No, he’s been on top of it, as a matter of fact.”
“That’s a surprise.” She wore her ring every day, and the diamonds were brilliant in any kind of light. The summer sunshine came through the window behind her, and the diamonds danced with colorful brilliance.
“He’s prepping the first delivery now. Something at the winery busted, but he fixed it.”
“He fixed it or hired someone to fix it?”
“He did, actually.”
If she was impressed, she refused to show it.
“I’m gonna head down and help.”
“Did you need something from me?”
I stared her down then gestured upward with my hand, silently telling her to stand up. “I haven’t kissed you since this morning.”
That affectionate smile moved over her lips. “Has it been that long?”
“Feels like an eternity.”
She rose to her feet and came around the desk, her arms immediately rising to circle my neck.
Her shoulder holster held her pistol, and her jeans were skintight.
Instead of her colorful dresses and platform sandals, she now wore lots of black and t-shirts, but she had such a nice body that she looked absolutely fuckable in the formfitting clothing.
I circled her lower back with one arm, and my other hand went to her ass as I kissed her.
She smiled against my mouth when she kissed me. “The exact pick-me-up I needed.”
“The kiss or the ass-grab?” I teased.
“Both,” she said as she pulled away.
“You know where to find me,” I said. “I’m available anytime, boss.”
She rolled her eyes as she leaned against the desk and crossed her arms over her chest.
As a person, she hadn’t changed much, but during working hours, she was different. A lot more withdrawn and quiet, focused on getting tasks done as efficiently as possible.
“You’re good at this, you know.”
“I am?” she asked quietly, her head cocking slightly.
“Yeah. It’s like you were made for it,” I said. “You disagree?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it much. Too busy working.”
“Another sign that you’re good at it.”
“I’m sorry it’s been like this. I feel like I work all day and we just have dinner and go to bed.”
“Well, we don’t go to bed. We get in bed.”
She smirked.
“I am anxious to get married, but I know you’ve got a lot on your plate right now.”
“I actually think I found a dress I like. It’s in Palermo. I need to head over and get fitted, so I have been working on it.”
Ooh, I loved picturing her in a white dress. “I can’t wait to see it. I can drive you.”
“I’ll see if I can get away early today and get there before they close.”
“Sounds like a plan, baby.”
I helped the guys load the crates of wine into the back of the truck. Moving heavy shit was below my pay grade, but I’d always been a team player, so I sucked it up and did it. We moved the last pallet on the forklift before Andre drove it back into the warehouse to get another pallet stack.
Leo stood ten feet from me, sweat visible on his neck and forehead.
Whatever Francesca felt for him, I mirrored it out of loyalty, so I pretty much ignored him.
It was just the two of us standing in the summer sun while the others went to retrieve more pallets.
“Can we talk?”
I leaned against the back of the truck with my arms crossed, and I shifted my eyes to look at him. “About?”
He walked over, his boots grinding against a couple little rocks in the sand until he was in front of me. “I know this is a lot to ask, and it’s too soon for me to ask for anything from either of you, but it would mean the world to me if I could attend your wedding.”
Not the request I expected to hear.
“Why?”
His eyebrows furrowed at the question. “Because she’s my sister. I’m the only family she has left.”
“I’ve never understood that sentiment,” I said. “Marriage is about two people wanting to spend their lives together, but it’s somehow been turned into a unification of families, when it’s not. It’s the formation of a new family. It has nothing to do with anyone except us.”
“Well, she means a lot to me, and I would love to be there.”
“She doesn’t want you there, Leo.”
“But you haven’t asked her.”
“I already know the answer.”
His eyes flicked away, like the answer really wounded him. “I didn’t expect you two to wed so quickly.”
“Then you don’t know us very well,” I said. “I wanted to marry her long before your dad fired me.”
“When we all went to Taormina…were you guys together then?”
“Yeah.”
“But you were with that prostitute.”
“We played cards,” I said. “I already showed Francesca proof.”
He didn’t challenge me, like he believed me.
I grinned. “When you dropped that information on her, she lost her shit. Went totally ballistic. Slapped the shit out of me I don’t know how many times.
It was the moment I knew she loved me.” I’d known I had her right in my palm, and it was only a matter of time before she became my wife and we lived happily ever after, pushing arms and bashing skulls and making a killing.
He looked out over the vista for a while, staring into the hills in the direction of her villa. “Did you ever finish her house?”
“Yeah, I’m almost done.”
“She doesn’t know?”
I shook my head.
“When are you going to tell her?”
“It’s a surprise.”
Whenever he spoke, his eyes were full of so much despair. It seemed like he completely lacked the will to live. “I don’t know how to fix this.”
“I really don’t think you can, Leo,” I said. “You can always make a new start somewhere else, maybe on the mainland. Get away from your reputation here and build a new one. Find a nice girl.”
“I don’t want to start over somewhere new. I want to fix what I broke.”
“You can fix a broken building or a jammed gun, but you can’t bring someone back from the dead.”
His eyes flicked away at the mention of his father.
“I would rather spend decades trying to earn my sister’s trust back than to never see her again.
I hate that it ended up this way, but it’s really taught me how much family means to me.
It’s made me understand how lucky I am to have a sister at all. ”
He shouldn’t have had to lose his father to realize that.
“She’s great at this job, just like Dad knew she would be.”
“Yeah, she is.”
His eyes dropped. “I’m not sure why I thought I would be better.”
“Makes two of us.”
He didn’t flinch at the insult. “He’d be really proud of her.”
“Fuck yeah, he would be.” I was proud of her every fucking day.
Proud of the way she handled herself. Proud of the way she conducted business with an iron fist. Proud of the way she maintained the upper hand even when the assholes tried to take it from her.
And she did it all while being the finest piece of ass I’d ever seen.
“I’ll keep trying,” he said, more to himself than to me. “If she really felt nothing for me, she would have just killed me, so…”
Francesca changed after work, putting on a dress and platform sandals and leaving her holster on the dresser. She spruced up her makeup and put some shiny lip gloss on her mouth, and then we started the long drive to Palermo.
If she didn’t have business to handle in the morning, we would have just spent the night, but after dinner, I’d have to drive us back.
When we made it into Palermo, I pulled up to the designer wedding dress shop and watched her hop out to walk in alone since I wouldn’t be able to accompany her.
But I was happy she’d gone to an expensive designer instead of just some boutique.
I wanted her dripping in fucking diamonds.
We didn’t talk about it, but I knew she’d started drawing the same salary as her father after she took over, so I suspected she wanted something expensive because she could pay for it herself.
I thought the whole independent woman thing was sexy as hell, so I was fine with it. When we were married, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
I found parking down the road then went to a nearby bar to have a drink while I waited. I texted a couple people back who’d hit me up and stared out the window to check if Francesca had walked out yet.
About an hour later, she stepped out of the shop and texted me. I’m done.
I left my half-empty drink on the table and walked out to meet her across the street. “How’d it go?”
“I really liked it in person. They fitted me, and it’ll be ready next week.”
“So we can get married next week?” I asked hopefully.
“Looks that way. My name opens a lot of doors and helped expedite the process.”
I grinned before I tugged her into me and placed a kiss on her lips.
“Good. Couldn’t wait longer than that anyway.
” I took her by the hand, and we walked to a restaurant to have dinner.
It was the end of August, so the summer was blistering, and on an evening like this, the air was still warm to the touch.
We sat outside on the terrace over candlelight, and I ordered the wine before we looked at our menus.
“You want to see what the dress looks like?”
I shook my head. “I want to be surprised.”
“It’s kind of slutty.”
I’d been looking at the menu, but my eyes immediately shifted up to meet hers. “Tell me more.”
“It’s got a deep cut in the front…and a high slit up the thigh.”
I could already picture it, her knockout tits on display and her sexy, toned leg exposed. Then I pictured myself ripping it off her and leaving it on the bedroom floor, consummating our marriage for all eternity.
“Wolfe?”
“Hmm?”
“You’ve been staring at me like that for two minutes.”
I dropped my eyes back to my menu. “Have I?” I looked through the selections until I found something I wanted.
She glanced at her menu before she set it aside. “I wonder what the fresh catch of the day is.”
The waiter came over and took our order, and after our glasses of wine were filled, it was just the two of us together.