Francesca
It was another funeral.
The seventh one in two weeks.
We arrived in the heart of Caltanissetta and approached the outside of the enormous cathedral in the village at the top of the hill.
I wore a black dress and heels, the straps over my shoulders thick because anything that showed too much skin was inappropriate in a church.
I carried a lightweight black shawl to cover my shoulders when necessary.
I probably shouldn’t show my knees either, but it was hot, and I knew God understood that.
I walked with my father and brother, surrounded by the men my father had brought along to escort him. Wolfe was one of them, dressed in black slacks and a button-up shirt. It was the nicest I’d ever seen him dress. And he looked gooooood.
I noticed the way the women outside the church stared at him. He and I had only gone out together once, and it had been at the beginning of our relationship. So this was the first time I had to watch women outright gawk at him.
I felt a flush of jealousy, but I was able to brush it off by reminding myself I would do the exact same thing if I were in their heels. Besides, I was the woman he put a load in every night, so I couldn’t be that mad.
“Dad, you alright?” Leo asked.
My attention snapped back to my immediate family.
My father stopped and stared up at the church, admiring the stonework and the cross at the very top. “I’m not sure how many more times I can do this.”
Leo put his hand on his shoulder. “Almost done.”
“It may not seem like it,” I said. “But being here helps everyone.”
My father appeared immune to my brother’s touch and my words of encouragement. “The reason we’re all here is because of me, because I didn’t see the spy eating at my own table. And I still don’t know the traitor in our midst…”
Leo lowered his hand and exchanged a quick look with me.
Dad took a breath then moved forward, approaching the mass of people as they waited to enter the large church for the service.
Instead of openly staring at me like he usually did, Wolfe scanned our surroundings like he took his job seriously today. Searched the buildings for snipers and those nearby that came too close. I wasn’t sure if he was actually worried—or just doing his job.
“Vincenzo.” A man about a decade older walked up to my father, and it took me a moment to recognize him as Lorenzo, one of my father’s clients for both wine and arms. He owned several restaurants throughout Italy, so he ordered our wine in bulk.
And he was a customer of our weapons for his other business.
“I know times have been hard. How are you, my friend?” He grabbed his hand and cupped their united grip with his other palm.
“Each service gets worse, not better, friend.”
Lorenzo nodded before he dropped his hold. “I come to pay my respects. I didn’t know Edoardo well, but I knew he meant a great deal to you.”
“He did.”
Lorenzo’s wife joined us, and then another man came. He was close to my age, so I assumed he was Lorenzo’s son. With very Italian features, he had dark eyes and thick, dark hair combed back. His eyes immediately went to me when he joined our circle.
“My son, Alessandro,” Lorenzo said. “He just returned from Rome to join the family business.”
Alessandro shook my father’s hand with a slight smile. “Not willingly.”
Lorenzo didn’t look amused by the joke.
My father introduced us. “My son, Leo. And my daughter, Francesca.”
Alessandro quickly shook Leo’s hand, but when he reached out his hand for mine, he was much slower, our touch lingering longer than necessary. Then his eyes remained a second too long, and I hoped Wolfe didn’t notice.
Lorenzo focused on me. “Your father shared how you held your own until he got there. He said you killed ten men entirely by yourself. I’m not impressed often, but I’m thoroughly impressed by your strength and courage.”
It was a nice compliment to receive, but I tried every day to forget what had happened.
I didn’t feel stronger as an outcome of the aftermath.
Didn’t feel better prepared if or when it happened again.
“My father taught me well.” I forced a smile at Lorenzo, but then my eyes shifted back to Alessandro, whose gaze was stuck to my face like glue.
He was a good-looking man, and that just made this situation worse.
Because Wolfe was bound to notice the attraction, and he would lose his shit right in the middle of the service. Jump over the pews and punch this guy right in the face.
“We should get inside,” I said. “The doors are opening.”
We headed into the church, everyone filling the first rows and then making their way back. Because we all stood together, we ended up sitting together, Lorenzo and his wife beside Leo and my dad.
And then Alessandro sat beside me.
Shit.
He was tall and lean and toned, a guy I probably would have been interested in if Wolfe hadn’t ruined all men for me.
Alessandro flipped through the program quietly, everyone else still filing inside and finding their seats for the service. The priest was at the lectern in the front, along with the closed coffin.
I didn’t know where Wolfe was sitting, but I suspected he was in the row behind me with Salvatore.
“You know how to handle a gun, then?” Alessandro asked suddenly.
Fuuuuccckkk. “Um, yes. But trust me, my hands were shaking the whole time.”
“You still got your shots,” he said. “Did you get hit?”
“One bullet hit me, but I had a vest on. Got a nasty bruise, though.”
“I was running our restaurants in Rome and moving product to distributors there. But my father is getting older, and he wants to prepare a transfer of power.” He offered an answer to a question I never asked.
I didn’t know what to say, so I just said, “That’s nice.” Maybe it was all in my head, but the back of my scalp and part of the side of my face felt white-hot, like a laser from a scope was aimed at the spot.
And it stayed and stayed…and I knew that laser came from Wolfe’s pissed-off stare.
“What else do you do for your father?” Alessandro asked before he rolled up the program in his hand.
I knew Wolfe’s head was about to explode. “I basically run the winery so he can focus on other things. He includes me in the other business too, but loosely. When Lombardi’s men hit us, they waited until my father and his associates left so they could take me.”
“But you didn’t let them,” he said. “Badass.”
“Um, I guess.” I was turned toward Alessandro, and I made the mistake of shifting my gaze past him to see Wolfe’s pissed-off eyes hard on my face, like he’d been staring the entire time.
He wasn’t just mad. His face was tinted red like the blood underneath his skin had turned into lava.
His eyes were like bullets about to pierce Alessandro’s skull.
His murderous rage burned so hot, I swore I could smell smoke.
My eyes quickly flicked away, but the image was seared into my brain.
Fuck, he was mad.
Thankfully, the priest approached the lectern to begin the service, and everyone went quiet.
“Thank god,” I whispered as I made the sign of the cross across my torso.
When the service ended, everyone mingled in the church, some still seated in the pews, while others spoke in the aisles. The repast was going to be held at a nearby restaurant, but my father continued to talk to Lorenzo, the conversation turning to business as usual.
Alessandro continued our conversation. “Have you always been in Caltanissetta?”
Leo had gone to talk to other people he knew, so it was just Alessandro and me, a couple feet from my father and Lorenzo. “Um, I went to school in Florence before I came back home.”
“What did you study?”
I noticed Wolfe move toward us, looking just as pissed off as he had an hour ago when the service started.
His eyes were wider than I’d ever seen them, and I was seriously worried he was going to pull out his gun and shoot Alessandro right there.
“Nursing.” My eyes flicked to Wolfe, who stood a few feet away from us, just glaring at us.
He glared so hard that even Alessandro glanced at him before he looked at me again. “Is he your bodyguard?”
“Um, something like that.”
Then Wolfe growled. He literally growled in a fucking church.
Alessandro ignored him and turned his attention back to me. “I won’t be able to make the repast, but I would love to talk to you more. Want to grab dinner tomorrow night?”
He was about to get a bullet in his head.
I was actually relieved he’d asked me out, so I could reject him and all this could end before Wolfe flipped the fuck out.
“I’m flattered, Alessandro. But I’m not interested.
” I let him down easy because I didn’t want it to be awkward going forward, but I also wanted to be firm so this would be over.
“Oh…okay.” He faltered slightly, like he’d never heard a woman say that before. “May I ask why?”
Wolfe continued to stand there awkwardly, just staring us down from five feet away, his eyes about to pop out of his head. Then he started to growl again, low and slightly under his breath, but the warning was unmistakable.
“I’m just not,” I said quickly. “But I wish you the best.”
“Wish me the best?” he asked with a chuckle, like he hadn’t ever been rejected in his life. He probably had his choice of any woman he wanted in every room he stepped into. “You don’t have a boyfriend, and it’s just dinner—”
This time, Wolfe snarled like a wild animal, so loud that several people nearby turned to look at the interruption. It turned quiet after, everyone staring at the three of us.
Alessandro held Wolfe’s stare and didn’t move.
And then Wolfe growled at him…getting closer and closer.
Alessandro exchanged a quick look with me before he walked off, clearly thinking Wolfe was some deranged psychopath.
Which was fucking fair.
Alessandro headed to the exit to wait for his father outside the church, and Wolfe turned his derangement onto me next. He didn’t say a word, just silently seethed as he looked at me as his next victim.