Francesca
It was late by the time Wolfe called me. “I’m sorry I got caught up.”
“It’s okay,” I said automatically, sitting on the couch.
“It was a big fucking mess.”
I didn’t ask for the details because I didn’t care. “Are you on your way?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t make dinner. Can you grab something?”
He paused, probably because I made dinner every night, so that meant something was wrong. “Sure. What do you want?”
“I don’t care.”
“Alright. See you soon, baby.” He hung up.
I sat on the couch in his oversized clothes and waited for him to come home.
Twenty minutes later, I saw the flash of his headlights on the trees on the property before he pulled up in front of my house.
I watched him get out of the car and grab the paper bag of takeout before he headed to the front door and let himself inside.
“I’m home,” he announced like he did every night.
I rose from the couch and approached him.
He carried the bag to the dining table and set it on the surface before he turned to look at me, his intelligent eyes doing a quick sweep of my expression before he dipped his head and kissed me.
“Looks like your day was worse than mine.” He pulled out a chair at the dining table for me to sit and then took the seat beside me.
“You could say that.” I took a seat and leaned my side against the edge of the table.
He was pivoted in his chair to look at me, his knees parted so my knees could fit between his.
He leaned toward me, his big hand moving to my thigh.
His dark eyes took in my stare with a razor-sharp focus no one had ever given me.
He hung on to every word I didn’t speak, analyzed every slight movement of my face. “Did you tell him?”
“No.”
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “Then what happened?”
“He told me he wants me to take over the business…and I need the right partner to accomplish that.”
He gave a slight nod like he already knew this.
“I guess Leo already knows this, but he never gave me any indication that he did.”
“Probably not easy for him to talk about.”
“Yeah, maybe. I don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “And then my dad brought up the whole thing with Alessandro and I said he wasn’t my type, and then he said he wants me to find someone who respects our family, who asks him for permission, all this other stuff that I didn’t want to hear.”
Wolfe didn’t react to this disappointing news.
“I just don’t understand why he suggests Alessandro…but not you. You fit everything that he’s looking for. All the qualities he listed, you have them. You literally make the most sense…so why?”
He gave a slight shrug.
“I would say it’s because he doesn’t like you, but he just initiated you into the family. He gave you his father’s blade to carve your initials into our oak tree. So…why not?”
“We won’t know until we ask him.”
“Well, now we can’t ask him.”
Wolfe cocked his head slightly.
“I can tell he’s going to be fucking pissed. Like, Mount Etna erupting pissed. And he’ll never approve of you or accept this relationship and—”
“Baby.” His fingers gently rubbed over my thigh through the material of the sweatpants. “We’ll figure it out.”
“He’ll kill you, Wolfe.”
“No, he won’t.”
“I know he appears serene and calm all the time, but trust me, when he loses his temper—”
“He won’t try to kill me because he knows I’ll kill him first.”
My blood turned colder than a frozen river in winter. “You—you don’t mean that.”
“Damn right I fucking mean that,” he said. “Do I ever say anything I don’t mean?”
“He’s…he’s my father.”
“And if I tell him how I feel about you and how serious this relationship is, and all he can think about is himself instead of your well-being and happiness, then I don’t give a damn. If it comes down to me or him, you bet your ass it’s going to be him.”
“Wolfe—”
“But like I said, it won’t come to that because he knows this. He’s worked with me long enough to know what will happen if he marks me as an enemy. I don’t know exactly what will happen, but I don’t think it’ll come to that.”
I looked away, my heart still racing.
“We should have told him sooner,” he said quietly.
“Is that your way of saying I told you so?”
“No,” he said. “My way of saying anything is just saying it.”
I inhaled a slow breath and let it release like volcanic ash. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
“I really don’t know which one of us is the better messenger,” I said. “Maybe you could tell him you’d like to ask me out and see what he says…and then go from there.”
“I already said I’m not going to do that.”
“I know, but that might be the right move, considering what just happened with my father.”
“Lying is never, ever the right move.” He gave me that hard stare, leaving no middle ground on the table. “In any situation or with any person. He may hate me and wish I were dead, but at the end of the day, he’ll always respect me.”
I still disagreed, but I respected Wolfe’s principles. “I wonder what he would say if you did ask him.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “But his opinion of me is none of my business.”
“He wouldn’t initiate you into the family if he didn’t like you.”
“In this line of business, there’s no such thing as liking someone.
You either trust someone to have your back or you don’t.
That’s all it means. Because in most families, people can’t stand each other.
They’re together because they have to be.
The same idea applies here. Your father may trust me to die for him, but that doesn’t mean he enjoys my company.
It doesn’t mean he agrees with the way I handle things.
Maybe he thinks I’m a great addition to the crew but I’m not right for you. ”
“Well, he’s wrong.”
He stared at me for a hard second before a hint of a smile entered his gaze.
“I’m scared how this is going to play out.”
“Regardless of how it unfolds, it’s still going to be you and me in the end.”
Leo banged on the front door. “Hurry the fuck up, Frankie!”
“I’m coming!” I yelled across the room as I reached for my purse on the table.
“You know Dad doesn’t like to be late,” he said through the closed door.
“Shut up, I’m coming!” I made it to the door and tugged it open. “Cristo, calm down.”
“You’re always late—”
“I’m never late.”
Dad had his arm hanging out of the passenger window. “Both of you, shut up and get in the car.”
I walked around to the other side of the Range Rover and got in behind the driver’s seat. When I glanced in the rearview mirror, I saw Wolfe’s eyes in the reflection—and they smiled. Leo got into the seat beside me and buckled his safety belt.
Wolfe drove us down the dirt road until we reached one of the main roads, and then he took off and headed toward Taormina, where the wedding was being held. The ceremony would be in the church, and then the reception was on the bluff of one of the hotels.
I wore a sage green dress with little straps over the shoulders and nude heels.
A gold necklace hung around my throat, and I carried a nude clutch that held my phone and other essentials.
I looked out the window and admired the rolling hills of Sicily, but then I would feel the white-hot stare I could recognize anywhere.
I glanced at the side-view mirror and saw Wolfe staring at me—and then that smirk moved over his lips.
I smirked back before I averted my eyes. I played with fire when I did this dance with him, right under my father’s nose in the passenger seat. If I weren’t terrified of the fallout of this affair, it might actually be fun to sneak around.
Behind us was another SUV full of my father’s men following us.
It probably contained Andre and Elio and Salvatore.
My father never went out unaccompanied by his entourage, even if it was a wedding or a funeral.
If anyone knew where he was going to be, it would be the perfect opportunity to take him out.
“I hope the ceremony is short,” Leo said. “I’m starving.”
“Why didn’t you eat before we left?” I asked.
“I did.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s a Catholic wedding, so you know it’s going to be long.”
“When I get married, every time we do a Hail Mary, we’re going to do a shot,” Leo said.
Wolfe released a quiet chuckle.
Dad didn’t say anything, just subtly shook his head like he didn’t have the energy to deal with Leo’s bullshit today.
It took us almost an hour to arrive in Taormina. It was a little town with streets made for pedestrians instead of cars, so Wolfe dropped us off before he left to park his car. The other guys got out of the second car and escorted us to the church in the town square.
It was a beautiful summer day, and unfortunately, that meant the place was overrun with tourists.
You couldn’t squeeze down a single street or alley without bumping into someone’s shoulders.
It was a mistake wearing these nude heels on such uneven pavement, but my father offered his arm for balance so I could make it the rest of the way there.
We arrived at the church and took our seats just before the ceremony began, and right when the room went quiet, Leo’s stomach rumbled loudly.
It was loud enough to attract the attention of the row in front of us because some people turned around to look straight at my brother—as if they knew he was the culprit.
It was hot as hell in the church, and people were fanning themselves with the programs that had been handed out by the ushers. I didn’t know anyone in the wedding party. My father was friends with the father of the bride…because he was friends with everyone on this side of Sicily.
Leo leaned toward me. “You got a mint in your purse or something?”
I elbowed him hard in the side in rejection.
He groaned then leaned back into his seat.
My father side-eyed us both like we were kids again.
An hour later, the ceremony concluded, and the bride and groom walked out of the church to music, applause, and white rose petals. Sunlight filled the church along with a gust of sea breeze that was a welcome reprieve after being stuffed inside with hundreds of other people.